UK drone sighting - But what is it ?

I.D / potential I.D / ideas for this craft please folks.

This first link is the witness own description and paint drawing (not great, but contains alot of detail to mull over especially the intakes and the exhaust / tail system)

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This link is to the actual photo they took before they just watched as they thought it was going to be coming down into the sea before pulling up and climbing back to altitude.

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Seems to me to be a near miss / engine issue, as they both said that one engine was whirring / wheezing and coughing until it came back to life.

Now, question is, whos is it, and what the hell is it ? (the paint scheme really throws me as well!)

Oh and this was taken on the 7/7/2007 on the western edge of wales, near a village called Tresinwen (spelling ?) looking westerly, so the craft was travelling north to south.
The taker watch the craft pulling away through 16 times binoculars, and is adamant that there was no cockpit / pilot station of any type to be seen.

As best I can tell, it appears to be the BQM-145A Medium Range UAV. The tail is slightly different than the description, but otherwise it certainly fits the profile similar to the drawings by the witness.





Hope this helps.

There is the image of the object. I can see some of the characteristics described but unfortunatly the rez is a little low. still it is a good shot. I'm still not desided about what I think about this shot yet it has a look of a plane thats for sure. but what type and if it truly was Ucav or not I'm not sure.

Possibly one of these? The colour scheme is very similar






Which is a Beriev BE200 - amphibious jet

Depending on angle, reflections and ambient lighting it possible the tailplane aspect could be misinterpeted


[edit on 9/0707/07 by neformore]

[edit on 9/0707/07 by neformore]

Possible for the tail yes but the exhaust no. Also there is so mmany high surfaces like the engine nacelles and the high T-tail that its hard for me to believe that all of that material just disappered in the photo a Rounded nacelle is almost in impossible to have no reflection on it. Also and it seems to have a different shape to the body of the aircraft with a much larger nose section then is in any of the drawings or accounts.

Looks like an RAF Storm Shadow Cruise Missile to me.

www.aerospaceweb.org...

YouTube Link

Well here is a video of a launch. I think this is the closest so far but why would they see a cruise missile like that being tested from their backyard? Whats the regulations for a test like that and proximity to the norm population.

Nice find Darkstar!

First thoughts when reading about UCAV's flying over our UK skies must point to BAE. BAE are flying at least two at the moment, Corax and Nightjar. Both of these consist of a blended wing body and I can't really see that here, in fact the wing appears to be mounted above the fuselage in a swept configuration unless we are looking at this from a strange angle?

hmmmm needs more thought......great find though!

Cheers

Robbie

if this was off the west coast of wales, then in aberporth, there is an offshore missile testing area. its run by kinetiq (sp?). it could very well have been them testing this. i dont know a whole lot about the testing zones, but generally i have seen them testing out in the cardigan bay area.
dont know if that helps any?

cheers

img62.imageshack.us...

Here is a better screen grab from my image on the PC. It is alot better in detail for some reason, so i hope it gives a better idea of what we are looking at.

My thoughts about the tail and wings is thus; Could we be looking at an upside down UAV / aircraft ? so instead of a high mounted wing and tail protecting the exhaust from above, are we actually looking at a low mounted wing with a tail that protects from ground based sensors ?


OR

Is it a low level platform designed to be shielded from prying eyes that are above it ? either way, its scored a 4/5 on my interest radar!

Well, cheers for those who put in some ideas and thoughts.

Have no idea why this gets so little input, unless its becauseI put 'drone' in the title and people associate drone with boring !?!

lol, never mind .

no not at all I think the problem here is that photo shows a profile and very little detail of it. is there anyway that we can estimate the size ie have the witnesses specualted one? I'm willing to work with you to figure it out the problem is at this point I can't see any major features, then again I may be looking to closely.

I think Storm Shadow is the best guess so far

D4rk N1ght, in my case I'm afraid its just because I simply have no idea, I lean towards Richards suggestion of a Storm Shadow too, but there appear to be enough subtle differences to make me wonder if it is indeed a completely new BAE UAV that has not been revealed yet? Wouldn't be the first time.

A friend of mine at BAE confirmed to me today that this was indeed a Storm Shadow test of coastal terrain following capabilities that will be used in the forthcoming sea launched variant, with the test article ditching in the Irish Sea for recovery.

The differences in the airframe are the packages required for the ditching - flotation devices and parachutes.

So this is a completely new variant with twin engines and no vertical tails, just that skua type tail and is almost three times the size ? fantastic - that sucker must have mucho endurance !

I can see why they have shrouded the tail exhaust, thats a darn good idea IMHO, and if its terrain following, it needs to be a bit more stealthy...

Well how freaking cool is that ?

Scoop for ATS!

I might be able to help. Im currentlyserving in the UK's only operational UAV regiments.
Due to the location where this was spotted its probablt one of the various target drones used for target practice with the HVM anti-air missile.

However it looks alot like the new Hermes 450 uav's recently bought of israel. Im on operational tour in iraq at the moment and we have it operational. however the rest of the regiment is converting to it from the old phoenix heap of #e system so i guess its the UK test flights. But i cant be 100% sure as i dont hear muchof whats happening at home while on ops.

As for the UCAV thing. thats wont be happening for a while. we're still working out bugs on serveillance drones let alone an armed one!!!! It would seem UAV's in the british forces have a habit of sodding off and doing their own thing.

Doesn’t look anything like a Hermes to me, where’s the fixed landing gear, the turrets and the tail?

Also, you say you have it operational in Iraq now?! The UOR contract to supply them was only awarded last month. Who’s operating them, are Thales their?

I think its Thales, sure as hell aint BAE. Not too sure havent had much to do with the Hermes side because we're also operating desert hawk aswell and thats what im working on.

Though I do see what you mean by the UAV in the image not being hermes. Though I can safely say its not a UCAV. Its probably a target drone.

what is the big deal with these drone things, do they have advanced technology, are they unmaned..what