MoD releases Taranis UAV information

Finally.. only five months after the first flight, they released some details.



www.gov.uk...

The most advanced aircraft ever built by British engineers made its maiden flight at an undisclosed test range on Saturday 10 August 2013 under the command of BAE Systems test pilot Bob Fraser.

MOD has today revealed that the demonstrator aircraft made a perfect take-off, rotation, ‘climb-out’ and landing on its 15-minute first flight. A number of flights took place last year, of up to 1 hour in duration and at a variety of altitudes and speeds.

Photos: www.baesystems.com...

www.thinkdefence.co.uk...

Mostly fluff in the article, but there are some actual in flight pictures available now.

This is a technology demonstrator, so I wouldn't expect to see a large fleet of Taranis built, but it sort of paves the way for something similar down the road.

reply to post by _Del_


Ohhh she's a beaut! Cool topic OP, S+F

Just saw the BBC report about this and it seems excellent.

The test pilot was cagey with details but suggested that this aircraft can fly Twice as fast as any other he's flown (im guesing Predator) and is a capable platform.

Good bit of British engineering……… a few of these with a few Typhoons and tEAM GB is back in the game….

PDUK

Another Machine for the War Mongers to salivate over....

Yup got to agree, thats one sexy little aircraft.

When the landing gear doors shut, OMG sooooo flush and smooth. Looks like she cuts the air like a samurai sword

reply to post by _Del_


Beautiful plane S/F ... but - am I pronouncing the name right ? Tyrannis ...

Extremely high performance if your posted photo is any indication... seems to be several thousand feet off the deck , and only a fifteen minute test flight ( Hmm ). Usually , first flights are a bit , well - conservative

Bazart
reply to post by _Del_

 

Beautiful plane S/F ... but - am I pronouncing the name right ? Tyrannis ...

Extremely high performance if your posted photo is any indication... seems to be several thousand feet off the deck , and only a fifteen minute test flight ( Hmm ). Usually , first flights are a bit , well - conservative

edit on 5-2-2014 by Bazart because: (no reason given)

They've made several flights. First flight was in August 2013. I'm sure the picture in question is from a later flight.

Taranis is the Celt god of thunder: en.wikipedia.org...

Slightly, less intimidating than Tyrannus. haha

Soloprotocol
Another Machine for the War Mongers to salivate over....

I bet if you took a poll, most servicemen would prefer to avoid war altogether. Especially the ones who have seen it.

_Del_
Taranis is the Celt god of thunder: en.wikipedia.org...

Also an excellent and fun ship in eve-online

_Del_

Soloprotocol
Another Machine for the War Mongers to salivate over....

I bet if you took a poll, most servicemen would prefer to avoid war altogether. Especially the ones who have seen it.

Then why do they join the War Machine if they would rather avoid War....Lets face facts here...Modern day warfare for the modern infantryman is pretty tame compared to Omaha Beach and most Real Warfare from years gone past.......
1000,000 + dead in Iraq...Over 90% Innocent Men Women and children...No glory in Modern Warfare. in fact it makes me sick to the pit of my stomach.

reply to post by _Del_


The razzamataz is all very well, but why would we need these things, aren't they they are more likely to make wars easier and more likely to happen? Have we not had enough wars supported by the UK in which our military have been maimed and killed, and for what??
It is an interesting aircraft, but how does it rate compared to existing UAV's , like the ones Raytheon et al have been building and improving and have been in service with the US military since at circa 1998?
Am I wrong in concluding that BAe are in fact at least 15 years( maybe 25) behind Raytheon etc?
Is its real purpose to keep one BAe factory open after the Typhoon orders dry up, paid for by the UK taxpayer?

reply to post by Soloprotocol


The vast majority of the victims in Iraq have been due to Muslims killing each other as a perpetuation of their sectarian brutality. The US was just in the way for a time and made the mistake of trying to stop them.


To topic. It does look like a very neat machine and built on a bit of a budget too. If this was a US project we would be down the billion dollar bucket by now! I read that the UK had already previously tested and flown unmanned aircraft autonomously. When we get true robot aircraft capable of removing the human from the loop is when we need to start worrying!

Regards

Soloprotocol

_Del_

Soloprotocol
Another Machine for the War Mongers to salivate over....

I bet if you took a poll, most servicemen would prefer to avoid war altogether. Especially the ones who have seen it.

Then why do they join the War Machine if they would rather avoid War....

Because it pays to be prepared. Wars is #ty. You don't have to convince me of that. The United States Armed Forces don't set policy. Political leadership does. That's a mixed bag, and we could argue the merit of that all day, but that's what it is. One day if the real balloon goes up, we'll want a capable military. The most capable military possible, actually.
Most of the casualties in Iraq did not come from the "war" but from the mess we made afterwards when we disbanded the military and let people run amok. Then we did a piss-poor job of creating a viable security force to take its place, and only then when we made a complete cludge of it, we left. It makes servicemen and -women mad too. It's a little to late to write a politician, but you don't need to lay it at the feet of the people who were there. Fallujah is now in the hands of militants again. That's not making the news much, but I can tell you that I personally know people who had their boots on the ground there that are pissed. Blue and Red politicians both decided we had to go to war. Then they wouldn't let the military do the job they wanted to do. They just had to have Fallujah and Ramadi; wanted it bad enough to spill American blood, but they didn't care enough to make the streets safe for the people when they pulled out or to prevent it from becoming a mess again. It resulted in dead infantrymen and dead civilians, and we're back at square one like none of it mattered in the first place.
If you want to start a thread railing against politicians who start wars and then prosecute them half-heartedly, PM me, and I'll add my voice for you. But from this point out, maybe you could leave us "War Mongers" to discuss aircraft projects in the Aircraft Projects forum.

Flyinghaggis
reply to post by _Del_

 

The razzamataz is all very well, but why would we need these things, aren't they they are more likely to make wars easier and more likely to happen?

Wars will happen when ever politicians want them to happen. Will this encourage that? I don't know. Doubtful, but I could see an argument for it, perhaps.
This particular aircraft is more of a technology demonstrator. It's well ahead of most fielded UAV's (most UAV's in service are rather small actually). A true LO-design, it looks to be about where the Navy's UCAV is headed in design. Very comparable. LO-strike platform, increased autonomy. It's way more than the Reapers and smaller UAVs they've bought, if that is your other question.

Is its real purpose to keep one BAe factory open after the Typhoon orders dry up, paid for by the UK taxpayer?

I'm sure that is part of it. Why give American companies the cash when that money could go to BAe and related British aerospace companies keeping production lines (jobs) intact? Part of it is national pride. Part of it is perhaps the capabilities being sought weren't offered by the US.

paraphi
reply to post by Soloprotocol

 

If this was a US project we would be down the billion dollar bucket by now!

I'd like to argue, but...

paraphi
reply to post by Soloprotocol

 

The vast majority of the victims in Iraq have been due to Muslims killing each other as a perpetuation of their sectarian brutality. The US was just in the way for a time and made the mistake of trying to stop them.

ok....I disagree with your statement "Muslims have killed more of their own people"....before the US led invasion, Iraq had no problems with indiscriminate IED's, the fact is, if you look deep into it. Saddam could have been an Ally in the so called "war against terrorism"...Al Qaeda spoke out against Saddam for bringing the west into the middle east.
It's all about the Oil...nothing more, Nothing less. 9/11 was the smokescreen.

It's an ugly little #er...looks like a rather bland moth, I am sure there are stealthy reasons for that, but call me old fashioned, I like a camo paint job, and most importantly, a svelte man in a flight suit at the controls. Death by remote controlled plane seems so impersonal...which is the point I am sure, but not entirely what we peace proponents have in mind. Anyway, RAF have been very busy taking advantage of the cloud cover of late, wonder if they have been playing with these...if so, it is very, very noisy.

KilgoreTrout
Death by remote controlled plane seems so impersonal...which is the point I am sure, but not entirely what we peace proponents have in mind.

Well, look at it as a step in the right direction away from cruise missiles. A UAV can acquire a target in real time with sensors and then drop iron on a target. You can discriminate your target from the background environment -- possibly a city. It can say, "Nope. Nothing here interesting." With a cruise missile you program the coordinates and watch it fly off into the wild, blue yonder hoping your target is still where it was 45 minutes to 3 hours ago. Works fine on a building, perhaps a powerplant or telephone exchange you want to level; not so great for a mobile IRBM launcher or terrorist cell leader at a meeting or foreign troops engaging special forces, etc.


Edit to add: I have no proof of this at all, but I am told they were flying today

Soloprotocol

paraphi
reply to post by Soloprotocol

 

The vast majority of the victims in Iraq have been due to Muslims killing each other as a perpetuation of their sectarian brutality. The US was just in the way for a time and made the mistake of trying to stop them.

ok....I disagree with your statement "Muslims have killed more of their own people"....before the US led invasion, Iraq had no problems with indiscriminate IED's, the fact is, if you look deep into it. Saddam could have been an Ally in the so called "war against terrorism"...Al Qaeda spoke out against Saddam for bringing the west into the middle east.
It's all about the Oil...nothing more, Nothing less. 9/11 was the smokescreen.

Sure, sure... Please stay on topic.

If you want to rant and rave about the evil West...start your own thread.

Back on topic. I don't like drones. Never have and never will. I just think that a pilot should be in charge of the aircraft. Now if they had a simulator/remote piloting system so the pilot felt that he was in control, I might be able to buy into that. Kind of like that one show they did in Stargate 1. But that system turned the pilots into veggies.

Look at the nose. That's a man in the loop at all time.

A very unique solution to the need for good vision versus the need for the lowest signature possible. I love it how the days of bulky high speed comms are now publicly coming to an end.

Top effort ladies and gents.