British Stealth UAV Revealed

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Straight from the British government's (DIS)--Defense Industrial Strategy report/document:

The UCAV work will build on formerly classified BAE programs such as Corax ("Raven") and Herti, both of which have been flown. The technology demonstrator is a crucial element in sustaining the air systems sector. Beyond the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA)--as the U.K. refers to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter--"current plans do not envisage the U.K. needing to design and build a future generation of manned, fast jet aircraft beyond these types," states the strategy document.

British Defense Industrial Strategy Secures BAE Systems as U.K. Champion

Pretty sweet, but why white?
Takes away from the catchy type phrases such as, "and out of the black comes the BAE Corax."





seekerof

[edit on 19-12-2005 by Seekerof]

Looks pretty cool alot of countries are investing money in UAVs now. Whats this thing called the Corax Raven? If so thats a pretty cool name aswell.

I wish there was something in the picture to give it scale. I remember seeing the French stealth UAV made by Dassualt I think. The thing looked really impressive but then I saw it next to a human and it was the size of a model plane.

Nice bird. BTW, also swedish stealthy UAV Filur flew on 10th october.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX

I wish there was something in the picture to give it scale.

When I looked at the picture I noticed the nosewheel seems to come from the BAE Hawk trainer. Of course it could be just a smaller scale copy of a hawk nosewheel, but I hope it isn't

This is some of the biggest news in a long time. It’s like the Brits have been watching the Grob G600, Eurohawk and various UCAV programs and said “We want a piece of that”. As a marketing move, it puts BAe back in the top league – would you be more likely to buy a few Eurofighters if you thought it’d put you in the right position to get your hands on BAe’s future UCAV and HALE-UAV-LO programs… With the maturing of European stealth UAV technologies it will force the US to start exporting products like the future UCAVs.

The BAe CORAX is in many respects analogous with the DarkStar design and, although only a development project, demonstrates the UK’s grasp of stealth technology.

Although it has already been stated that technology from CORAX will be used in the UK’s UCAV demonstrator program, CORAX can also be seen as a potential replacement for the RAF’s ageing PR9 reconnaissance platform in the strategic reconnaissance role. Such a development would be a direct competitor to the Global Hawk for export sales and have the advantage in terms of low observable technology.

The CORAX configuration is clearly optimized for high altitude low speed flight so the UCAV demonstrator (a rebirth of the FOAS requirement?) will look quite different, particularly in terms of wing plan.

It is also impressive and noteworthy that it is a tailless design.

A.TT illustration based solely on the original picture (the only one released?):



The photo of the Saab FILUR is interesting –are there any more on the web from different angles? –I couldn’t find any. But it is a distinct configurational deviation from previously published concept artworks and photos of the wind tunnel model.

The main difference is the “vertical” tail surface. Previously an image of how FILUR was expected to look like all showed a tailless design.

Saab is working with Dassault and EADS on the European UCAV program (Dassault Neuron etc) and Sweden is ahead of most air forces in terms of network-centric technology implementation so the whole European UCAV scene is looking rosy – Europe may have stolen a march on the US because unlike the US, the Europeans are going straight from unstealthy and manned to stealthy and unmanned, missing the natural but expensive evolutionary step of manned stealth aircraft.

Beyond the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA)--as the U.K. refers to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter--"current plans do not envisage the U.K. needing to design and build a future generation of manned, fast jet aircraft beyond these types," states the strategy document.

I think this the most important thing coming out of that whole report. Not needing any more manned fighters? A bit premature IMO and a big mistake too.

Well Westy mate, we've been here before.

Ever hear of the 1957 Defence White Paper, by Duncan Sandys?

It utterly devastated the UK industry with its 'no more manned fighters' theme (half a century ago!) and although the whole technological scene is different nowadays I can't help thinking we are about to do it again.

Its terribly shiny for a stealth plane. Anybody else notice that?


Or is this just a working demonstrator?

Originally posted by skippytjc
Its terribly shiny for a stealth plane. Anybody else notice that?

I think its just the top, the bottom looks dull black.

Anyone else notice the words `the UCAV` - its a combat version - the question is , will the UK be using it anytime soon?

In addition do you all think that this will be centrally controlled from a central control centre via satellite/radio? Given our heavy involvement in the Typhoon programme do we reckon that much later down the line the two can be integrated together so that a flight of UCAVs could be controlled and assigned targets etc. by one, lead, typhoon?

Finally, UCAV for what purpose? Air-To-Air, Air-To-Ground or multirole?

I believe that UK interest in UCAV development is, at present, almost entirely centred on the air to ground role as that is where the benefits, and needs, are more immediate.

what a nice looking UAV and at least this one isn`t a repost

Found another photo of the CORAX UAV:

It shows that it has some sort of under wing construction. I reckon they are most likely control surface actuators but they could be some sort of sensor fairings or a combination of the two. (note, three of the undersurface protrusions relate to undercarriage, it’s the ones further out under the wings about where the control surfaces are I’m talking about)

Here’s a “what if” drawing of what a high altitude stand-off bomber UAV based on the raven might look like; well, the Brits can dream…

Found another photo of the CORAX UAV:

It shows that it has some sort of under wing construction. I reckon they are most likely control surface actuators but they could be some sort of sensor fairings or a combination of the two. (note, three of the undersurface protrusions relate to undercarriage, it’s the ones further out under the wings about where the control surfaces are I’m talking about)

Here’s a “what if” drawing of what a high altitude stand-off bomber UAV based on the raven might look like; well, the Brits can dream…

Originally posted by planeman
Here’s a “what if” drawing of what a high altitude stand-off bomber UAV based on the raven might look like; well, the Brits can dream…

I doubt the high altitude stand-off bomber aspect, but considering that it would have uses air-to-ground capabilities, this would go along with or be in line with what waynos mentioned in his above post.





seekerof

[edit on 21-12-2005 by Seekerof]

Planeman, as you can see here, it si simply an outrigger stabiliser with a small wheel in it.

Good. At least some new projects to talk about. The aircraft world started to be quite boring after all that fuss around F-22/JSF/UCAV/Pak-Fa.
It could be a basis for next british unmanned strategic bomber - 8 ton payload and 60 mil.$ would be OK.

I think Britain might be out of the strategic bomber business for good, unless you being sarky as an 8 tonne payload is less than a Jaguar, in which case I agree that as an 8 tonne payload tactical bomber it just might be BAE's next major project, as long as the Govt doesn't try to force them inro a collaborative venture with EADS - which is what I expect to happen.

Nice... it looks a bit like the Darkstar... How amny of these UAV will Great Britain produce...??