UAVs, Drones, Remote Surveillance Tech

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 13 Dec 2013 01:54

comprehensive report on Rustom 1 and 2; 1 to be inducted, 2 in integration

http://www.aeromag.in/sites/default/fil ... 0dplow.pdf

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 13 Dec 2013 02:06

Prithwiraj wrote:Emirates is spending like a binge drinker in a pub--- with 100+ A380, 50+ B787 and 50+ A350.... just insane amount of capacity... I hope they got their capacity planning right--

you know what happens after the binge drinking session right? a puke session.

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 13 Dec 2013 02:24

Karan M wrote:
Prithwiraj wrote:Emirates is spending like a binge drinker in a pub--- with 100+ A380, 50+ B787 and 50+ A350.... just insane amount of capacity... I hope they got their capacity planning right--
you know what happens after the binge drinking session right? a puke session.

It already operates 190+ aircrafts!!! Most are aging, so these must be replacements at the very least (how many are passenger and how many cargo?)

Dec 3, 2013 :: Emirates: In a sweet spot

Fiercely competitive pricing, polite service and the ability to operate around the clock from its Dubai hub help explain how Emirates has become one of the most powerful forces in global aviation. Founded in 1985, Emirates has assembled the largest fleet of long-range, wide-body passenger jets in the world – 196 in total. And mainly thanks to Emirates, Dubai is on course to replace London’s Heathrow airport as the world’s largest hub by international passengers in 2015.

Victor · Post by **Victor** » 13 Dec 2013 06:17

This is a toy but it can be used against jihadis and maoists if set up properly to for example, shoot tear gas, knockout gas or smoke shells. Unfortunately, I expect the jihadis and maoists to use such stuff first, before our security apparatus gets to it belatedly.

vasu raya · Post by **vasu raya** » 16 Dec 2013 03:30

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NEWS/news ... wsid=20631

Chander said the indigenous Kaveri engine project would continue for future unmanned aerial vehicles.

"It will be possible for unmanned aerial vehicles to take off from naval platforms like the INS Jalashwa," he said.

what is he implying here?

aditya_d · Post by **aditya_d** » 29 Dec 2013 17:35

Government clears proposal for buying 15 Israeli-made UAVs

New Delhi: Boosting surveillance capabilities of the Army along the borders with China and Pakistan, the government has cleared the procurement of around 15 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from Israel at a cost of around Rs. 1200 crore.

A proposal to procure these Heron UAVs was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at its recent meeting, sources told PTI.

The deal will bolster the Israeli-origin Heron and Searcher fleet of the force which deploys them on both the eastern and western sectors, they said.

The force has a fleet of more than 40 such vehicles, which are expected to undergo upgrades in the near future. The Air Force flies the Israeli-made Searcher II and Heron UAVs for reconnaissance and surveillance purposes and about 100 Searchers are in operation on Indian borders in western, northern and eastern regions.

After the upgrades, the Air Force would be capable of operating these aircraft from far-off distances and control them through satellite communication system.

The Army also operates a sizable number of UAVs and has deployed them in borders along the western and eastern fronts.

The Army was the first to induct UAVs in the 90s starting with Searcher Mark-I and Searcher Mark-II which could operate at an altitude of 15,000 feet and finally the Heron, which can operate at 30,000 feet.

The Army's Northern Command had recently issued a global tender for procuring latest miniature UAVs for intelligence gathering and carrying out reconnaissance of areas along Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan and the Sino-India border.

The Navy has also three operational squadrons of the Israeli UAVs deployed along both the eastern and the western sea boards.

vasu raya · Post by **vasu raya** » 01 Jan 2014 19:50

DRDO Kicks off Mission to Develop Surveillance Airship

Defence scientists from the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), a DRDO lab located in Agra, have begun the mission to develop India’s yet-to-be-named airship.

Deviating from DRDO’s previous practice of launching an ‘open study’ ahead of any new project, the scientists are taking the ‘production realisation’ route in their effort to demonstrate the airship technology.

Confirming the project, ADRDE director Dr S C Sati told Express that the lab hopes to finalise the design by the end of 2014.

“We started the work eight months back and have drawn inspiration from our earlier Akashdeep aerostat project. The feasibility study for the unmanned airship is over and we are all set to enter the design phase. Specifications of sub-systems are being worked upon now,” Sati said. While Akashdeep was successfully evaluated over the last couple of years, the ADRDE is now working on an advanced version - Nakshatra - said to be having higher payload and longer endurance.

With a 22-m length, seven-metre diameter and weighing around 350 kg, the airship gives the option for both surveillance and tourism. “By developing Akashdeep, we learned the aerodynamics shape optimisation, fabrication technology and integration of payload and systems. Our biggest challenge will be to ensure that the airship streams continuous surveillance inputs even in worst turbulence scenario,” Sati said. The DRDO has released a seed money of `19 crore for the technology development of the airship and promises to have its first flight in 2016. Once operational, India would join a select group of nations having developed such capabilities, including US, Germany, France and Japan. “The airship offers flexibility during surveillance missions, even over the sea,” Sati added.

For comparison,

Zeppelin NT

maybe we could use higher powered wankel engines, below is from the Mazda lineup with multiple rotors

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/mazdar26b.html

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 02 Jan 2014 03:28

A lot of information about the winch and mooring system of the Nakshatra. Click

Has schematic diagrams for the blimp as well.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 02 Jan 2014 05:11

they did not reveal on the range of this unmanned surveillance airship.

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 02 Jan 2014 09:34

It is not powered. It's range is in terms of how far you can see which is a function of the height the balloon can reach. Nakshatra will be able to go to a height of 4500 mtrs giving it a range to peer to about 450 km away.

Neshant · Post by **Neshant** » 02 Jan 2014 10:14

Developing an airship is not a technical challenge. This stuff has been around for about 100 years. Yea there might be some effort in keeping it stable in a wind or storm. But all that is not where the focus should lie.

Developing a useful sensor payload beyond just cameras is where the challenge lies.

If they can develop something like this, that would be enormously useful :

Neshant · Post by **Neshant** » 02 Jan 2014 10:18

Government clears proposal for buying 15 Israeli-made UAVs

Its sad that India hardly produces anything.

It just buys tons of stuff at great expense from overseas.

vivek_ahuja · Post by **vivek_ahuja** » 02 Jan 2014 10:33

Neshant wrote:
Government clears proposal for buying 15 Israeli-made UAVs
Its sad that India hardly produces anything.

It just buys tons of stuff at great expense from overseas.

Dear god, man!

Do you know what you have done?

Watch now as the wrath of an ocean of angry BRFites armed with pitchforks and machetes is unleashed against your puny soul.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 02 Jan 2014 10:38

progress on simple kit like rustom-1 and rustom-2 have indeed been disappointing compared to stuff thats COTS now.

vivek_ahuja · Post by **vivek_ahuja** » 02 Jan 2014 10:39

indranilroy wrote:It is not powered. It's range is in terms of how far you can see which is a function of the height the balloon can reach. Nakshatra will be able to go to a height of 4500 mtrs giving it a range to peer to about 450 km away.

I didn't see anything that said the altitude for this thing is going to be 4500 meters. That's almost 15,000 feet AGL and seems very high in my opinion if the design includes a tether.

On the other hand, the tether length mentioned in the document is only 1500 meters. Which seems more reasonable. Of course, I could have missed something in the writeup that you did not, so feel free to rectify any errors.

Also, how are you arriving at the 450km range for the 4500 meters altitude, even if we assume it includes atmospheric propagation. If memory serves correct, the coefficients after adding atmospheric propagation to horizon range means that at 4500 meters, the detection range is ~270 kilometers.

Similarly, if the actual tethered height is only 1500 meters AGL, the detection range radius should be ~160 kilometers only.

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 02 Jan 2014 11:19

These actually seems like the specs of Akashdeep. For example you can see that the the volume is 3500 cum and the payload is 300 kgs. Akashdeep goes up to a km in the sky.

The 4500 mtrs does not come from me but from earlier reports during AI'11. The range has been quoted from 200 km to 450 km.
Bigger, better aerostat in the offing

These numbers are not very different from what the IAF wanted to import.
Indian Air Force Avoids Israel, Goes Global for Aerostats

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 02 Jan 2014 12:25

Singha wrote:progress on simple kit like rustom-1 and rustom-2 have indeed been disappointing compared to stuff thats COTS now.

UAVs are anything but simple, countries like Russia, France, UK, Germany which can otherwise make/assemble aircraft are looking outside for these. In some ways, they are mini-LCAs requiring equivalent everything and the kitchen sink programs.

Rustom-1 and Rustom-2 are pretty challenging, since we have to meet standards established by the leader, that is IAI.

The world over, all countries are buying UAVs from either Israel (Turkey, France bought Heron) or the US (Global Hawk variants sought by Europe etc). These folks tried developing their own systems which either turned out to be disasters or barely equivalent (eg Frances Sperwer) and now just purchase from Israel, US.

The biggest challenges are:

1. Flight control systems permitting safe take off & landings (most drones are lost in these phases - US for instance has lost 53 Predators, most in these conditions)
2. Complex mission software permitting long range autonomous ops (MALE like Heron has demonstrated upto 54 hours flight, but regularly goes upto around a day)
3. Highly optimized mission payloads - again only US & Israel have cracked all 3. Turkeys Heron derivative, just to use a local FLIR assembly had to be strengthened & redesigned extensively for the higher weight.
4. Data processing - again, UAVs are sold as a system, so the GCS with data imagery software is considered part of the package. Israel et al offer a consolidated package with ELINT, FLIR and a variety of payloads. US is now moving to stuff like Gorgon Stare etc - basically attempts to have wide area imagery (currently UAV imagery is akin to looking through a soda straw which is why all weather, wide angle stuff like JSTARS are so valuable).

In our case, Nishant was used as a tech generator to develop many of these (eg FLIR/CCD/LRF assembly is now on MK4 version), GCS can control two UAVs, comes with image analysis etc, also autonomous waypoint based mission planning/flight control was developed. It also went into SP with 12 units ordered by IA & others picked up by Central/paramil forces IIRC.

Rustom-1 (basically a TD for Rustom-2) took this further and developed CTOL, high bandwidth datalinks, long range command and control.

Nishant is now available with a new local engine for series production. Rustom-1 is now available as a Searcher 2 replacement and is slated for user trials. Airframe is being made by a Bangalore based firm.

Rustom - 2 is the critical MALE UAV, and will take a fair bit of time and effort before it gets to the Heron level. At the same time, they have to mature packages like lightweight ESM (every gram counts for UAVs), SAR, plus the point 2 for long endurance ops (again something that only Khan and Israel have cracked till date). Hence, it makes sense that we purchase the Herons.

Khan is likely to have a few Global Hawks/Predators available as well for even longer range missions. They are revamping their entire UAS strategy since Predator/Reaper/Global Hawk are designed for permissive air space. Now, a new RQ-180 is flying which has stealth, will be able to understake strikes in defended airspace even if the other side has fancy SAMs. Basically, the big stick for putting PLAAF in its place.

vivek_ahuja · Post by **vivek_ahuja** » 02 Jan 2014 12:52

indranilroy wrote:These actually seems like the specs of Akashdeep. For example you can see that the the volume is 3500 cum and the payload is 300 kgs. Akashdeep goes up to a km in the sky.

The 4500 mtrs does not come from me but from earlier reports during AI'11. The range has been quoted from 200 km to 450 km.
Bigger, better aerostat in the offing

These numbers are not very different from what the IAF wanted to import.
Indian Air Force Avoids Israel, Goes Global for Aerostats

The way I read it is as follows (subject to corrections, of course):

I strongly suspect that the 450 km / 110 km etc are the detection diameters (note how the articles refer to coverage areas), not the detection radii. To give an example why the numbers don't add up:

If one reverses a 450 km radius from a horizon detection standpoint and attaches the atmospheric propagation coefficients, the required altitude (AGL) for the aerostat has to be ~12 km !!! Assuming a tether mass of 0.4 kg/m, thats ~4,800 kg of tether mass! Not to mention air-turbulence and other problems with such a massive tether. Now, unless this tether mass has been included within the overall aerostat mass (discounting payload), the numbers don't add up.

Consider the second scenario, where the 450 km is the detection diameter. Now the radius is 225 km. The effective AGL altitude is 3 km. This is far more reasonable with a tether mass of ~1,200 kg.

Extrapolating this argument, the data point for the Akashdeep which has been taken to 1 km AGL altitude and has shown a range of 55 km (110 km diameter) which, using our above computations, is within the 112-130 km (with and without atmospheric propagation) LOS limits. I take this reduced range to be perhaps a result of the experimental nature of the radar which can be improved further.

Finally, let's look at the projected requirement for the IAF: when the Nakshatra (or equivalent imported) aerostat is elevated to 4.5 km ASL, the effective radar LOS becomes ~280 km. This is closer to the original 350 km requirement as stated by the IAF.

My suspicion is that:

a) We are encountering some hyperbole in these articles wherein we are being given idealized performance numbers under very controlled conditions

b) Or we have made substantial improvements in our radar tech to allow much superior recovery of atmospheric propagation waves and hence the standard coefficients used for my above analysis have been rendered obsolete.

P.S.: The other point of note in the articles is that the aerostats are only able to be operated to 4.5 km ASL, not AGL. Big difference right there!! Not to mention implications for high altitude ops.

-Vivek

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 02 Jan 2014 12:57

As I recall, the two aerostats imported from Israel, used US made aerostats. They mounted AESA radars from Elta.
The 450 km range needs to be qualified as against the likely target (RCS) but its not the first time the number has appeared.

Indian aerostats are nowhere near the payload/height the above systems command.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 02 Jan 2014 15:30

http://www.aeromag.in/sites/default/fil ... 0dplow.pdf

What about Rustom 1 project, the number of flights so far and the road-map ahead? Will it be used as UAV for the Users?
The project was taken up to develop and demonstrate several technologies required for the development of advanced UAVs. A Real Time Simulator (RTS) of the UAV has been developed to validate the missions and train the UAV and Payload operators. An External Pilot (EP) Simulator has also been developed and being used extensively for training the EPs for take-off and landing phases of the missions. The Avionics Systems have been provided with redundant systems and Redundancy Management has been incorporated and validated during the development flights

Present status
Rustom-1 has completed more than 30 successful flights, and has accumulated more than 25 hours of flight time to progressively incorporate various elements of the UAV and expand the operational envelope of the system. The users have evinced keen interest in inducting Rustom 1 into service and deploying it for tactical roles.

Future Plans

The Indian Army has inducted our Nishant UAV recently, and started deploying it for their regular operations. The Nishant UAV uses a mobile-launcher and a parachute recovery system, which gives it several tactical operational advantages. Wherever required, the conventional take-off & landing capability of Rustom 1 can be used to supplement the existing capabilities. We believe that a combination of Nishant and Rustom 1 will add enormous value to the operational capabilities of the armed forces. We will continue to use the Rustom 1 as a Flying Test Bed (FTB) or Technology Development & Demonstration platform to master further UAV technologies like Automatic Take-off & Landing (ATOL), Evaluation & Validation of Payloads and Data link. The systems will also be used to validate various emerging concepts of operations of UAVs.

Could you give us an overview of Rustom-II? What’s the latest on the components and the airframe? When will the integration start and what’ the time-line for the flight?
Rustom II is a project which we have taken up for design and development of Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV system as required by the Indian Armed Forces. The MALE UAV system is being developed to meet the specific requirements projected by Indian Army, Air Force and Navy.

Scope of the UAV Project

The UAV is required to operate at high altitudes and cater to long mission durations. We have designed the Data link to enhance the existing capability of line-of-sight system and also to be able to use SATellite-based COMmand (SATCOM) system. Adequate redundancy is being provided for all critical system to ensure reliability for long endurance application requirements. Initially, the take –off & landing will be controlled by the External Pilot, based on technology mastered through the Rustom 1 project. However, we are gearing up to incorporate automatic Take-off & Landing system for Rustom II. Because of the nature of operation of the system, we need to bring in formal certification of all elements of the Rustom II UAV through close interactions with CEMILAC.

As in the other UAVs like Nishant & Rustom 1, the mission functions will be fully automated, with provision for the Internal Pilot to intervene and take over control during critical phases of the mission with commands from the Ground Control Station (GCS). Rustom II is designed to carry several types of payload sensors, as required by the users. This enables round-the-clock and all-weather operation of the system.

Present Status

We have completed the realization of the prototype hardware of most of the subsystems, including the airframe, engines, Control system and other onboard Avionics systems. The two engines were integrated on the airframe and an integrated engine run, using fuel system on the aircraft, was completed recently. At present first prototype is being integrated and tested in preparation for Low Speed Taxi Trials (LSTT). The successful progress of these trials will lead to High Speed Taxi Trials (HSTT) and then to the first flight of the UAV by June 2014. We plan to conduct the flight trials of the UAV in full-up configuration for the users, by December 2014.

vasu raya · Post by **vasu raya** » 03 Jan 2014 23:42

Below is the weather balloon with payload, altitude and endurance, if they can push the last factor into a few days using a gas compressor/generator, maybe they can achieve quasi station keeping by changing altitudes and entering opposing jet streams, could be used as an airborne ATC for guiding choppers flying in hilly terrain like in Uttarakhand, the balloon at an altitude around 32km flies above any weather turbulence, even cyclones can be tracked dropping radiosondes in between without needing to fly through a storm.

http://www.tifr.res.in/~bf/Flightrecord.html

the payload could be tethered to the Balloon through a paraglide airfoil with the airfoil suspended in a jet stream for station keeping purposes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Img20 ... ustift.jpg

and here is what DRDO has done with a parafoil,

DRDO develops CADS -350 precision airdrop system

Shrinivasan · Post by **Shrinivasan** » 08 Jan 2014 02:59

Singha wrote:progress on simple kit like rustom-1 and rustom-2 have indeed been disappointing compared to stuff thats COTS now.

Singha, just read a news items which talks about the first flight of Rustom-2 in Feb 2014. Taneja Aerospace seems to have completed 2 airframes of Rustom-2 as of Sep 2013.

any Chaiwaala information on Ground trials etc?

Rustom-1: Didn't we have multiple flights of this? would like to see more information of the mission payload, induction schedule etc...

vic · Post by **vic** » 09 Jan 2014 19:13

The latest DRDO tenders show that they want 8 engines of 185bhp for Rustom-2. This means that Rustom-2 will be around 3000kg MTOW bird. Though I still wonder why DRDO is not going in for turboprop version which would be more silent and have much better high altitude performance, which is a prime concern for India. The response to tender has to be given by 14-2-14, with big validity of 4 months while the first engines have to supplied within 3 months of the award. It would be highly unlikely we would see Rustom-2 powered by these engines flying before 2016.

tsarkar · Post by **tsarkar** » 09 Jan 2014 22:45

Israelis developed aerostats by using WW2 style Barrage Balloons used to deter low flying aircraft to carry radar or EO payloads.

I believe some outfit in India - ADRDE &/or OFB also manufactured barrage balloons until 2000s, and the same setup is being expanded for aerostats since 2000s.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 10 Jan 2014 00:06

IIRC the big aerostats in India which hoist those huge radars, were actually sourced by israel from the americans.

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 10 Jan 2014 00:40

vic wrote:The latest DRDO tenders show that they want 8 engines of 185bhp for Rustom-2. This means that Rustom-2 will be around 3000kg MTOW bird. Though I still wonder why DRDO is not going in for turboprop version which would be more silent and have much better high altitude performance, which is a prime concern for India. The response to tender has to be given by 14-2-14, with big validity of 4 months while the first engines have to supplied within 3 months of the award. It would be highly unlikely we would see Rustom-2 powered by these engines flying before 2016.

I don't know about the MTOW, but they may be going for larger payloads and may be weapons.

I don't know of any turboprops in that power range. If they are going to develop Rustom-2 into a HALE UAV, they would probably have to change it into a single engine design.

vic · Post by **vic** » 10 Jan 2014 09:37

There are numerous turboprops in 250hp category.

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 10 Jan 2014 10:18

like?

vic · Post by **vic** » 10 Jan 2014 17:58

It seems that ADE first put out a requirement of 3 engines of 80-90bhp in 2010. Then another requirement was put in 2012 for 3 diesel engines of 150hp in 2012. The last requirement is 8 engines of 170-185 bhp piston engine. off the cuff I think that there is 250hp Allison or now RR engine.

vic · Post by **vic** » 10 Jan 2014 18:38

Cross Post

It seems that slowly we are reving up for engine R&D across the Board. I thought I will make a list:-

Ground Vehicles

1500-1800hp tank engine
500-600hp ground vehicle engine

Airborne platforms

10hp, 20hp, 40hp UAV piston engines
55hp wankel engine
110-120kw Jet starters for LCA Mark-1, 2, FGFA
xx kw APU for MRTA
4kn turbojet PTAE-7 by HAL
4kn turbofan by HAL, NAL, GTRE
1200kw turboshaft by HAL
25kn for IJT, AJT, Civil Liner (UAV?) etc by HAL
50/80kn Kaveri Gas turbine engine and Non afterburning version for UCAV
75/110kn new Gas turbine engine

Marine Engine

12000-16000hp based on Kaveri
1.2MW ship based Generator based on Kaveri
Battery pack and thermal engines for torpedoes
Battery packs for subs
Fuels Cells for subs
Nuclear Reactor 100MW for subs

Industrial

4MW based on Kaveri

Rumoured

Airborne platforms

150hp diesel UAV piston engines
250-500hp turboprop engine for UAV
Turboprop by HAL for Trainer
2000kw (Turboshaft? or) Industrial by HAL
Gas turbine Engines for UAV which can be 4kn or 25kn or 50kn

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 10 Jan 2014 20:55

vic wrote:It seems that ADE first put out a requirement of 3 engines of 80-90bhp in 2010. Then another requirement was put in 2012 for 3 diesel engines of 150hp in 2012. The last requirement is 8 engines of 170-185 bhp piston engine. off the cuff I think that there is 250hp Allison or now RR engine.

The Allison 250 is not a 250 hp engine.

vic · Post by **vic** » 10 Jan 2014 22:11

indranilroy wrote:
vic wrote:It seems that ADE first put out a requirement of 3 engines of 80-90bhp in 2010. Then another requirement was put in 2012 for 3 diesel engines of 150hp in 2012. The last requirement is 8 engines of 170-185 bhp piston engine. off the cuff I think that there is 250hp Allison or now RR engine.
The Allison 250 is not a 250 hp engine.

I stand corrected, this engine series has models from 300 hp to 600hp continous rating with latest models 700hp. So I suppose RR 300 would be nearer to the target with 300 hp power rating.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 12 Jan 2014 00:56

BTW, Rustom H seems to be on schedule if it flies this year.

http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx? ... 68bab78a63

Indian Go-Ahead for MALE UAV
Posted by Graham Warwick 9:59 PM on Mar 10, 2011

India's Livemint has reported that the Cabinet Committee on Security has approved a Rs 1,540 crore ($340 million) proposal for the Aeronautical Defence Establishment (ADE) to develop the Rustom-H medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft.

It will be India's most ambitious UAV project yet, in a not-very-long list. Rustom-H will be a twin-prop, high-wing (picture here), T-tail aircraft with an endurance of 24hr at 30,000ft carrying a 350kg payload of electro-optical, synthetic-aperture or maritime-patrol radar and ELINT/COMINT sensors, plus C-band and satcom datalinks.

Rustom-H is planned to fly within three years and be available for customer evaluation after five-and-a-half years (2016), says Livemint. India has flown a smaller demonstrator, the Rustom-I (video here), built using a Rutan Long-EZ kit. India plans to seek design assistance from foreign UAV manufacturers and ADE intends to develop the Rustom-H in partnership with Indian industry.

Tags: ar99, unmanned, India

Neshant · Post by **Neshant** » 12 Jan 2014 02:00

US Navy’s 757-Sized Drone Will Provide Big-Time Surveillance

http://election.democraticunderground.com/11783083

Navy’s 757-Sized Drone Will Provide Big-Time Surveillance
By Allen McDuffee
01.07.14 1:37 PM

A new drone with the mammoth wingspan of a Boeing 757 is set to give the U.S. Navy some serious surveillance power.

Northrop Grumman and the Navy say they’ve just completed the ninth flight trial of the Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS), an improvement upon its predecessor in the Air Force, the Global Hawk.

With its 130-foot wingspan, Triton will provide high-altitude, real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) from a sensor suite that supplies a 360-degree view at a radius of over 2,000 nautical miles, allowing monitoring from higher and farther away than any of its competitors.

But should a closer look be necessary, unique de-icing and lightning protection capabilities allow Triton to plunge through the clouds to get a closer view and automatically classify ships. And in recent tests, the drone was able to easily recover from perturbations in its flight path caused by turbulence.

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 17 Jan 2014 10:45

HAL is building a mini-UAV. It just issued a RFQ for its brushless motor. Based on the specifications, I am guessing that the UAV will be in the 7-10 kg category. So this is not probably going to be a man portable UAV, which is a smart choice in my opinion. There are a lot of man-portable projects going on in India already.

member_20317 · Post by **member_20317** » 17 Jan 2014 13:58

http://www.defstrat.com/exec/frmArticle ... px?DID=453

For UAV detection and countering.

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 20 Jan 2014 13:12

vasu raya wrote:DRDO Kicks off Mission to Develop Surveillance Airship

While Akashdeep was successfully evaluated over the last couple of years, the ADRDE is now working on an advanced version - Nakshatra - said to be having higher payload and longer endurance.

With a 22-m length, seven-metre diameter and weighing around 350 kg, the airship gives the option for both surveillance and tourism. “By developing Akashdeep, we learned the aerodynamics shape optimisation, fabrication technology and integration of payload and systems.

1. Those dimensions are completely wrong. Akashdeep is 40.126 m in length and 13.156 m in diameter.
2. I am sad to report that they have a RFP out for Supply of “Medium size aerostat envelope” which is basically the entire aerostat. So what was the fabrication technology learnt? And why is it not being used (commercially unpractical)? The good news is the endurance will be greater than 2 weeks. But then the fabric is being delivered by the supplier, so no credit can be given to ADRDE.

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 20 Jan 2014 13:12

vasu raya wrote:DRDO Kicks off Mission to Develop Surveillance Airship

While Akashdeep was successfully evaluated over the last couple of years, the ADRDE is now working on an advanced version - Nakshatra - said to be having higher payload and longer endurance.

With a 22-m length, seven-metre diameter and weighing around 350 kg, the airship gives the option for both surveillance and tourism. “By developing Akashdeep, we learned the aerodynamics shape optimisation, fabrication technology and integration of payload and systems.

1. Those dimensions are completely wrong. Akashdeep is 40.126 m in length and 13.156 m in diameter.
2. I am sad to report that they have a RFP out for Supply of “Medium size aerostat envelope” which is basically the entire aerostat. So what was the fabrication technology learnt? And why is it not being used (commercially unpractical)? The good news is the endurance will be greater than 2 weeks. But then the fabric is being delivered by the supplier, so no credit can be given to ADRDE.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 20 Jan 2014 17:09

If they have partners with whom they developed the process, the RFP may be directed towards them as well. In most cases, these folks have to put out a RFP for any and everything to prevent being accused of favoritism and single vendor deals.

vasu raya · Post by **vasu raya** » 20 Jan 2014 20:37

Speaking of partners, the Hybrid air vehicles mentioned in the International Aerospace thread seems to be in a niche market segment, so the need for it in India would be important for them. They also mention 1/10th operating cost of helicopters, 1/3rd cost of cargo planes, those margins could be improved if we could contribute on the manufacturing of the fabric, the most expensive bit. Since ARDE's efforts aren't ab initio at this point they could focus on the fabric part to gain leverage.

they should atleast trial it in the Himalayas first