new use for RAF reaper post stan?
 

GA-ASI, UK Partners Validate New Open Payload Architecture During Sovereign Payload Capability Demo

A GA-ASI Predator B/MQ-9 UAS fitted with a SELEX Galileo Seaspray 7500E surveillance radar. (Photo: GA-ASI)
Demonstration Supports Independent Upgrade of Future Sovereign Payloads on Predator B

07:10 GMT, May 18, 2012 SAN DIEGO | General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), a leading manufacturer of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), tactical reconnaissance radars, and electro-optic surveillance systems, along with SELEX Galileo (a Finmeccanica company) and Cobham Aviation Services (Cobham), on Wednesday, May 16, demonstrated a new open payload architecture during the Sovereign Payload Capability Demonstration (SPCD) held at GA-ASI’s Gray Butte Flight Operations Facilities in Palmdale, Calif.

The event included a live flight demonstration over the Pacific Ocean of a GA-ASI Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper UAS fitted with a SELEX Galileo Seaspray 7500E surveillance radar and showcased the radar’s ability to track targets on land, in the littoral and maritime environments, and from air-to-air. An international audience was in attendance, including officials from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Ministries of Defense of the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands.

“Today’s demonstration represents a significant step toward the goal of operational independence for Predator B,” said Frank W. Pace, president, Aircraft Systems Group, GA-ASI. “Our open payload architecture greatly reduces integration complexity by allowing payload providers and mission systems integrators to develop their own payload control software and ultimately integrate their own payloads.”

The SPCD is part of a joint Independent Research and Development (IRAD) effort between GA-ASI and SELEX Galileo to prove the concept and architecture for a fully certified Predator B incorporating a separate mission management system that supports the independent and cost-effective upgrade of future sovereign payloads. GA-ASI performed the software and hardware modifications to the Predator B system to implement the open payload architecture, while SELEX Galileo delivered the radar and supported the integration work.

defence.professionals | defpro.com
Cobham provides support to UK airworthiness procedures and through-life support as GA-ASI’s teammate in the UK responsible for whole life support arrangements for the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) MQ-9 Reaper UAS.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with GA-ASI and Cobham on such a forward thinking programme. Customers don’t want to be locked into particular payloads, they want the flexibility to integrate their own capabilities and sovereign control over the missions they fly,” said Fabrizio Giulianini, CEO of SELEX Galileo, adding, “Today’s demonstration was the first step in proving the concept of our platform and sensor-agnostic skyISTAR mission management system which will be flexible enough to meet the needs of any UAS programme going forward. To meet the demanding sensor requirements of these future UAS, our Seaspray radar exemplifies the foundation of advanced AESA technology that will allow us to provide high-resolution, multimode, multi-domain, and very wide-area coverage surveillance to users."

“Cobham is delighted to partner with GA-ASI and support this initiative by providing expertise to the airworthiness certification and sensor integration portions of this exciting program,” said Peter Nottage, president of Cobham Aviation Services.

Initial testing of the new architecture was completed in September 2011, demonstrating the ability to host third party-developed payload control software on existing airborne and Ground Control Station (GCS) processors. Today’s SPCD is the first phase in the flight demonstration process, with future phases envisioned to demonstrate systems integration independent of GA-ASI’s involvement.

I've heard that they will be used to photograph naked women sunbathing.

When do you think that will be for Reaper?!

And why post Stan? What has he done to you? Maybe he is happy where he is?

Has anybody heard any announcements WRT the future of REAPER within PR12?

The link below fails to mention:

UK MoD confirms future C4ISR projects - News - Shephard

like 2 and 4 sqn at Guetersloh: plenty of nekkid wimmin snapped from the air then ..................

I would expect REAPER to remain an UOR and continue supporting the Afghan mission for a few years yet - otherwise, the Afghan National Security Forces will suffer from a lack of ISTAR and CAS platforms.

Don't forget that Project SCAVENGER is still on the table and the REAPER UOR could always win that. In fact, in these fiscally challenged times, we would be mad to consider anything else.

IMHO, of course :E

LJ

I'd expect REAPER to come into core and SCAVENGER to be forgotten.

More importantly, why does Reaper seem to get capitalised when people mention it? We don't talk about TYPHOON or VOYAGER, so why REAPER?

UORs should be capitalised...

REAPER
TALISMAN
SHADOW
MASTIFF
etc...

as are Projects/Programs...

HELIX
SCAVENGER
CROWSNEST
etc...

It's only when it becomes Hawk T1, Tornado GR4, Sentry AEW1, etc... that the caps are lost.

Make sense?

YES...sorry, yes.

I didn’t understand a word of Cyrilranch’s post but a perfect use for the reaper would be to cruise the motorways and eradicate all vehicles, and drivers, who hog the middle lane doing 60mph!

Why is it that people use lower case letters for Reaper of the REAPER UOR? :E

CPL Clott

Thank you iRaven, learning has taken place...! But what do you put it in your logbook as....?

MQ-9 Reaper

By the way, another one is RIVET JOINT which is capitalised as it is a Project of the BIG SAFARI Program. Now the MQ-1 Predator started in BIG SAFARI and was PREDATOR for a while, but is now plain old MQ-1 Predator as it is now standalone.

http://www.bigsafariassociation.org/...ransparent.gif

MQ-9. Works for me. :ok:

REAPER to remain a UOR and support AFG Security Forces and be funded by NATO would seem to be a winner for the budget managers! WRT to SCAVENGER then yes, REAPER may well be a winner again as it would be a quick win as I am not sure what will come of the Anglo/French joint development vision for a future MALE UAV. One would assume, there will be subtle differences to what each country would wish deliver from any new designate aircraft and potentially this would not be deliverable.

I again assume that further development for the MQ-9 by GA is essential to make this an asset that could deploy and be utilised in "worldwide" environments?

They're continuing to upgrade it. Why don't we buy some of these?

http://defense-update.com/images_large2/avenger2.jpg

400kts, same weapons (including development for GBU-38 and GBU-49; bet they could even integrate PWIV and DMS if we asked nicely), same ground station, same instrumentation, same radar, adds the JSF EOTS, similar endurance.

We could have our existing REAPER (thanks iRaven!) aircrew flying them on missions pretty much immediately, I imagine.

5F6B

I see your point but the problem is probably a lot more cash just for the speed. Plenty of other weapons/sensors can be integrated on Reaper (sorry), if they aren't already, you just need to pay. And speed isn't an issue in the current theatre - you can pretty much guarantee that a Reaper will be on task long before Tornado (or Typhoon :}), simply because it is already there. Persistence has a quality all of its own!

There are exceptions, of course, and plenty of other theatres but are they worth the RISK and cost? IMHO going down an anglo-french route when we already have such a capable platform would have been madness (or politics, which amounts to the same thing).

It's surprisingly cheap, but mainly it shows that there's an upgrade path. Buy Reaper now, adopt it into core, and you don't need to worry about what its replacement will be as there are already options that fit into the same system.

Predator-C might just be a Reaper with a jet engine, but maybe Predator-D will have double the weapons capacity, and Predator-E will have stealth? Plus there are already plans to fit expanded wings and more fuel tanks to Reaper. Makes sense to stay with ours and buy into these upgrades as we can.

The Predator family's getting so many developments we'd be a bit insane to look at jumping out from a mature, existing capability that we already have in order to build our own.

5F6B - Completely agree. Someone's bound to screw it up!!