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| ScanEagle (Wiki Info) |
By Tony Skinner,The Gold Coast, Australia
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has secured funding for flight trials of a number of embarked UAVs as it works towards its ambition of having a naval UAV squadron before 2020.
Speaking at the UV-Pacific conference being held on the Gold Coast, Australia on 24 May, Lt Cdr Bob Ferry, naval UAS development project manager, said that over the coming financial year trials would be carried out on the ScanEagle, Aerosonde and Camcopter.
‘We are about to tap into the existing Insitu Scan Eagle contract – we are signing up for 300 hours in the next financial year to continue experimentation. I am going to spread it amongst these three [platforms] – primarily Scan Eagle for 300 hours,’ Ferry said.
He noted that first of class flight trials (FOCFT) would be carried out on an ANZAC frigate in September 2012 and would then take place on HMAS Choules in early 2013. Open ocean warfare experimentation would be carried out in November 2012 while the navy plans to do patrol boat trials using ‘hub and spoke’ land-based operations.
The RAN currently has no UAS systems in service and there are no acquisition projects in place. However, there are plans for this to change and a Naval Unmanned Aerial Systems Development Unit (NUASDU) was formed in February 2010 to study the issue through to mid-2013.
Read the full story at Shephard