Revolution or curiosity? UCAVs wait for a mission statement

Posted on: Nov. 11th, 2005 || Source: janes.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

Revolution or curiosity? UCAVs wait for a mission statement

By Bill Sweetman, IDR Aerospace and Technology Editor

Everyone agrees that UCAVs [Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles] are the answer," one speaker commented at a recent conference on unmanned combat air vehicles. "We just have to figure out what the question is."

Like most good jokes this one happens to be rooted in truth. Fast-jet UCAV projects are gathering momentum. The US Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) project is still the biggest unmanned aircraft technology project around despite a USD1 billion cutback. It seems likely to survive the forthcoming Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) intact: as one insider observes, "if they were going to kill it they would have done it".

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has terminated its Future Offensive Air System (FOAS) programme, which included UCAV, manned and cruise-missile studies, and is focusing on the UCAV. Under a little-discussed effort called Project Churchill, the UK's long-running and highly classified work into UCAVs and home-grown stealth technology is being linked to J-UCAS. Apparently, the goal is that a future UK-developed UCAV will be fully interoperable with J-UCAS systems.

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