Air-Attack.com - BAE Corax UCAV

According to several analysts, the aircraft bears some resemblance to the secret American RQ-3A Darkstar stealth UAV, which was cancelled in 1999.

According to Bill Sweetman, an editor at Janes Defence Review, the Corax could be a member of a whole family of drones, based around a similar central body. After studying the photo's, he concludes the Corax is a relatively slow, long endurance, high flying reconnaissance aircraft. "It looks rather typical for a surveillance aircraft," he told the BBC. "But if you take those long outer wings off and put on shorter swept wings, you have a somewhat faster aircraft that would be more of a penetrating strike platform."

The UK has reportedly scrapped plans to build another manned fighter aircraft, after the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and Eurofighter programs, and is now working closely with the US on "Project Churchill". This project is a four and a half year collaboration between the UK Ministry of Defence and US Department of Defense to determine the cost-effectiveness of UCAV concepts "operating in a US/UK coalition warfare environment". It's goal is to design a framework for the operation of UCAVs "in a 2015 network-centric/ enabled environment".

The United States, however, recently cancelled it's Air Force UCAV program, the X-45C. The US defense department will begin work this year on a next-generation long-range strike aircraft and as part of this effort the X-45C had to be cancelled.

Another problem for "Project Churchill" is the reluctance of the US to share technical information with the British, which threatens to derail the Joint Strike Fighter program. The Brits have expressed their frustration about this many times, but the Pentagon, in December 2005, ignored this and decided to cancel a second engine program for the Joint Strike Fighter, to save about $2.4 billion. The alternate engine was jointly developed by General Electric and British-based Rolls-Royce.

Another unmanned aircraft build by BAE is a propeller-powered glider called Herti-1A. In August 2005, a Herti-1A plane performed the first ever completely autonomous uncrewed flight in UK airspace, reaching an altitude of 1500 metres.

The Corax prototype was first flown in 2004 after a 10-month development programme.

Recent developments:

Nov. 28th, 2006 | BAE banking on green light for spy plane development

A multi-million pound contract which could change the future direction of Lancashire's aerospace industry is on the brink of being signed. Talks between defence giant BAE Systems and the Ministry of Defence about developing a "technical demonstrator" version of an unmanned 'spy' plane are expected to be completed with the signing of a £200m deal next month. Today, local MP David Borrow, a member of the parliamentary defence committee, confirmed there had been "advanced discussions" between...
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Sep. 20th, 2006 | RAF to put BAE Systems’ ‘intelligent’ UAV through its paces

BAE Systems is to work with the Royal Air Force's Air Warfare Centre on a project to integrate the company's HERTI Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) System into UK military exercises. This will be the first time a fully-autonomous UAV has been introduced into military exercises in the UK. Called ‘Project Morrigan’, this programme is initially intended to run for two years. It will enable the introduction of BAE Systems’ fully-autonomous HERTI System into progressively more complex...
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May. 30th, 2006 | BAE Systems: Eurofighter consortium could move into UAVs

BAE Systems believes the four-nation Eurofighter consortium could evolve to serve as the industrial vehicle for a European multirole unmanned air vehicle programme if emerging national requirements could be harmonised. Nigel Whitehead, BAE Systems air systems group managing director, says that, while most European nations are still focusing on their own specific requirements, there is potential for common programmes. Therefore the potential use of the Eurofighter industrial structure as a mea...
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Mar. 31st, 2006 | BAE Unveils Latest UAV Demonstrators

BAE Systems engineers and technologists in the UK and Australia have developed new, unmanned, fully autonomous air vehicles that are set to push the boundaries of autonomous flight and mission management. BAE Systems has developed three prototype UAV concept demonstrators Corax, Raven and HERTI, the latest generation of autonomous systems. The company implemented novel rapid engineering processes to achieve “paper to flight” in only months, not years. This was greatly assisted by the high ...
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Mar. 28th, 2006 | Europe Develops Robotic Warplanes

March 27, 2006: In Europe, several robotic warplanes ( the Neuron, the Barrakuda and the Corax) are under development. These UACV (Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicles) concepts began in the Untied States, but Europe wants to remain competitive with the U.S. military aircraft industry. All three programs include stealth features, and aim on playing in the same league as the American J-UCAS (Joint Unmanned Combat Aerial System). This program includes the Boeing X45C and the Northrop Grumman X47B Peg...
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Unfortunately there is very little information available about the specifications of the Corax UCAV.
It reportedly has a 5-6m (16-19ft) wingspan. Hopefully more information will soon become available.

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This page was last updated on: 2006-03-03

BAE Corax UCAV

The UK's first prototype stealth UCAV

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