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UAV makers expect U.S. defense demand to continue

Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk programs managed by WPAFB.

The Air Force is investigating what caused an MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial attack vehicle (pictured here in 2007) to crash Tuesday on the Indian Ocean island nation of the Republic of Seychelles.

Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson/Contributed Photo photo The Air Force is investigating what caused an MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial attack vehicle (pictured here in 2007) to crash Tuesday on the Indian Ocean island nation of the Republic of Seychelles.

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer 3:59 PM Saturday, December 17, 2011

DAYTON — The recent crashes of U.S. unmanned military drones in Iran and Seychelles won’t be major setbacks to America’s unmanned aircraft program, a defense industry analyst said.

“Unmanned systems, people recognize, are more liable to crash than other aircraft,” said Philip Finnegan, an analyst with Teal Group Corp. in Fairfax, Va. “They’re too expensive to be expendable. The goal is to bring them back.

“But, at the same time, there’s a recognition that the loss of an unmanned system doesn’t involve a loss of life,” Finnegan said.

The Air Force is investigating what caused its MQ-9 Reaper unmanned surveillance and attack plane to crash Tuesday on the Indian Ocean island nation of the Republic of Seychelles. The  MQ-9 was not armed and no injuries were reported, the Air Force said.

A separate crash in Iran early this month of a classified, radar-evading RQ-170 spy drone has American officials worried that the Iranians may be able to learn details of the plane’s stealth technology.

The Pentagon has pushed the Air Force and other services in recent years to get more unmanned aerial vehicles aloft — and more pilots trained to fly them from afar — to provide better surveillance and intelligence without exposing human pilots to potential harm. The Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk UAV programs are managed by the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The Defense Department’s current budget allocates $5.6 billion for development and procurement of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), the umbrella term for UAVs and their sensors and other payloads.

UAV manufacturers expect that demand to continue, even in light of defense budget cuts that Washington has mandated, said Lindsay Voss, spokeswoman for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade organization of UAS manufacturers.

Manufacturers have increased  their production to meet the demand.

UAVs remain a critical part of the U.S. military’s inventory because of their ability to stay aloft for extended periods and “loiter” longer than manned aircraft could over areas.

The military’s interest in UAVs, and a civilian market that could include agricultural, law enforcement and commercial customers, is driving efforts to make the Dayton area a center of UAV manufacturing and operations expertise.

The Air Force has lost 71 remotely piloted planes since 1997, according to records through fiscal 2010, including 64 MQ-1 Predators, the largest and longest-flying of the current unmanned aerial vehicles, said Maj. Chad Steffey, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon. A total of four MQ-9 Reapers have been lost since 2004, and three RQ-4 Global Hawks since 1999.

The losses of the UAVs run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, given the replacement costs of the aircraft and their support systems. The Air Force said Wednesday it was unable to provide the precise financial loss.

Still, the Air Force puts the replacement cost of an MQ-9 Reaper at $53.5 million for four sensor-carrying aircraft that are operated as a continuous patrol unit. The MQ-1 Predator costs $20 million for four aircraft, a ground control station and a satellite link. Global Hawks can cost between $37 million and $81 million, depending on the models and support equipment required. The aircraft require remote support teams on the ground including pilots and operators of the aircrafts’ sensors and, if applicable, on-board weapons.

Rates of “mishaps,” the Air Force term for anything from tire blowouts on landings to the crashes that destroy UAVs, vary among the types of aircraft. The MQ-9 Reaper has an accident rate since 2004 of 3.92, which the Air Force calculates as the number of mishaps multiplied by 100,000 flight hours and divided by total flight hours. The RQ-4 Global Hawk’s mishap rate is 7.59 since 1999, according to the Air Force.

Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon has also had an increasing appetite for small, hand-launched UAVs. AeroVironment Inc., a California-based manufacturer of the Wasp, Raven and Puma UAVs that range in weight from one to 13 pounds, designed them to be assembled in the battlefield and hand-launched by one or two U.S. troops for aerial surveillance to learn what is over the next hill. Customers include the Air Force and Army.

The four-pound Raven is sold in sets of three planes, two ground stations and spare parts that cost the government between $100,000 and $200,000, AeroVironment spokesman Steve Gitlin said. The Air Force and other federal agencies have been funding AeroVironment’s development of the Global Observer, a much larger plane with a 175-foot wingspan whose weight approaches 10,000 pounds. It underwent flight testing earlier this year at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and is designed to be able to stay aloft for a week at a time with a hybrid-electric power system, Gitlin said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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