U.K. Study Nixes Near-Term Reaper
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By Douglas Barrie
The U.K.’s desire to keep open the choice of a long-range, long-endurance UAV in a pending study has forced the Defense Ministry to nix near-term ambitions for the Reaper.
A senior air force official says the ministry is, in a sense, “playing for time.”
Its Dabinett intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) program will reach the “initial gate” stage of the British procurement process in 2010. Dabinett has two core elements: One is aimed at better exploiting what is already collected by existing platforms; the other is a “deep and persistent” collection capability—to be addressed by a long-endurance UAV.
Determining the choice of UAV for Dabinett is being identified as a key element of the evaluation phase. There have also been suggestions from industry executives that parts of Dabinett could be restructured.
“We have yet to start our assessment phase for Dabinett. I think we will go to initial gate and commit to that assessment phase in the new year,” says Air Vice-Marshal Carl Dixon, the ministry’s director of information superiority. “We are still in the concept phase for now. I want the assessment phase in Dabinett to home in on this very issue”—i.e., the choice of UAV.
During an appearance before Parliament’s Defense Committee, Dixon said the reason for not bringing the General Atomics Reaper/Predator B UAV system—acquired as an urgent operational requirement—into the main equipment program “is really to do with thinking about what our long-term objectives are for Dabinett and what we need of a core asset in our core program.”
Sounding an understandable note of caution, Dixon admits that while funding for Dabinett is currently adequate, this remains contingent on the outcome of the defense review. The Labor government recently set this process in motion with the launch of a consultation paper. “I would never bet against changes in the equipment program across the piece.” But, he adds: “I would hope that whole endeavor of [command and control and ISR] in the round gets a good belt of wind in a defense review.”
Dixon contends that “we are committing ourselves a bit if we put Reaper in the core program to either a future that—should we wish to increase the number of those kinds of assets—it’s more Reaper; or if we choose, for example, to do anything in a U.K. or a European or other collaborative perspective, we would end up foisting upon ourselves more than one platform—potentially bedeviling our support organizations with a requirement to fly two birds for the one job.”
The ministry’s 2008 Unmanned Aerial Systems Capability Investigation identified the acquisition of a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) platform as a priority.
The Dabinett initial gate is four years later than originally planned. Intended at one point for 2006, the 2005 planning round delayed the program; the platform element was moved at this point to 2017 from 2013, thereby affecting the decision points on the program.
Within the Royal Air Force hierarchy, the Predator B and the Mantis each have supporters. Predator B is proving to be a success in Afghanistan, providing a valuable ISR capability and also experience operating a UAV in this class.
Elements of the U.K.’s UAV and unmanned combat air system plans seem to be in a state of flux. A recent Anglo-French summit raised the possibility of closer alignment between London and Paris in this area. Previously, Britain tilted more toward the U.S. in terms of its medium- to long-term ambitions.
Discussing the deep and persistent platform options, Dixon says: “Reaper is one potential candidate to meet that, but there are others—not least we have a research and development program ongoing with BAE Systems on a project called Mantis. So there are choices to make in the end about what we want to do onshore.”
He recognizes, however, that “there is an industrial component to it for sure, and in the end there is a functionality component—there is a range and payload component. There is an issue as well [concerning] whether we want an aircraft that can just operate in unregulated airspace because of the safety case it has—or maybe the potential to try to find an aircraft, and a system, that can operate in more regulated airspace.”
Unlike Predator B, the Mantis is a twin-engine design, currently fitted with turboprop engines. BAE also is looking at turbofan options. Mantis was originally due to fly in the first quarter of 2009, but it has yet to be tested. Ironing out issues that appeared during ground trials is the likely cause of the delay.
“We need to elaborate a choice carefully in the assessment phase,” says Dixon. “So we are not going to put Reaper into the core program now because I don’t want to saddle us with a decision that I might want to unpick in an assessment phase for Dabinett.”
While Predator B and Mantis offer the kind of endurance sought by the ministry, there remains a question of their ability to survive in contested airspace. Neither UAV is particularly stealthy. In the Predator B’s case, this has led to the development of the Predator C Avenger.
Photo: Douglas Barrie
