UAVs at the fore in 2006
2006 has been a successful year for the UAV team at Saab. February marked the start of the Neuron programme and the Skeldar V-150 was introduced to an international audience in June.
7/20/2006 | Saab’s UAV operations now cover a broad spectrum of activities, from demonstrating autonomous flight with Sharc, proving stealth performance with Filur and taking part in discussions of rules and regulations for integrating UAVs in controlled air space, to the new UAV system Skeldar V-150 and the Neuron programme. For nearly 70 years Saab has dedicated its skills to developing and manufacturing complete aircraft systems, which has brought extensive knowledge in areas vital to the development of certifiable and affordable UAVs.
“We know what it takes to build aircraft that live up to military as well as civilian standards and requirements, and we have utilised this knowledge to develop unmanned solutions,” says Mikael Franzén, Program Director for UAV systems at Saab.
Image: The Neuron programme was officially launched in February this year.
Skeldar breaks through
Saab launched the Skeldar V-150 at the Eurosatory exhibition in Paris in June. It is a UAV system which in its base version consists of two VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) UAVs, a control station and EO/IR payloads.
“Skeldar V-150 is likely to represent a breakthrough for Saab on the UAV market and I’m convinced that this will be a successful product for us,” says Franzén.
The system is developed for both military and civil operations, national and international missions as well as day and night operations in almost any kind of weather. The possibility to integrate SAR radar or an ESM system opens up the potential for a variety of different applications.
Invaluable knowledge for the future
Saab is also involved in the Neuron partnership, in which six European countries are jointly developing a UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle) demonstrator. The programme was officially launched in February this year, and this year's two milestones are on schedule for punctual completion: delivery of the technical data for the configuration decision in June and completion of the report for the various customer reviews this autumn.
“The main attraction for Saab in taking part in the Neuron programme is the new technologies in development, which can be applied in new and existing UAV projects but also in further development of the Gripen,” says Franzén.
During the autumn and up to the end of the year, the Saab team will focus on the avionics and fuel system, as well as preparing for the high-speed wind tunnel tests planned for January/February 2007. Also awaiting Saab is a second flight test campaign with the Filur demonstrator towards operational Swedish radars to show the operational value of the very low radar and IR signature measured at the test range.