The unmanned revolution

A very interesting study from DroneWarsUk has put together government data about UAV expenditure and projects, and so doing it has provided excellent food for thought and analysis. Considering, of course, that while they openly oppose the use of unmanned air systems, especially armed ones, i totally support their employment, simply for one reason: they work and deliver effect.

Since 2007, the UK has expended and/or committed around 2 billion pounds for purchasing, operating, researching and developing unmanned air systems.

The MQ-9 Reaper fleet accounts for 506 million pounds in approved purchase and support costs. The original order for 6 drones made in 2007 was followed by a 135 million order in 2010 for a further 5 Reapers and associated equipment and ground control section.
In the meanwhile, one of the original 6 Reapers was lost, so that the total fleet, at deliveries completed, will number 10.

So far, Reaper has been notoriously controlled by british personnel from 39 Squadron RAF based in Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, US. However, with the 5 new Reapers due to be delivered, XIII Squadron RAF, which ceased being a Tornado GR4 squadron early in 2011, is to stand up again this autumn as a Remotely Piloted Air System, based in Waddington, in the UK.
39 Squadron itself is to finally relocate to Waddington in the next future, once XIII Squadron is operational. The relocation of 39 Squadron will be phased to ensure there is no disruption to UK Reaper support to current operations.

This way, the UK will have brought home the ground control section of the Reaper force. But Reaper has not yet been given a safe and certain future: being a UOR-funded equipment, by the end of operations in Afghanistan the RAF will have to either bring it into Core Budget and find the funding to keep it going, or divest it. This situation also implies that the RAF so far has no plan at all to base Reapers in the UK, and fly them from UK air bases. The drones are obviously based in Afghanistan, and their future remains, at the moment, a question mark.
It is however widely expected that the RAF will keep Reaper, as a stopgap on the way to Scavenger if nothing else (there won't be a Scavenger before 2020 at best), which might actually end up being a development of Reaper itself: the option is far from having been ruled out.

The Reaper is currently the only armed unmanned system available to the UK. It has flown more than 38.000 hours and has employed weapons since 2008. They have employed weaponry 319 times as of early September, and have killed hundreds of talibans, including important figureheads, while tragically killing four civilians in one occasion, when in 2008 two Taliban pick-up trucks loaded with explosives were taken out with a Reaper attack.
There are of course various accusations that the number of civilian victims is actually higher, but the official figure is four. 

DroneWarsUK adds to the Reaper's costs an estimate of the impact of the armed UAV on expenditure for satellite bandwidth. I'm not sure of the validity of their estimate and reasoning, even if it is obvious that, without the bandwidth-hungry drone, the Armed Forces would need less satellite comms capability.
The Skynet satellite system costs 200 million pounds a year, and DroneWars estimates that up to 10% of the figure might be made up by the needs of the UAVs. This particular figure, however, remains uncertain.  


The Hermes 450 fleet is operated by the Royal Artillery with contractor's support. There are a dozen drones, sustaining 5 to 6 daily task lines. The UAVs are leased on a pay-by-flight basis, as a stop-gap measure on the way to the much enhanced, UK-built and owned Watchkeeper. The lease had to be renewed several times, since Watchkeeper failed to become operative by the end of 2011 as was once expected, and again was unable to deploy in 2012, with the first Watchkeeper task line now expected in theatre in Spring 2013.
The cost of the lease since 2007 is put at 181 million pounds.

The already mentioned Watchkeeper is currently the largest and most ambitious UAV program in the UK, and indeed is probably matched only by the US Army's Gray Eagle UAV project.
This complete, fully-integrated UAV system is due to be the main eye of the army for years into the future. 54 UAVs and 13 Ground Control Stations are on order, plus at least 21 Tactical terminals, mounted in specifically-configured Viking all-terrain vehicles.
Cost of the Watchkeeper is booked at 847 million pounds.

Watchkeeper is packed up for transport by a DROPS truck

The Watchkeeper is unarmed, but has a margin of payload available that would allow carriage of a couple of light guided weapons such as the Thales LMM missile (13 kg, with a warhead of just around 3 and laser guidance). The Royal Artillery is keen to gain weapons capability to turn the Watchkeeper into a hunter-killer platform better able to deal with time-critical targets, but there is no funding available at the moment. The "A-TUAS" (Armed Tactical Unmanned Air System) program, as it is called, remains "on hold", possibly to proceed sometime in the next few years.  

The Desert Hawk expenditure has been approved at 42 millions since 2007. The original order was for 144 mini-drones, but 27 have been lost during operations. There have been several successive additional orders and capability insertions, up to the currently in service Desert Hawk III.
In Afghanistan there are regularly a dozen 5-man detachments of DHIII operative, with each Detachment having several (possibly six) UAVs. The system is operated by the Royal Artillery and is, of course, totally unarmed.

Special Forces have and might still be using US RQ-11 Raven mini-drones in partnership with US forces on operations. The SAS in 2005 acquired the BUSTER mini-UAV in unknown quantities.  

The T-HAWK vertical take-off, man-packable UAV was initially operated by the Royal Engineers, but was subsequently assigned to Royal Artillery personnel as the RA became the Army's UAV authority. T-HAWK is used as an integral part of the TALISMAN route clearance system.
12 UAVs were procured, for a booked cost of 3 million pounds.

The PD-100 Black Hornet is the most recent and less known addition to the force. This nano-UAV weighting only 16 grams is a tiny helicopter that fits in a hand, but can fly for up to 25 minutes, depending on wind conditions and other factors. It uses internal rechargeable batteries for power and can fly at up to 1000 meters of distance. The PD-100 Black Hornet is a complete system comprising two or three nano air vehicles (NUAV) and a ground control element fitted in a light, small box for transport with a total weight inferior to 1 kg.  
Thanks to its tiny sizes, it can fly even into buildings and provide the troops with situational awareness. An unknown number was ordered in November 2011: the value of the "initial" contract was put at 2.5 millions, but 20 millions were indicated as through-life value.
This is likely to include further expected acquisitions and successive capability-insertions: the MOD wants the nano-UAV to provide night vision too, something that, at the moment, could not be fitted. As technology progresses, it is hoped that this and other features will be added.

While there is no certainty, it would appear that the MOD has procured 100 or more nano-UAVs, so possibly between 33 and 50 complete "Personal Reconnaissance" systems. It would appear that the nano-UAV number 100 was delivered to the MOD last June.

Black Hornet in action

Cost, as explained, is indicated in 20 millions.


For research and development, Mantis and Taranis received, as of 2010, funding for 167 million pounds.
In January 2012 BAE was awarded a much publicized 40 million contract for the definition of "Future Combat Air Systems", and most recently a 30 million Joint Effort with France was announced, relative to work for the design of an UCAV for entry in service in 2030.
The UCAV (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle) has strike missions as main role, and it is expected to be an ultra-long range, stealth, highly-survivable bomber capable to deliver precious strikes deep into enemy-held territory, even in presence of significant enemy air defences. 

The most interesting part however is the indication of a Scavenger requirement for a total fleet numbering up to 30 MALEs, with a through-life cost of 2 billion pounds over 15 years.
Normally, support and running costs account for 60% of the total expenditure, so the development and procurement of the Scavenger solution would be budgeted at less than 1 billion pounds.
Scavenger is expected to have significant Strike capability: the Mantis demonstrator from BAE, expected to be the basis for development of the production-standard aircraft, was shown fitted with 6 underwing pylons suitable for Paveway IV guided bombs and Brimstone missiles.

Aimed at the Scavenger requirement is the collaboration with France on the BAE-Dassault "TELEMOS" MALE development. Committment to Scavenger is expected to be part of the 2013 defence budget. An announcement was actually expected already this summer, but the new government of France imposed a delay as it reviews its defence strategy (and, crucially, funding). France has recently signed a deal with Germany for collaboration on a MALE drone, in practice unilaterally expanding the bi-national project Telemos to involve Germany.
It remains to be seen how the UK will react, and what kind of future Telemos will have.

It should also be reported that a 40 million pounds UOR has been launched by the Royal Navy for the procurement of a UAV for employment on RFA ships and Type 23 frigates. It is widely expected that ScanEagle, or its newer, more capable incarnation, the RQ-21 Integrator, will be selected, as the Navy already validated operations of ScanEagle from Type 23 frigates as far back as 2006. Integrator uses the same launch and recovery kit and methods as ScanEagle, so it would make sense to go for the newer, more capable system as it would only imply minimal changes from the procedures already validated with ScanEagle in the past.
There is also a program for the demonstration and, in time, for the purchase of a rotary wing UAV which might be armed, and that will form an important part of the future mission capability of ships such as the Type 26 frigate.
These marittime UAVs programs are to be welcomed, as they will finally give the Navy improved situational awareness during deployments in congested and potentially hostile waters, such as in the Persian Gulf. 

If anything, my greatest worry and complaint is that Scavenger and the new UCAV, as it stands, are not to be made aircraft carrier capable, in no small part because they would need arresting wires and very possibly catapults to be fitted to the ships.
And as we know, the very questionable decision of going STOVL was taken instead.

Drone news

France and UK deals

Philip Hammond and his french counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian announced in a Joint Statement on July 24 that, building on the collaboration agreements of the 2010 Lancaster House agreement, the UK and France will fund the first phase of the Joint UCAV development and demonstration programme.

The Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle is expected to become mature and ready for service by 2030, a very unanbitious target considering that the US Navy will trial on an aircraft carrier at sea the X47B next year, in 2014 will demonstrate its Air to Air refuelling capability and between 2018 and 2020 it plans to put the drone in active service as a long range, stealthy, long endurance strike and recce asset for the Carrier Air Wings.

Europe is lagging behind by a great margin. 

The contract announced has a value of 13 million euro, and this money will be used by the BAE Systems / Dassault joint venture to begin the joint UCAV work.

Separately, BAE and Dassault both plan to stage the first flight of their existing UCAV-representative prototypes next year: for BAE, this is the Taranis drone, while Dassault is the team leader (50% share of work and costs) in the NEURON effort, a 405 million euro Europe-wide project which includes Italy's Alenia (22%), Sweden's SAAB, Spain's EADS-CASA, Greece's EAB and Switzerland's RUAG.

Taranis born from a 143 million pounds effort first announced in the Defence Industrial Strategy 2005. Production of the drone started in September 2007, and the Taranis was finally revealed at Warton, on 12 July 2010. Ground testing followed, in particular to demonstrate the all-sides stealthness of the prototype, and this phase was extended several times, so that the first flight was delayed from an intended 2011 date first to 2012 and then to 2013.

Reportedly, at least, the MOD is pleased by the excellent level of stealthness achieved.

The NEURON was launched by France in 2003 and the main contract with Dassault was signed in 2006. The French ministry of defence target for NEURON was described as the validation of a UCAV design which would lead to a production-ready aircraft with an unitary price of 25 million euro.

The two demonstrators are actually quite similar, sharing the same general architecture, stealth with two internal weapon bays, and even using the same engine, the Rolls Royce Adour. The French ministry of defence anticipated that a production-ready UCAV would need a much more powerful engine, and expected it to be a development of the M88 engine used by Rafale.

Now, with Dassault and BAE teaming up, the future of NEURON becomes uncertain, and the plan of using the Rafale engine becomes even more uncertain, as it is expected that, in the next few days, Rolls Royce and Safran will announce their own joint venture for the development of engine solutions specifically targeted at drones.

For sure, Dassault from the NEURON gains significant experience and know-how, paid in no small part by other european nations which now might find that the NEURON brings, effectively, to nothing for them.

The UK on its part can build on the Taranis experience and, to an unknown degree, it'll be able to access technology and solutions developed for the X47B carrierborne UCAV of the US Navy, after receiving clearance to follow the development with the Carrier Air cooperation Memorandum of Understanding signed on January 5, 2012.

Another deal reached will see France acquire a Watchkeeper drone system from the UK in 2013. The French Army will trial the drone at least until mid-2013, and eventually adopt it for its own needs. The Watchkeeper is built by Thales UK, and selling it to France would be a significant export win. 

In addition, it would open the door for extensive cooperation between the british and french army units working with the drone.

The most anticipated, expected and important deal, though, is again missing.

A contract for starting the development of the joint BAE/Dassault Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) drone, to be known as Telemos, has not been announced, with developments in this direction once more delayed and pushed to the right. 

The Telemos aims for a 2020 in-service date, and for the UK is targeted specifically at the Scavenger requirement, a particularly important one. The constant delays (the RAF had hoped for a 2018 ISD, this had to be abandoned and pushed to the right) are already becoming an issue. 

Worse, France is under a new government, and is undergoing a defence review which will bring forth a new White Paper in the coming months. As part of this effort, France is looking again into its own MALE requirement, and for a few more weeks at least we won't know about the impact that this review will have on Telemos. 

As of now, the government suspended a previous decision to acquire the Heron TP drone from the Israel Aerospace Industries as an interim solution "France-ized" at great cost by Dassault.

This decision, already contested by the french senate, was the most expensive of all solutions, but was seen by Sarkozy as a way to preserve national industrial capability thanks to the great involvment of Dassault, which would heavily modify the israeli drone. 

The Senate noted that purchesing 7 MQ-9 Reaper drones from the US would be a much less expensive interim solution, and the new government is looking again at this and other possibilities: France's Defense Ministry is reportedly in talks for an extension of the contract for the Harfang MALE UAV system, due to expire in October 2013. 

They might continue with the Harfang in the near term and speed up the MALE program with the UK, if we are lucky, or they might take more damaging decisions. 

For example, France is keen on bringing Germany into the cooperative effort, and perhaps even Italy. France's intest in including Germany is mainly tied to EADS, the french-german-spanish defence industry giant, which would otherwise be cut off, after the failure of its internal Talarion MALE project. 

The UK, after the negative experience of the Typhoon enterprise, would very much prefer to keep the program binational only, or at most multinational at industrial level but binational in management and leadership. 

The Telemos saga is already getting complicated, before actual work even starts. It is a situation that needs to be sorted out quickly. 

Royal Navy drones 

The Royal Navy is finally managing to launch the expected Rotary Unmanned Aircraft development programme. On 24 July, the MOD notified industry that a contract is due to be signed for the Capability Concept Demonstrator (CCD) programme of the planned future Rotary-Wing Unmanned Air System (RWUAS). 

The bad news is that the CCD phase will last until 2015 (!) and an In-Service Date is not expected before 2020.

The CCD is meant to inform the Navy on "whether a multi-role RWUAS can provide utility in the mine countermeasures, hydrography and meteorology, offensive surface warfare and general situational awareness capability areas." 

The CCD phase will involve physical demonstrations of a vertical take-off and landing UASs and specialist sensors, supported by simulation and synthetic environment experiments. The MAGIC ATOLS system from Thales, which is used to let Watchkeeper land autonomously without human input, might be involved as it offers a readily available ship solution as well, capable to guide an helicopter drone on the deck of a ship at sea.

Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) wants an air vehicle, ground control station and communications link offering "a low probability of delay due to unplanned maintenance or technical issues". The CCD will also have to determine the impact of embarking and using such a drone on ships, determining how it will be used, storaged, supported. 

Decisions about the drone system will affect arrangements for the Type 26 and MHPC vessels, so the Royal Navy should move and develop a clear plan for the future.

DE&S has been conducting some early studies, and identified three main potential "classes" of drones that could be used, from a tiny 100 kg solution to a 3000 kg one. To provide a comparison of sort, a fully-loaded Gazelle light helicopter weights 1900 kg. 

An helicopter drone is envisaged as part of the Type 26 mission packages, and is also part of the MCM, Hydrographic and Patrol Capability (MHPC) program for the replacement of the minesweepers and survey vessels.

It has not been a mystery that the Navy would eventually launch this contract award call. A VTUAS has been wanted for some years now, and last year QinetiQ and Northrop Grumman had outlined their proposal for the conversion of a Gazelle helicopter into a drone, using the US MQ-8B Fire Scout software and operating system. They are likely to bid for the CCD with this exact solution. 

The Fire Scout itself might be offered, too, along with other drones. 

A small drone such as the Camcopter is easily integrated on any ship, but its usefulness is severely limited for obvious reasons. A larger drone, such as Gazelle, is likely to be far more useful, but using it on Type 23 frigates in concert with even just a Wildcat might prove impossible. 

The Type 45 hangar, which can take two Wildcat helicopters, could easily take a Wildcat and a naval drone and perhaps even a Merlin HM2 plus drone combination. 

The Type 26, hopefully, will offer ample spaces for carrying Merlin HM2 and drone(s). It must be noted, indeed, that a drone helicopter is not going to be a replacement for manned helicopters capable to carry Marines, do SAR and medical evacuation and carry out ASW: all roles that the drone won't be able to cover. 

2 Lynx helicopters inside a Type 45 hangar

 

While the US has been sending ships out with sole-drone complements on rare occasions (recently, a frigate with 4 FireScouts), the US Navy ships are likely to pretty much always operate in company with other vessels, while RN ships are alone most of the time. The drone must expand the capabilities of the ship, not reduce them, so i do not think it can replace the embarked helicopter, but only supplement it. 

No news, for the moment, on the planned demonstration of "a drone rail-launched from the back of a frigate", which is also apparently planned for this year, according to what Air Vice-Marshal Mark Green, Director Joint and Air Capability told the defence committee back in June. 

The drone, not identified (might be Scan Eagle, even though this drone was already validated for launch and recovery from a Royal Navy Type 23 frigate between 2005 and 2006) would "fly for 14 hours" and then return to the ship.  

Scan Eagle on its launch rail on a Type 23 frigate in 2005. Back then, the Navy was unable to finalize an acquisition, and the successful trials did not lead to an acquisition.

Connected to the MHPC is also the recently announced deal for collaboration between Thales UK and Autonomous Surface Vehicles Ltd (ASV Ltd) to develop a re-configurable Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) to meet the challenges of future off-board Mine Countermeasures (MCM) operations.

The vessel has been jointly designed to meet a number of key requirements and drivers:

• Deployable from military platforms, craft of opportunity and from shore/harbour 
• Air transportable 
• Payload flexibility for all MCM systems – unmanned underwater vehicles, towed sonar, disposal systems, minesweeping 
• Stable platform with excellent slow speed and towing capabilities 
• Highly reliable & cost effective

The low signature USV, which is 11.5m in length and 3.6m in beam, will have a maximum speed of around 25 knots. The vehicle is now under construction and will be undergoing acceptance trials later this year. A series of payload trials will be conducted from early 2013 onwards, drawing on experience gained in previous off-board system programmes.

They are certainly going to offer this new system to the Royal Navy for MHPC: while the Navy has been using the Atlas FAST in these roles, trialing it since 2009, there is still good chances for Thales to win the actual contract.

FAST was originally born in 2007 as a 2-year, 4.3 million pounds demonstration programme aimed at a 150 million pounds requirement for an unmanned platform capable to tow Combined Influence Sweeping kit, following the retirement of such equipment from the Hunt minesweeper fleet in 2005. It was anticipated that 4 Hunt vessels would  be modified to carry and put in the water 2 FAST drones each.

The FAST was successfully designed, trialed and validated, but to this day the adoption on the Hunt vessels has not gone ahead. Instead, FAST is being used as a demonstrator for unmanned, remote MCM operations.

In 2011, Atlas demonstrated the use of FAST as an unmanned mothership for the deployment of smaller drones, namely the SeaFox mine disposal system.

These remotely-operated assets are crucial for the future of MHPC, as the 3000 tons ship envisaged is to be built of steel and it is to stay well far away from minefields, clearing routes from stand-off distance using surface, air and subsurface drones.

The FAST, or the new Thales drone, or yet another system, is the surface element: it is meant to tow combined influence sweeping equipment or sonars, and it is intended to deploy directly into the minefield other drones, such as the REMUS underwater search drones or the SeaFox disposal system.

For this role, the unmanned surface vessel must be kitted with suitable radio links, and with an underwater communication system: signals coming from the mothership are relayed by the unmanned surface boat to the underwater drones. 

The Flexible Agile Sweeping Technology (FAST) has much expanded its range of roles from when it was conceived in 2007 as a towing boat for combined influence sweep kit. Here it is shown with the launch arm loaded with a SeaFox mine disposal underwater drone.

As I said, FAST did not originally born with all these roles in mind, but adapted over time. The Thales realization, larger and more powerful, will be specifically configured from the start for the wide range of applications envisaged.

In future, drones such as this might also be used for Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) by towing active sonars in swarms sailing ahead and around of the frigate/mothership, which would keep its sonar in Passive mode, receiving the sonar echoes from multiple directions and so managing to put together a much more accurate picture of the underwater situation, locating submarines much more easily, even if they are particularly silent and hard to detect.

Putting the active sonar away from the frigate is necessary, since the submarine in the depths will immediately locate the source of an active sonar signal, and might attack it if possible. That’s why frigates will almost always use the passive sonar mode (undetectable) and listen for catching the noise made by the submarine moving.

Like bistatic radars have better chances to detect stealth airplanes, a swarm of sonars transmitting active signals from different directions are going to massively increase the chances of successful detection.

From Afghanistan to the future

The US Marines are delighted by the performance of the K-MAX unmanned load carrying helicopter in Afghanistan. This 2300 kg empty weight helo, converted in unmanned configuration, is used to hail under slung loads of supplies (4000 pounds at 15.000 feet altitude, 6000 lbs at sea level) and carry them to Forward Bases, flying back and forth several times each night (for safety reasons, in Afghanistan the K-MAX is only flown at night) and reducing the need for road transfers which put personnel at IED and ambush risk. It also removes some tasks from the long list of missions assigned to manned utility helos, that can so be used for other roles, such as carrying soldiers around the battlefield.

The USMC deployed the "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron (VMU) 1 Cargo Detachment" with two K-MAX to Afghanistan in December 2011. It was an experimental deployment under a 43 million dollars contract, but the success was immediate. By early May 2012, the two drones had already moved over a million pounds of cargo, and their deployment was extended out to September 2012. Now it is flown by VMU 2. 

During the VMU 1 five months deployment, the two KMAX systems flew 485 combat mission flights, for a total of 525 flight hours. As DefenseUpdate reports:

Most missions lasted about 1 hour and included a 20-minute turnaround time during which a pilot climbed into the helicopter to shut it down, refuel it, hook up the cargo and then start it back up. “That was a pretty short turnaround time, and allowed us to conduct six sorties per night. We could have done more,” Joiner [Cargo UAS mission commander] noted. By the end of the deployment — and after receiving permission to hover — turnaround times with cargo hook-ups took 6 or 7 minutes to complete. Overall, the KMAX was very responsive, especially when compared to a convoy, a C-130 [Hercules] or an H-53 mission.

According to Joiner, “Towing the KMAX out of the hangar to wheels-up, could take as little as 15 minutes.”

“Since it was an unmanned system, we were able to conduct flights during inclement weather when other helicopters couldn’t fly,” O’Connor [Major in the VMU 1 unit] said. “We flew during the night, in the rain, dust and some wind.” The KMAX handled up to 4,500 pounds of cargo per mission, he said. “The reliability of the KMAX was impressive, It was fully mission capable 90 percent of the time.” O’Connor said. Inclement weather accounted for 5 percent of the downtime and maintenance and scheduling issues accounted for the other 5 percent, he said. The KMAX required less than two hours of maintenance per flight hour, which equates to a low cost, O’Connor added.

Kmax is an unmanned adaptation of an existing manned helicopter.

 

The US Army is looking ahead to field its own cargo carrying drone helicopters, and it anticipates putting a squadron of such systems in the Sustainment Brigades and/or in the Support Battalion of the Brigade Combat Teams. 

The USMC and USN, in the meanwhile, are looking ahead, beyond K-MAX, towards a common and multi-mission system. 

Using the same airframe, with the same training, logistic and support tail, and giving it a series of modular payloads enabling it to tackle different kinds of mission is the most effective way to go, they recognize. Such modular payloads could include a EO/IR camera payload that would be added for an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission; the hook and long line added for cargo pick-up; fuel pods for long-range missions and even missiles and/or rockets for strike missions.

It is an unassailable concept, and my hope and dream is for the Royal Navy and British Army to join forces to work together on the Rotary-Wing Unmanned Air System (RWUAS), to follow the same concept. 

A 2000 / 3000 kg drone, of sizes and design suitable for embarkation in ship's hangars, capable to carry a significant payload under slung, and/or sensors and weaponry would cover a lot of roles and be of immense usefulness in all sorts of situations and scenarios.

Such Army/Navy collaboration would be further eased by the arrangements already in place for the joint running of the Wildcat fleet, including use of the same Main Operating Base, Yeonvilton, where the RN Squadrons and the Army Air Corps’ 1^st Regiment will be based.

In an age of restricted financial possibilities, this kind of cooperation is more important than ever, and where there is so clear potential for collaboration, the chance should not be missed.   

Collaboration with France - The new deals

The most relevant parts of the new deal formalized today include:

Combined Joint Expeditionary Force

France and the UK agreed in November 2010 to set up a combined Joint expeditionary Force (CJEF). Our operation in Libya has proved the relevance of this work. Today the Level of Ambition for the CJEF has been described as:

an early entry force capable of facing multiple threats up to the highest intensity, available for bilateral, NATO, European Union, United Nations or other operations. A five-year exercise framework is in place to achieve full operating capability in 2016.

The number of exchange officers in the military academies of the two countries will increase, and a Force Enhancement Working Group to identify the scope for further cost saving through exchange of services and alignment of military requirements has been established.

Joint Amphibious Exercise for 2012  

Confirmed for later this year is the massive French-UK exercise, Corsican Lion, to accelerate the development of the CJEF. It will take place in the Mediterranean Sea with participation by sea, land and air forces. The UK will send the Royal Navy Response Force Task Group, France will also deploy the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle as part of the exercise. 

Carrier Strike Group collaboration

The UK and France aim to have, by the early 2020s, the ability to deploy a UK-French integrated carrier strike group incorporating assets owned by both countries.

Deployable Joint HQ to be formed

A deployable Combined Joint Force Headquarters is being created. By 2016, the UK/FR Headquarters will utilise existing French and UK high-readiness, well-experienced national Force Headquarters staff, including officers embedded in each other’s deployable Headquarters. The Headquarters will be capable of expansion to include staff from other nations participating in a multinational operation.

An early command and control element of the CJEF will stand up early, with urgency, to handle small scale operations in the short term. It will be expanded to reach full efficiency by 2016.

Drones 

Telemos - Medium Altitude Longue Endurance (MALE) Drone. The Joint Program Office was launched in 2011. A jointly funded contract will "shortly" be placed with BAES and Dassault to study the technical risks associated with the MALE UAV. The Telemos should by flying by 2020. This represents a delay from an once-hoped 2018 date, and will pretty much force the RAF to bring Reaper into core budget as stop-gap measure in 2015 (the Reaper is currently only a UOR, tied to the Afghanistan campaign and funded by the Treasury).
France is valuing its own alternatives for an interim solution, with the Heron-TP being favorite. The Heron is made in Israel and is to be adapted (at great cost) to meet french requirements by Dassault. A more cost-effective Reaper solution is not appreciated as it is seen as damaging for the national industry since Dassault would have mostly nothing to do on it!

Watchkeeper - France confirms its interest for the Watchkeeper system recognising the opportunities this would create for cooperation on technical, support, operational and development of doctrine and concepts.  An evaluation of the system by France will begin in 2012, in the framework of its national procurement process, and conclude in 2013.

Watchkeeper might find in France its first export triumph. 

Joint Future Combat Air System Demonstration Programme - Co-operation of strategic importance for the future of the European Combat Air Sector. This work will provide a framework to mature the relevant technologies and operational concepts for a UCAS operating in a high threat environment. Already this year work could start for writing the specification of this demonstrator with a jointly funded contract under the industrial leadership of Dassault-Aviation in France and BAE Systems in the UK.
This is likely to mean that the NEURON and TARANIS projects will more or less joint in a single long-term program aiming for a stealth drone to put in service by around 2030.

A400 Cargo Aircraft

A Joint User Group is being established to facilitate co-operation on A400M training to inform operating techniques and procedures for synthetic and live training. A common support plan for the two fleets is also being pursued. A contract will be negotiated with Airbus Military so that integrated support is in place for the arrival of the first French aircraft in 2013.

Submarine technology

A bilateral Memorandum of Understanding was signed in June 2011 to support exchanges and pursue collaborative work to identify areas of technological cooperation and savings. Currently, the team is looking at the feasibility of a co-development of specific sonar equipment.

Maritime Mine Countermeasures.

The plans for future Maritime Mine Countermeasures capabilities have been aligned, as widely expected. Development of a MCM solution will happen with an incremental approach whose first major step will begin next year with the development and realisation of a demonstrator/prototype of off board systems based on unmanned technologies. The Joint Project Office already established within OCCAR will begin a European competitive process in 2012 for a common assessment phase.

I've looked at the RN and french programs for future MCM systems here. The scope for collaboration has long been evident, with the basic concept of the two navies being the same.

Satellite Communications.

France and UK will look to confirm their intent to adopt a cooperative approach to meet their need for future COMSAT services, considering they will form a core asset in any Beyond Line of Sight capabilities in the future. A comparative study will be made by mid 2012 to analyse different architectural options.

40mm CTA cannon.

Effort will be made to assure qualification by 2013, jointly promote the export of this system and the elaboration of a NATO standard.

Counter IED.

A high degree of interoperability will be demanded and a Joint action plan will be elaborated in 2012 to cover cooperative opportunities in the operations/capability/R&T domains.

Missiles 

Collaboration, via MBDA, is to continue. A joint assessment phase on Storm Shadow/Scalp enhancement is to start this year. The feasibility of cooperation on future anti-surface tactical missiles will be examinated through initial studies later this year. This might involve the British SPEAR effect for a family of new air to ground weapons, but also surface-to-surface systems (BANG warhead for extended range GMLRS rockets [over 100 km demonstrated] and the UK has expressed interest in the France effort for designing a replacement for the Milan anti-tank missile, despite the Javelin having arguably a long life ahead of itself still.
In the coming months a MoU will be signed for the development and manufacture of the Future Anti-ship Guided Weapon / Anti-Navire Léger program. The FASGW(Heavy) or Sea Skua II (is it an official name? Not clear) is the replacement for the Sea Skua helicopter-launched anti-ship missile, and is targeted at the Wildcat helicopter. Interesting how the same missile is "Heavy" for the british and "light" for the French: the french, of course, intend their Exocet as the Heavy part of the mix.

This Wildcat is shown heavily loaded with 4 Sea Skua / FASGW(H) and 2 x 7 launchers of LMM missiles. Never before had a Navy Lynx had this firepower!

The FASGW(Light) is the Thales Light Multimission Missile, already ordered in 1000 units. The LMM can be employed by the Wildcat, could be integrated in the next few years on the Watchkeeper under the Royal Artillery's ATUAS (Armed Tactical Unmanned Air System) and can be fired by the Stormer HVM platform in place of the usual Starstreak missile, from which anyway the LMM derives.

A Wildcat carrying 14 LMM missiles. Excellent to fend off swarms of FACs and boats with RPGs and other similar threats. An Apache armed with LMMs is also shown. The LMM could find use in many applications, on many different platforms.

The LMM has been shown and offered for integration already on uncountable platforms, including Camcopter mini drones and on the BAE Herti drone, vehicular Remote Weapon Stations and on the SIGMA (Stablilised Integrated Gun/Missile Array) naval system, development of the DS30 line of small-calibre weapon mountings that the RN is retrofitting on Type 23 and that will no doubt be on CVF and Type 26 as well. The DS30 used by the RN combines an off-mount electro-optical director with a fully automated gun mount using the ATK Mk 44 Bushmaster 30mm cannon.

An RWS for use on land vehicles, combining a .50 and 2 LMM missiles. A massive firepower readily available.

The SIGMA adds a a seven-cell LMM pannier, and has already been extensively trialed and evaluated by DSTL for the MOD as part of naval research and experimentation. It could be adopted anytime to enhance the defense of ships. 

The SIGMA mount

 

Research and Development

A common strategy for defence research, development and innovation will be developed this year to compile a "2025 Key Technologies” plan to guide the efforts of the defence industry.



Collaboration will continue in Cyber warfare and Counterterrorism, and in the nuclear field as well. 

In the civilian field, a huge deal has been signed for Nuclear Energy collaboration, involving the commitment to finalise key contracts for the first new nuclear power station to be built in the UK (Hinkley Point C) in time for the project’s final investment decision before the end of 2012. It is also involved a project for the construction of a tidal turbine farm off Alderney-Aurigny in the Channel Islands.