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Tiny spy plane packs a sting
[March 30, 2006]

Tiny spy plane packs a sting


(San Diego Union-Tribune, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 30--After spending years developing a robotic spy plane that operates at 65,000 feet and costs $123 million apiece, Northrop Grumman has developed a new perspective on aerial surveillance.



In a more down-to-earth approach, the company has been developing small robotic "flying wings" in San Diego that are designed to operate in flocks of four or more aircraft. Such aircraft would be made at a fraction of the cost of the Global Hawk, Northrop's high-altitude spy plane, and would fly less than 1,500 feet above the ground.

The concept behind the new unmanned aircraft, dubbed "Killer Bees," is based on an idea that can be found in almost any casino. Mounted in the ceiling above each gaming table is a small, relatively inexpensive camera linked to a sophisticated surveillance network.


With a wingspan of 6 feet, such spy planes could be launched from the roofs of Humvee military vehicles and fly for 12 to 24 hours.

In developing the propeller-driven UAV, or unmanned aerial vehicle, Northrop Grumman has taken Swift Engineering of San Clemente under its wing. The design for the flying wing was created by the small manufacturing firm, which specializes in making composite components for formula racing cars.

"We were specifically looking at extremely inexpensive ways to make UAVs," said Mark Page, an aeronautical engineer who developed a flying wing for NASA before joining Swift as chief scientist. "The blended-wing body is extremely flat, and offers the opportunity for extremely low-cost manufacturing."

Last month, the two companies flew a larger Killer Bee with a 9-foot wingspan in test flights at Nevada's Creech Air Force Base. The bigger model can carry as much as 30 pounds of cameras, sensors and other equipment, compared with a maximum of 15 pounds for the smaller model.

That is a relatively small payload. But one of the advantages the Killer Bee offers is the ability to install different types of sensors -- and even small bombs -- on different aircraft flying together.

A squadron of Killer Bees could then be used to help provide perimeter security for military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, for protecting convoys and to fly surveillance over harbors and along borders.

A group of expendable Killer Bees also could fly specialized sensors into regions contaminated by nuclear, biological or chemical agents.

"If you talked about the market for small UAVs five years ago, people would have said this is a little niche and very few companies are going to make money at it," said Doug Berenson of DFI International, a defense consultant in Washington, D.C. "But with Afghanistan and Iraq, people and companies are more willing to experiment."

Networked together, a squadron of Killer Bees could have the same capability as an airplane-size robotic spy plane flying at 25,000 feet, said W.T. "Bill" Walker of Northrop Grumman's unmanned systems business in Rancho Bernardo.

By the end of this year, the companies hope to conduct a test flight with four Killer Bees. Each aircraft would fly autonomously, Walker said, using technology similar to the systems that Northrop developed for Global Hawk.

Walker declined to say exactly how much a squadron of Killer Bees would cost. But he said it should be possible for the Pentagon to buy 20 to 30 Killer Bees for roughly the same price as a medium-altitude tactical UAV.

That could be construed as a thinly veiled challenge to the Predator, developed by crosstown rival General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and the UAV that may rank as the dominant species in the food chain of robotic aircraft.

An Air Force spokesman said last year that Predators cost about $4.5 million apiece. The Air Force usually acquires a system, however, that includes four Predators, a ground control station, satellite terminals and other equipment.

The cost of such a package can range as high as $40 million, depending on the types of sensors and other equipment.

A key point, though, is that the Pentagon has actually spent hundreds of millions of dollars to buy Predator systems.

That is something that cannot be said for the Killer Bees, which have essentially been developed "on spec" by Northrop Grumman and Swift.

"We're chasing a low-altitude, long-endurance mission that is not in anybody's military requirements right now," said Walker, who is director of business development for the Killer Bee program.

But it's not an unrealistic goal, Northrop's Walker said.

He noted the First Marine Expeditionary Force has been using the ScanEagle, a 4-foot long UAV, in Iraq since 2004. The aircraft was developed jointly by The Insitu Group, a small aerospace firm in Bingen, Wash., and Boeing's unmanned systems business. The ScanEagle made its first autonomous test flight in 2002.

"Some of these systems probably do have the potential to change the market over time," said Berenson, the defense analyst. "You can envision a situation where the Army says, 'We're going to stop buying these UAVs that cost $4 million apiece and require 20 guys and 2 trucks to operate.' "

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