Who will choose the Navy between Leonardo’s Awhero, Blackshape Prime and Boeing ScanEagle?
According to rumors of Rid magazine, the Italian Navy could purchase 14 remotely piloted systems, choosing between Blackshape Prime, Boeing ScanEagle and Leonardo's Awhero
The Italian Navy is on the hunt for drones and UAVs.
As revealed yesterday Pietro Batacchi, director of Rid , "the Navy has an acquisition program for 14 unmanned systems, among the candidates the Boeing ScanEagle and the Ruav Leonardo Awhero, already tested on the MM units, but also a Vtol variant. (Vertical Take Off and Landing) unmanned (or optionally piloted) of the ultra light sporty Blackshape Prime, capable of operating both from continuous bridge ships and discontinuous bridge ships and equipped with modular pods for a variety of missions ".
Here are all the details on the three remotely piloted systems vying for the Navy program, as rumored by Rid .
LEONARDO'S HELICOPTER-DRONE AWHERO
Awhero is a remotely piloted system, capable of carrying out civil and military, land and naval, day and night missions. Launched in 2012 as part of a joint venture with IDS SpA, Sistemi Dinamici SpA, this program was fully acquired by Leonardo in 2016.
As the former Finmeccanica explains on his website, “this is the only Ruas (Rotary Unmanned Air System) in its weight class designed with the same safety concepts applied to helicopters. The high reliability – also due to the redundancy of the systems – and maintainability ensure low operating costs. The Awhero can operate from the deck of a ship alongside conventional helicopters or planes ”.
Awhero is designed for a broad spectrum of land and naval activities such as Istar (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) missions, troop protection, combat support, resupply, exclusive economic zone control, maritime security operations and radio link for communications also in favor of other remotely piloted systems.
In addition, the remotely piloted helicopter can operate in a combined manner with conventional helicopters and aircraft from a base or unprepared areas. As Leonardo points out, “in cooperation with the AW159 and / or AW101 helicopters, Awhero significantly improves their operational effectiveness during naval missions”.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BOEING SCANEAGLE
The ScanEagle unmanned aircraft is made by Boeing and the Insitu Group. As stated on the website of the American defense and aerospace giant, it is 122 centimeters long and with a wingspan of about 3 meters. In its current version (A-15) it can carry out missions of over 15 hours, but in the models under development the autonomy will be more than doubled. It is equipped with a stabilized inertial guide camera, which allows you to easily locate both stationary and moving targets. Take off using a pneumatic catapult and carry out pre-programmed missions using GPS.
The ScanEagle, developed in collaboration between Boeing and InSitu, is a small, low cost, autonomous UAV (Unmanned Vehicle Vehicle) for long duration flights. The ScanEagle system, to cope with ISR missions, can be equipped with a stabilized turret equipped with a high resolution electro-optical (EO) or infrared (IR) camera, also combined.
ALREADY IN SERVICE AT THE NAVY
As recalled by AresDifesa , "the Uav ScanEagle system is currently in use in 24 countries, including Italy where it is in service with the Italian Navy, which uses it on board the units of the Naval Squad, with which it has already collected over 1,000 .000 operational flight hours. "
THE PRIME BLACKSHAPE
Finally, the Blackshape Prime is also in contention for the second Rid Navy program. It is an ultralight aircraft built by Blackshape, the aeronautical division of the Angel Group, a holding headed by the Apulian industrialist Vito Pertosa. Since 2018 Blackshape is also Boeing's partner for civilian and military pilot training.
As Pietro Batacchi recalled on Rid , “the aircraft of the Apulian company has already been tested in an experimental campaign on the Cavour in 2014 ″.
"The partnership with the Navy, which began in 2013 in the area of surveillance, is significant for an excellent relationship that we hope will continue: the benefits and significant savings for the armed force have already been demonstrated", CEO Luciano Belviso told Quotidiano.net a year ago. “We are currently also collaborating with the experimental flight department of the Air Force in Pratica di Mare, where we have found professionalism of the highest level. But 90% of our turnover is achieved abroad, from Singapore to Australia and from South Africa to Europe: we want to continue to characterize ourselves for this ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/chi-scegliera-la-marina-militare-fra-awhero-di-leonardo-blackshape-prime-e-boeing-scaneagle/ on Wed, 14 Jul 2021 07:07:58 +0000.