Australia buys unmanned missile attack aircraft

AUSTRALIA is set to buy a number of missile-equipped unmanned "hunter-killer" aircraft to attack insurgent targets in Afghanistan. The drones, or unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), will carry guided missiles and bombs and will provide a major capability boost to Australian forces. Special forces troops will be able to identify targets and call in their own remote controlled UCAV to fire Hellfire air-to-ground missiles, or precision laser guided bombs, against insurgent strongholds. At present the troops have to call up coalition manned or unmanned aircraft to conduct such attacks. Unmanned aircraft have been used extensively by US forces since 9/11 and in 2002 a Predator killed Osama Bin laden's top man in Yemen.

The son of Predator, known as Reaper, is one of the main contenders for the Australian contract. But the remote-controlled aircraft have also been involved in a number of accidental civilian deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unmanned technology is leaping ahead and pilotless helicopters such as Northrop Grumman's Fire Scout are already operating from US warships. The first unmanned fighter jet will soon take off and land on a US aircraft carrier and this year the US Air Force will buy more unmanned than manned aircraft.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has angered the US Navy with a decision, taken last week by the National Security Committee of Cabinet, to abandon plans to join a program to develop the world's first strategic "national security" UAV. Instead of buying the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk it will opt for the much smaller UCAV that can fire missiles and undertake surveillance. Leading contenders would be the US-built General Atomics Reaper and the newly launched twin-engine Mantis, from the British firm BAE Systems. Well-placed sources say the US Navy is bitterly disappointed that the Rudd Government has decided against investing $300 million to join the development phase of the so-called Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (BAMS) project.

The US has been waiting for years for a decision from Canberra and the Global Hawk has made 11 demonstration flights to Edinburgh in South Australia to show off its wares. The aircraft was put to good use during California's bushfires last year and it has become the most cost-effective method of keeping watch over vast areas of ocean. The future of our unmanned aircraft program is uncertain following a decision last December to cancel another program to buy tracking and targeting UAVs. That contract was won by US giant Boeing, but was complicated by the army's decision to modify the system. It is understood a new tender will be released at next week's Australian International Air Show at Avalon near Melbourne. Boeing has been leasing small Scan Eagle spy drones to Australian forces in Iraq and Afghanistan under a $40 million deal.

Posted in: Australia,Missile,UAV