Raytheon unveils missile decoy

[unhappycamper]

Raytheon unveils missile decoy
By B. Poole - Tucson Citizen
Posted : Tuesday Mar 17, 2009 19:39:09 EDT

Raytheon Missile Systems and the Air Force on Monday announced the delivery of an unmanned drone that is expected to keep pilots safer.

The Miniature Air Launched Decoy, MALD for short, is a 10-foot-long, 250-pound missile-like craft that can fly into enemy territory and trigger radar installations, making them visible so they can be destroyed.

“This program is very important because it replaces manned aircraft that would fly into harm’s way,” said Ken Watson, the Air Force program director for the drone.

The craft mimics the radar signature of an F-4G “Wild Weasel,” a fighter that has long been used to trigger radar. The idea is that the unmanned craft “lights up” the radar, which can then be destroyed by other aircraft, Watson said.

The first of 154 units came off the assembly line Monday, and another contract for 154 is in negotiations, said Scott Muse, Raytheon’s program manager for the project.


Rest of article at: http://airforcetimes.com/news/2009/03/gns_raytheon_missle_decoy_031709/



uhc comment: Meet the $125,000 MALD:

http://www.vectorsite.net/twuav_06.html




NORTHROP GRUMMAN MINIATURE AIR-LAUNCHED DECOY (MALD)

* The resounding success of decoys in the Gulf War led to heightened interest by the US armed services in the concept, and in 1996 the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), with USAF encouragement and cooperation, initiated a competition for a "Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD)" demonstrator.

A number of aerospace firms responded. One strong contender for the award was a decoy version the Lockheed Martin Vought "Low-Cost Autonomous Attack System (LOCAAS)", a small anti-armor cruise missile with search-and-destroy capabilities then in development. However, Ryan, which had been bought out by Northrop Grumman in 1999, won the DARPA MALD award with an entirely new design.

The Northrop Grumman "ADM-160A", as its MALD demonstrator was eventually designated, was a slender UAV powered by a tiny Hamilton Sundstrand TJ-50 turbojet. The demonstrator was 2.3 meters (7 feet 7 inches) long, had pop-out wings with a span of 65 centimeters (25 inches), and a launch weight of 40 kilograms (88 pounds). Three of them could be carried on a single stores pylon using a triple ejector rack. The MALD demonstrator was designed to fly at high subsonic speed for about 20 minutes. It used a programmable waypoint guidance system with GPS navigation, and had a programmable active radar enhancement payload that in principle could allow it to impersonate almost any combat aircraft. Cost estimates for a production version were about $30,000 USD each. The USAF planned to buy about 1,500 MALDs, and the US Army and the British also expressed interest in the weapon.

* The MALD program seemed to be going well, with initial test flights in 1999, and received very good press. Another demonstrator program was spun off the MALD effort, in the form of the "Miniature Air Launched Interceptor (MALI)", a supersonic version of the AGM-160 intended to shoot down cruise missiles. It featured a new, uprated Hamilton Sundstrand TJ-120 engine, streamlined nose, and wings with greater sweep. An initial MALI test flight took place in late 2001.

There was also interest in a ground-launched version of MALI with a solid-rocket booster; an expendable jammer variant of the MALD, known as "MALD-J"; and a light cruise missile derivative of the MALD. However, much to almost everyone's surprise, the MALD demonstrator program was cancelled in January 2002 before it had run its course. DARPA, which only runs relatively brief investigation programs, had turned over the effort to the Air Force, and then the program ran into what appears to have been dissatisfactions and second thoughts. The Air Force decided that the MALD demonstrator didn't have the range or endurance to be the decoy the service wanted, and would not have been a good platform for other roles. That meant committing to a more sophisticated and expensive decoy. However, the MALI demonstration program was completed, with a MALI demonstrator achieving Mach 1.1 during test flights in late 2002.

The USAF restarted the competition, specifying a new small decoy with an endurance of 45 minutes or more at 10,670 meters (35,000 feet) and 20 minutes or more at 915 meters (3,000 feet). Of course the service realized that a more capable decoy was going to be more expensive, and so the service dictated an absolute cost ceiling of $125,000 USD per item, along with a cost target of $75,000 USD per unit for a buy of 1,500 MALDs.

[bananas]

1. photo

[cboy4]

2. Very cool...glad to hear of it

:thumbsup: