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Background
– Canadian Forces JUSTAS Competition – MALE UAVs |
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Overcompensating MALE? The Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAV
The HALE UAV Global Hawk may have triggered JUSTAS
but it was the more modest Medium Altitude, Long Endurance UAVs [1] that got things rolling. In 2002, the CF
leased an I-GNAT. This was followed by maritime trials, PLIX [2]
in 2003 with a CU-160 Eagle and ALIX on the east coast in 2004
with a CU-163 Altair. In both trials, leased
MALE UAVs were used.
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In contrast with HALE UAVs, the MALE field is a full one.
Part of the reason is a difference in origins. Global
Hawk was intended to replace U-2 strategic spyplanes. MALE UAVs, by contrast, spring from much less rarified
tactical surveillance
and targeting roles. Improved sensors and datalinks allow MALE UAVs to perform many
‘strategic’ roles. Compared with HALEs, MALEs tend to be relatively small, spindly, and simple. As a
result, more countries chanced a MALE program resulting in that fuller field.
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Being smaller has payoffs as a system. For example, a Predator’s Ground Control Station (right) and Primary Satellite Link (left) are
Hercules transportable. Global Hawk’s twin GCS [3] each require their own C-17 for air transport. But MALEs are not a poor man’s HALE.
Not only are MALEs very capable UAVs, when GCS and support are tallied into the costs, MALEs are anything but
cheap.
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[1] CF/DND sources tend to use MAE (Medium Altitude & Endurance) and MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance)
interchangeably. Convention dictates that I-GNAT is an MAE (its range limited by line-of-sight datalink) while
a SATCOM-equipped Predator is a MALE.
[2] PLIX stood for the ‘Pacific Littoral Integrated Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance
Experiment’, ALIX was its Atlantic equivalent. The Atlantic Littoral Integrated Intelligence Surveillance
Reconnaissance Experiment also involved the ACR CU-167
Silver Fox mini UAV.
[3] Each Global Hawk system consists of two RQ-4 UAV, a RD-2A Mission Control Element and a RD-2B Launch and
Recovery Element.
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Costs have to be measured in different ways. The CF has put a great deal of effort into training UAV flight
operators. As all are qualified pilots, there are no direct monetary savings (compared with manned
aircraft) but ‘pilots’ can work in shifts – to full exploit the endurance
of MALEs – and, whenever a UAV is lost, no operators are at risk. In view of cost and model selection,
a MALE UAV is the most likely outcome of the CF JUSTAS contest.