Page 113 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep-Oct 2022

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LAND WARFARE UNCREWED AERIAL SYSTEMS 113
As stated in March by then-Defence Minister Peter Dutton, the Integrator will provide “enhanced abilities to gather intel- ligence, undertake reconnaissance and surveillance missions, and acquire targets for weapons systems across the ADF.”
These enhancements will flow from what is a twin-boom, 2.5-metre-long monoplane utilising a centralised fuselage nacelle, straight wing assemblies spanning 4.8 metres, a rear-mounted Orbital 6.0 kW engine with a two-blade pusher propeller, a maximum take-off weight of 74.8 kg and a maxi- mum payload of 18 kg. This configuration provides 24-hour endurance and a 19,500 ft ceiling, cruise speed of 55 knots and a maximum horizontal speed of more than 90 knots.
In service since 2015 with the US Navy and US Marine Corps (known in both services as the Blackjack) and now also operational with Canada, Belgium, Poland, the Neth- erlands and Thailand, the RQ-21 is significantly lighter than the Shadow it is replacing (gross weight 208kg, 3.87 metre wingspan, endurance of approximately 8 hours), 18 of which were delivered to the ADF in 2011.
In turn these had replaced Insitu’s smaller ScanEagle UAS system, deployed by Army in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2012 but still operated on a trial basis by the RAN’s Nowra-based 822X Squadron.
While the Shadow air vehicle is rail-launched and requires a runway for landing, Integrator is launched from a pneu- matic catapult and uses a skyhook retrieval system instead of a prepared landing surface. This involves the aircraft flying into a vertical rope tensioned from a 30ft mast that contacts the leading edge of a wing and slides to a wingtip hook from which the aircraft is lowered to the ground.
Duggan stresses the Integrator’s flexibility, and describes it as a practical Brigade and Division-level UAS developed from ScanEagle – “the intention was to keep the no runway approach, keep a common ground control station, keep the same launch and recovery method,
but build a bigger aircraft that has
more capability.”
“The Integrator is called that be-
cause it was built to be very flexible.
It’s got multiple payload spaces and
the main payload bay is a large empty
space with direct integration to the CAPABILITY (IOC)” datalink and significant available
power. A wide range of payloads and
associated processing hardware can
be easily integrated in there without impacting the flight dynamics of the aircraft,” he states.
“It offers an open architecture capability enabling new software to be readily developed and integrated as ‘mission kits’ to work with new or existing payloads. That lets you rapidly add new capabilities without having to go through a whole range of additional flight testing or major integration work to put a new payload on the platform. Essentially you want to be able to quickly and cost-effectively fit the hard- ware and the software in there and make it work.”
AUSSIE INGENUITY
Peter Dutton’s remarks on enhanced intelligence surveil- lance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability reflect the man- dated requirement for the CM234 Spitfire camera gimbal developed by Melbourne-based Ascent Vision Technologies (AVT) to be incorporated in the ADF’s Integrators.
The Spitfire gimbal has been described by Brigadier James Allen, Director General Army Aviation Systems, as a genera- tional leap in optical camera sensor and image stabilisation technology that provides a day-and-night surveillance and
ABOVE LEFT: Twenty-four Integrator air vehicles, associated ground systems and integration services, are to be delivered under Project Land 129 Phase 3
“DEFENCE HAS YET TO DISCLOSE A TARGET DATE FOR INITIAL OPERATING
INSITU PACIFIC