Page 26 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2019

EW and UAS
AUS MADE
EWEN LEVICK | SYDNEY
Of the many companies competing in the UAS space in Australia, one of the most recognisable names is Melbourne- based SYPAQ.
Army is refreshing its technology in smaller batches more quickly with a Wasp replacement on horizon under Land 129 Phase 4B.
The renaissance of Australian aerospace engineering
THE company has now won four contracts for innovative new UAS technologies, including Corvo X (targeting the Wasp replacement under Land 129 Phase 4B) and the Precision Payload Delivery System (PPDS), a logistics drone.
UAS General Manager Sensors and Sur- veillance Ross Osborne told ADM that de- velopment of the Corvo X is on track as the platform heads for a capability demonstra- tion this month.
“We completed a Phase 1 Innovation Hub activity last year, and out the back of that we secured a second contract with Army to con- tinue development through a Phase 2 Inno- vation contract, which is due for capability demonstration in May this year,” Osborne said to ADM. “If successful, we’d then move into Phase 3, prototype system develop- ment, and through the other Innovation Hub standard phases of work. The ultimate goal, of course, is Land 129 Phase 4B.”
The challenge set forth by Army for Phase 4B is to create an SUAS that improves on Wasp, particularly in terms of allowing for
greater operator concealment in a range of different environments.
“If you’re in a hasty mission profile where bullets are flying, then needing to stand up to launch your Wasp isn’t great,” LTCOL Keirin Joyce, Program Manager UAS for Army, said to ADM. “So one of the things we’ve asked them to do is come up with in- novative ways to make take-off and landing much more tactical.
“One of the other constraints on Wasp is if you want to use its maximum range, you have to set up a fairly large tripod with a directional antenna. We want to see our companies come up with clever ways to not have to do that.”
This has lead SYPAQ, along with other companies, to pursue a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability.
“A capability like Wasp but in a VTOL con- figuration opens a lot of operational potential,” Osborne said. “Reducing all the signatures of the aircraft [compared to Wasp] is also very im- portant – that’s acoustic and electronic.
“The environmental requirements, how- ever, are a huge challenge. Army obviously
would like to be able to use these systems whenever they need to, which doesn’t al- ways line up with nice weather. Flying in high winds and recovering into water, those are the tough requirements.”
“One of the challenges that most tactical systems have at the moment is that if you’re in an environment where people can hide, electro-optics and infrared can only get you so far,” LTCOL Joyce added. “So we’ve also asked for advanced payloads - miniaturised EW for geolocation, synthetic aperture ra- dar and shortwave infrared, radar for foli- age penetration.”
Trade offs
The Wasp replacement must also hit the right balance between endurance and speed. LTCOL Joyce once told ADM that among the SUAS class, few systems operate at a speed necessary to support vehicles on the move: “Those that claim they can have a power endurance that would require recov- ery of the system every 20 minutes in order to change battery.”
26 | May 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
DEFENCE