A UAV carrier – evolution or revolution?

A UAV carrier – evolution or revolution?

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

By Arie Egozi

Unmanned air vehicles (UAV) systems carrier? Well, not in the near future but while until some years ago, the idea would have resulted in wide smiles among the professionals. Now these smiles are  not so wide.

The aircraft carrier have proved their affectivity in many navies. The same happened with helicopter carriers . These floating air bases have a task in every major military conflict that erupts where nature put seas and oceans. In recent years navies have come up with an increasing number of operational demands to have UAS on their ships .

This is happening, and only recently I reported that Aeronautics, the Israeli UAV manufacturer, is offering the option to operate its Orbiter – 3 UAV from navy ships.

The Orbiter – 3 has a wingspan 0f 4.2 meters a max takeoff weight of 28kgs and an endurance of 7 hours. It carries a 5.5 kg payload.

In ground operations it is launched with a catapult and recovered by a combination of parachute and airbag. On ships a special net is used to catch it at the end of the mission.

The adaptation of the Orbiter-3 for sea operations comes three years after its smaller version the Orbiter- 2 has been adapted for that mission and is already in operation on Israeli navy’s vessels.

According to Aeronautics there is a growing demand for the operation of UAV from combat ships. This is in some navies the direct replacement of a deck operated helicopter. The aerial platform are needed mainly for early detection of “wave height” threats.

In recent years,  some companies in Israel including Aeronautics have invested in converting different types of manned helicopters for unmanned operation but these efforts were terminated mainly because of technical difficulties.

So far the UAV that can operate from ships are the relatively small ones. They usually are sent to the air with some type of catapult and land into a net.

But as the saying goes “Appetite comes with the eating”, the increased use of medium size and large size UAV and the amazing growth in their capabilities create an operational demand.

People in the industry envision a dedicated carrier with a deck that will enable large UAV like the Heron-1 to take off, probably with assisting systems, and also will facilitate the use of unmanned rotorcraft.