Drone - US Navy velger system - AW&ST

General Atomics Claims ‘Huge Advantage’ Over Big Rivals For MQ-25 James Drew In California’s High Desert region, straddled between Palmdale and Victorville, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) has been developing what could become the U.S. Navy’s first large, carrier-based UAV. A World War II-era Army airfield and former McDonnell Douglas radar cross-section test facility, Gray Butte is one of two local flight operations centers where GA-ASI develops and tests its latest products; the other is nearby El Mirage Field. A dry, isolated place, Gray Butte airfield was where the company’s turbofan-powered Predator C “Avenger” first took flight on April 4, 2009. Nine years later, Gray Butte is supporting development of a completely new member of the Avenger family, a first-of-its-kind aerial tanker for the Navy’s carrier fleet. One of three air vehicle designs competing for the Navy’s multibillion-dollar MQ-25 Stingray program, GA-ASI has invested in a full-scale engine test stand to validate performance models rather than constructing a full-scale prototype. General Atomics proposes massive whale-body Avenger derivative for MQ-25 Full-scale testing of PW815 turbofan with custom inlet and exhaust now underway The Navy is seeking an aircraft that can, at a minimum, offload 14,000 lb. of fuel to receiver aircraft at a range of 500 nm from an aircraft carrier at sea and relieve the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet from the “buddy tanking” mission. General Atomics believes its design, when armed with the Navy’s Cobham drogue aerial refueling pod, can not only meet that baseline requirement for fuel offload and range, but even surpass the Navy’s higher, undisclosed “objective requirements.” The company’s MQ-25 outwardly resembles the Avenger, with a similar size and shape. But the air vehicle has been totally reworked to meet the Navy’s demanding requirements for carrier suitability and aerial refueling. Instead of operating from 3,000-6,000-ft. land-based runways, the aircraft must withstand the shock of a catapult launch and arrested landing on the flight deck. Along with being engorged for fuel capacity and structurally reinforced compared to the Avenger, GA-ASI has shortened, strengthened and added more surface area to the wing. It has also quadrupled the single-engine aircraft’s power, trading the Avenger’s Pratt & Whitney Canada PW545B for the newly certified, 16,000-lb.-thrust PW815.

GA-ASI’s high-wing, V-tail MQ-25 Stingray will be equipped with a Navy-furnished aerial refueling pod and sensor ball for “light” intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Credit: GA-ASI

In an exclusive interview with Aviation Week in mid-March, GA-ASI President David Alexander expressed confidence that the company’s proposal for MQ-25 will exceed the Navy’s performance requirement for fuel offload and range, as well as the objective delivery schedule. To validate this claim, the company is ready to fire up the full-scale engine test stand at Gray Butte, which incorporates GA-ASI’s customized MQ-25 engine inlet and exhaust duct. Alexander confirms that the company has taken delivery of the Pratt & Whitney PW815 engine for ground static testing. In late March, the company was due to light the propulsion system and begin running it through cycles. The tests begin with ground throttle and will eventually work up to full thrust. This is a major risk-reduction effort that will allow GA-ASI to quickly and confidently move into full-scale development, if selected. “It’s a completely instrumented test stand so we can validate our models and our performance,” Alexander says. “The engine’s there, the trailer’s there, the inlet is complete, and the duct is going on.” These engine tests will follow deck-handling demonstrations performed with a company-owned Avenger as a surrogate platform. These land-based trials validated GA-ASI’s gesture-recognition technology that enables the aircraft to navigate around the flight deck and hook into the catapult launcher based on hand and wand signals.

General Atomics has been conducting flight-deck handling with an Avenger surrogate aircraft as well as full-scale PW815 engine testing at its Gray Butte facility near Palmdale, California. Credit: GA-ASI

The MQ-25, originally known as the Carrier-Based Aerial-Refueling System (CBARS), will deliver the Navy’s first operational drone designed to operate alongside manned aviation assets as part of the carrier air wing. The program emerged from the ashes of the now-canceled Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) program, which favored a long-range, survivable surveillance and strike platform instead of a tanker. General Atomics has been chasing the program through its various instantiations for the past eight or nine years, originally proposing the “Sea Avenger,” which could have carried weapons, sensors or an aerial refueling pod. The Uclass requirements for surveillance and strike might have favored Northrop Grumman or perhaps Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, but GA-ASI now believes it is the one to beat for MQ-25. “In Uclass, we had a specific design in mind [called Sea Avenger]. When the Navy shifted over to CBARS a couple of years ago, we decided to optimize its performance for the long-endurance tanking mission,” Alexander says. “We looked across a range of potential designs, and what we’re offering, we believe, is a sweet spot that gives you the most fuel, for the most range, within the given spot factor on the aircraft carrier. It’s the best bang for the spot.” General Atomics, Boeing Phantom Works and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works each responded to Naval Air Systems Command’s (Navair) Oct. 4, 2017, request for proposals for the development of MQ-25. Each put forward radically different aircraft designs, and the Navy is expected to choose one in August. The fixed-price development contract will initially deliver four engineering and manufacturing development models (EMD 1-4), but the fleet could grow to as many as 72 operational aircraft, if MQ-25A transitions into production.

The Navy wants to integrate an unmanned aerial refueling system into the carrier air wing to assume the “buddy tanking” tanking duties from the F/A-18 Super Hornet. Credit: GA-ASI

Alexander says if the Navy wants to move fast with a superior design, GA-ASI is the right pick. The privately held drone manufacturer has, over the past 25 years, produced 23 unique aircraft configurations, beginning with the GNAT-750 and most recently, the MQ-9B “SkyGuardian” being adopted by the UK. In 2016 alone, the company flew three new models: the SkyGuardian, and extended-range versions of the Predator B/MQ-9 and Predator C/Avenger. “We are the rapid-capability company when you look at this competition, and being privately held is a big piece of that,” Alexander says. “Those big corporations can have deep pockets when they want to, but they don’t typically move quick, like we do. Our agility, to move quick and be focused, gives us a competitive edge.” Poway, California-based GA-ASI is going up against the world’s largest defense companies, with Lockheed recording net sales in 2017 of $51 billion and Boeing Defense, Space and Security generating $23 billion in revenue. But Alexander says being privately held gives his team a “huge advantage” over the bigger players, since it is more agile and focused with its internal resources. “We are the rapid-capability competitor in this fight,” Alexander says. “We’ve proven it on Predator A, Predator B, Gray Eagle, Gray Eagle Extended Range, MQ-9 Block 5 and now the type-certified SkyGuardian. We’ve got over 70 aircraft airborne every second of every day. In fact, we’ve recently hit 5 million flight hours.” Although developing what is essentially a utility aircraft for aerial refueling was not an attractive enough opportunity for Northrop Grumman, which withdrew from the race, GA-ASI CEO Linden P. Blue said in an interview last year that this is the type of program his company excels at, and the preparatory work is being been done now to ensure its Stingray can move through deployment “faster than anybody else” (AW&ST July 10-13, 2017, p. 39). Alexander says MQ-25 would be the company’s first sea-based, navalized platform and is a “very, very important” program to win. Much of the software and subsystems for the high-wing, V-tail aircraft are being drawn directly from GA-ASI’s MQ-9 and Avenger product lines to reduce risk and speed up development. “We’re leaning forward now and are going to hit the bricks running,” Alexander says. “We’re completely confident we can meet the Navy’s time line with margin.” He would not say how quickly the company could have its first EMD aircraft in the air, since that is competitively sensitive information. The engineering and design work would be done at the company’s facilities in San Diego/Poway and final integration and testing will take place at Grey Butte and other facilities in the Palmdale area. Developmental and operational testing will be conducted by Navair at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, and the Naval Air Warfare Center’s aircraft division in Lakehurst, New Jersey. For a company its size, GA-ASI has assembled a formidable industry team. While its competitors have refused to name any of their teammates, General Atomics made a splash in February by releasing a list of its top-tier suppliers. The headliner is Boeing Autonomous Systems, which is actually allied against Boeing Phantom Works. The autonomous systems group brings a wealth of expertise in autonomous air, sea and space vehicles, from ScanEagle to Echo Voyager, Phantom Express and the X-37B. General Atomics says it “completely trusts” Boeing and its internal firewall to keep the two teams separate. “I can guarantee you it’s squared away,” Alexander says. Other partners include Pratt & Whitney of East Hartford, Connecticut, and its Canadian turbofan group. Pratt is expert at certifying military engines through the U.S. Defense Department and will lead that effort for the PW815, which powers Gulfstream’s new G600 business jet. UTC Aerospace Systems’ Goodrich group will supply the landing gear, and GKN Aerospace’s Fokker will provide the tailhook. L3 Technologies brings wideband satellite and line-of-sight communications technologies; BAE Systems delivers software for mission planning and cybersecurity; and Rockwell Collins adds advanced navigation technologies, including its TruNet ARC-210 networked communications airborne radio. This team is one reason GA-ASI is so confident heading into the downselection against Boeing and Lockheed. “That team did not happen overnight. It was a lot of hard work,” Alexander says. “They’re the best-in-breed and we’re super-proud to have them all on our side.” If GA-ASI can snatch Stingray from the jaws of Boeing and Lockheed, it will have graduated from humble drone manufacturer to being one of the world’s preeminent aerospace companies. This will be the most complex machine GA-ASI has ever built, for one of the toughest operating environments. “I feel pretty strongly that we are in the driver’s seat,” Alexander says. “We’re already rolling, so we’ll be hitting the bricks running the day the hammer drops.”