No ILA Berlin thread? Is anybody visiting? Quite a lot of interesting stuff from what I can see on Twitter. In the picture, an Airbus U145 (unmanned version of the H145 helicopter) equipped with Quantum System drone interceptors.
Airbus also presented the U760 "Ravenstorm", an unmanned loyal wingman/fighter drone inspired by the concept unveiled a few years ago. Looks like a big cousin of the Barracuda.
>>65224999>full sized chopper to carry a couple of kg worth of dronesWell at least they are trying, might even make sense if they are purely defensive.
>>65225009It's mostly meant to carry cargo, but they are experimenting with it being a drone carrier of sort. Not sure how useful it would be to launch interceptors, but maybe you could use it to extend the range of suicide drones?>With a Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW) of 3,800 kg, the U145 is being developed as a mission-agnostic solution for civil and military applications, primarily high-volume cargo supply. Its modular design supports expansion into roles like disaster management, firefighting, armed scouting, surveillance, drone mothership functionality for air launched effects, where Airbus is partnering with MBDA, as well as crewed-uncrewed teaming.
>>65225013Unmanned gas turbine transports make a lot of sense, the trick will be trying to make them cheap enough you can risk them on hot LZs.
>>65225022Parts commonality with the crewed version should help keep costs down, but indeed I wonder how much the drone-ing costs.
>>65225028When it doesn't need to be crash rated for crew and passengers I imagine you can pull out a lot of weight and use a smaller turbine which should cut costs.Might be worth ditching commonality for those savings.
MBDA presented Defendair, a palletised counter-drone system that combines a launcher carrying 24 DefendAir interceptor drones with a high-energy laser weapon.
Diehl and Polaris partnered up to offer a armed version of the latter's supersonic drone. I think stuff like pic related and >>65225002 could be really annoying when combined with a wave of kamikaze drones, to hunt interceptors or AEWACs.
>>65225048Now this is innovation.
>>65225048WE GOING FULL C&C
>The PULSE P19 is a propeller aircraft with an empty weight of 1,700 kilograms and a usable payload of up to 2,500 kilograms. It can be operated manned or unmanned, whereby the change of the operating mode in the finished system is to be possible by switch.>Maximum starting weight: 4,200 kg (military configuration)>Payload: up to 2,500 kg>Payload flexibility: 6 wing stations with NATO standard load points>Cruising speed: approx. 536 km/h (290 knots)>Maximum altitude: approx. 7,620 m (25,000 feet)>Endurance: approx. 11 hours (extensible to 18 hours by external additional tanks)>Range: 2,200 km (extensible to 3,700 km through external additional tanks)>Operation: manned/unmanned (changeover by switch)>Control: Mosaic-UXS software from Quantum Systems>The small multi-purpose aircraft PULSE P19 wants to be made a drone, explains Strobel, and refers to the problems to which MALE drones are exposed in current wars. These were too slow, too large, too sluggish and had no active repellents. “And we tried to answer that,” said Strobel. “We offer a higher speed and a fraction of the price so you can produce more of it for the same money.
>First flights of PULSE P19 are planned for the summer of 2027, initially manned because the approval is thus more quickly accessible in Germany.>“This plane should become a swarm hunter,” Strobel told Defence Network. The concrete scenario: A Shahed swarm attacks, the P19 rises autonomously and hunts the attackers with carried intercept drones.>Strobel: “We saw at NATO last year: When three Russian drones come, Eurofighters rise.” This approach is not expedient, Strobel thinks, and promises that the P19 “would once be tired with the left wing and they would be gone”.
Helsing presented an EW variant of its CA-1 Europa drone wingman.
Space company The Exploration Company unveiled their reusable rocket engine, called Storm:>Liquid Oxygen/Liquid Bio-methane>1,765kN / 180tf thrust (about 72% Raptor 3)>Full-flow staged combustion cycleApparently they are planning their own heavy lift space launcher, not just capsules and engines.
>>65227451>>65227452What is the black mockup meant to be? Taurus? Or is that a mockup of one of the ERAM missiles that Zone 5 is making? >>65227542Who? The EU or The Exploration Company?
>>65227561no clue. Probably some generic small cruise missile placeholder.
>>65227561>Who? The EU or The Exploration Company?TEC. They had a leak on their website recently:https://europeanspaceflight.com/the-exploration-company-is-developing-a-reusable-heavy-lift-rocket/There are some ESA studies on the matter but they are more about identifying the right players and letting the industry build it.
>>65227569Good on Europe for that than. It'll probably drive down the costs for heavy lift launches even further
>>65227451That looks pretty cool, but is there a real need for autonomous/manned cross-overs? I feel like there's little overlap between the kind of thing you'd want as a quick response unmanned vehicle and the kind of thing you'd want to stuff a human into, but I guess the only difference between a prop plane and a prop drone of that size is the pilot's seat so fuck it why not slap one in?
>>65227639I guess it makes it easier to operate in a mixed environment, say intercepting lost drones over Estonia, while you can send it unmanned in more dangerous situations.
Interceptor drone from Rafael.
Diehl is in talks with Fire Point to start producing the Flamingo cruise missile in Germany.
>>65229057Source? For subsonic cruise missile, it’s better to at least have a more optimized LO/VLO design instead of this v1 bare-bones. A simple redesign of the engine inlet would go a long way
>>65229132>Sourcehttps://www.ft.com/content/812b56ff-eb05-4294-9ad2-c9a1b8f1d343?syn-25a6b1a6=1I think they just want to help with the engine and guidance and hand it back to Ukraine. It's an extra factory in a safe place.
