FCAS/SCAF의 Remote Carrier

[백선호]

프랑스-독일-스페인의 FCAS/SCAF의 유무인 복합에서 무인 파트인 Remote Carrier는 소모성 Expendable Remote Carrier와 소모성이 아닌 비싼 Recoverable Remote Carrier로 나뉘는데 이 중에서 좀 더 미사일에 가까운 ERC는 MBDA가 만드네요.

ERC는 정찰이나 재밍에 쓰이는데 무게는 약 400 kg이고 임무 시간은 1시간이며 (애프터버너 켜지 않은) 전투기와 같이 다닐 수 있을 정도로 빨라야 할 것이라고 합니다.

그런데 이 ERC를 FCAS의 안에 넣고 출격할 것인지, 아니면 날개 아래에 달고 출격할 것인지는 아직 미정이라고 합니다.

생긴 것은 미국의 MALD를 닮았지만 280 파운드의 MALD보다는 훨씬 무겁게 (880 파운드) 만드네요.

https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/missile-defense-weapons/mbda-advances-expendable-remote-carrier-development

MBDA Advances Expendable Remote Carrier Development | Aviation Week Network

MBDA Advances Expendable Remote Carrier Development
Tony Osborne

June 26, 2023

MBDA concept FCAS
Credit: MBDA

Missile manufacturer MBDA is set to flight-test a 400-kg (880 lb.), 4-m uncrewed aircraft system as part of the demonstrator program for the European Future Combat Air System (FCAS).

As one of the companies in the remote carrier development pillar of FCAS, MBDA’s efforts are focused on what is increasingly being described as expendable remote carrier (ERC) platforms.

Pillar partner Airbus is leading on the development of larger recoverable remote carriers (RRC), while Spanish joint venture Satnus - made up of GMV, Sener Aeroespacial and Tecnobit-Grupo Oesía - is working on the algorithms and systems that will enable them both to be collaborative.

Both the ERC and RRC platforms will be demonstrated as part of Phase 1B and Phase 2 of the FCAS program, with flights of both expected to take place at the end of the decade, prior to FCAS moving into full-scale development around 2030.

Revealing details of the planned demonstrator during last week’s Paris Air Show, Jean Judde de Lariviere, head of FCAS business development at MBDA, said ERCs will provide a significant tactical advantage to the air forces that use them.

MBDA has opted for a long, thin, cruise-missile-like airframe with retractable wings, featuring intakes for the engine - likely a small, low-cost turbofan - embedded in the sides of the fuselage.

Designed to be modular, the ERCs are built to carry different payloads, such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors, relays, electronic warfare systems and jammers.

The ERC’s role is to ensure that the adversary “does not understand what we are doing,” de Lariviere said.

With these ERCs, “we are going to use electronic warfare to disturb [the adversary] … and use deception to hide the key elements of the air operations we are conducting,” he added.

MBDA is familiar with building long-range, expendable airframes through the development of cruise missiles, but advancing the ERC is challenged by the need for it to have a similar performance to the fighter aircraft alongside which they will be operating. They also need to be small and light enough to be launched from that fighter.

The demonstrator ERC is also expected to have a so-called 1-hr. “playtime” - or mission endurance - during which it will operate its various sensors.

“[The ERC] will need to have a wide envelope of operation,” said Grégoire Faron, FCAS program manager at MBDA France.

No decision has been made about whether the ERC will need to be launched from the fighter externally and internally, but that will be part of the discussion within the demonstrator program, Faron said. Other launch options could be from ground vehicles, warships, air-dropped from transport aircraft or even launched from RRCs.

Airbus officials believe remote carriers could be rapidly iterated and adapted to meet new, urgent threats, for which the fighter would require more time to be adapted.

“You can completely change the tactics with the mass provided by remote carriers, and the fact that it is uncrewed means you could take different type of risk profiles getting closer to a specific target or detection area,” Bruno Fichefeux, the head of FCAS at Airbus, told Aerospace DAILY.

[Black Knights (윤재산)]

conops가 먼진 몰겠지만 장비넣으면 임무시간 확보하기가 빡세지는데 엔진 만들기 쉽지않겠네요

[백선호]

오스트렐리아의 MQ-28 Ghost Bat는 싸게 만들기 위해서 소형 비즈니스 제트기의 엔진을 가져다 쓴다고들 추측합니다.

[엽군]

아시다시피 결국 기승전 -_- 엔진으로 흘러가는게;;; NGAD, LCAAT 모두에서 확인되는 상황입니다. LCAAT에서 사용되는 특정 엔진은 그렇게 작으면서 효율좋은 엔진은 우리도 못 만들어라는 것이 GE/PW 아저씨들 이야기라면서요? -_-;;;

[엽군]

소모성인데 너무 비싸고 무거운 것 아닌가 싶은데, 모르겠네요.