Feature 5 | UNMANNED VEHICLES
France pursues maritime UAV
integration activity
France’s defence procurement authority, the Délégation Générale pour
l’Armement (DGA), is continuing to fund technology development and
ship/air interface demonstration work intended to pave the way for the
integration of maritime unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) aboard French
Navy warships.
D
CNS and Thales announced in
December 2008 that they had
been contracted by the DGA
to design and demonstrate a UAV deck
landing system. The three-year contract
calls for the design and demonstration of
an automatic take-off, landing and deck
landing system for a rotary-wing VTOL
(vertical takeoff and landing) UAV.
According to DCNS, the project aims
to provide reproducible, risk-controlled
demonstrations of deck take-offs and
landings in a range of environmental,
weather and sea state conditions, as
required for fully autonomous UAV
operation. Initial landing tests are
scheduled for 2009 with a view to
demonstrating fully autonomous deck
landing in high sea states on a French
Navy frigate in 2011. The DGA is funding development and ship/air interface demonstration work to pave the
DCNS and Thales have combined way for the integration of maritime UAVs aboard French Navy warships.
their expertise and experience for this
project and will develop the system under
a co-contracting agreement. Thales is for the DGA in 2005 with the support d’Appontage et de Décollage Automatique]
responsible for the landing system, the UAV of Boeing. Boeing will also be associated automatic deck landing and take-off
system and the trajectory control system. with this latest contract. system. A total of 40 automatic recoveries
DCNS is responsible for ship motion DCNS will draw on its experience in were performed.
prediction, the deck landing strategy and flight deck operations and a previous According to DCNS, the operation of
the mechanism for securing the UAV onto naval UAV integration study contract unmanned air systems at sea has hitherto
the flight deck. About a dozen small- and won in 2005. In October 2008, DCNS been restricted by severe limitations on
medium-size enterprises based in France demonstrated its capability in this area the safe operating envelope. It claims
will also contribute to the new-generation – and claimed a world first – when it that “experimental solutions available
UAV take-off and landing system. automatically recovered a lightweight to date have only worked reliably during
Thales will leverage its experience rotorcraft UAV on the flight deck of a daylight and in calm seas; [these are]
on tactical UAV programmes in the French frigate. severe limitations for systems that are
UK, including its automatic all-weather required to operate round the clock and
landing system for fixed-wing UAVs, Automatic recoveries in poor weather”.
which was successfully tested by the UK The trial, undertaken off Toulon over 9-10 SADA has been developed by DCNS
Ministry of Defence in mid-2008 as part October, saw a Schiebel Camcopter S-100 in order to address these limitations.
of the Watchkeeper programme. It will VTOL UAV automatically recovered The system uses an infrared sensor to
also draw on the results of the joint forces to the F70 frigate Montcalm using the accurately track the VTOL UAV while
VTOL UAV study contract undertaken DCNS-developed SADA [Système generating flight commands to adjust the
Warship Technology March 2009 29
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