Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap 2005-2030 - Federation of ...

UAS ROADMAP 2005
TABLE 2.7-1. CLASSES OF WORLDWIDE MILITARY RECONNAISSANCE UAS.
Tactical Specialized Endurance
Country Over-the-Hill Close Range Maritime Penetrating Medium Rng Long Rng
United States Dragon Eye Hunter Pioneer J-UCAS Predator Global Hawk
FPASS, Raven Shadow Fire Scout
France Tracker Crecerelle
CL-289 Eagle 1
MCMM
Neuron MALE
Germany Luna Brevel Seamos CL-289 Eurohawk
United
Kingdom
Phoenix
Hermes 180
J-UCAS Hermes 450
Italy
Mirach 26
Mirach 150 Predator
Falco
Neuron
Israel Scout/Searcher Hermes 450
Heron
Russia
Shmel/Yak-61 VR-3 Reys
VR-2 Strizh
Systems not yet fielded are italicized.
2.7.2 Export Policy
The sale of U.S.-manufactured UAS to foreign militaries offers the triple advantages of 1) supporting the
U.S. industrial base for UAS, 2) potentially lowering the unit costs of UAS to the Services, and 3)
ensuring interoperability by equipping allied forces with mutually compatible systems. Balanced against
these advantages, however, are two areas of concern. The first concern is the potential for transfer of
critical technology. This is mitigated by export license reviews and establishment of UAS
disclosure/reliability policy guidance. The second concern is that an UA capable of carrying a given
weight of reconnaissance sensors and data links on a round trip could be modified to carry an equal
weight of advanced weapons twice that distance on a one-way mission. As the range, accuracy, and
payload capacity of UA have overtaken those of cruise missiles and some ballistic missiles, controlling
their proliferation has become a concern. UA fall under the terms of the Missile Technology Control
Regime (MTCR), an informal and voluntary political agreement among 33 countries to control the
proliferation of unmanned rocket and aerodynamic systems capable of delivering weapons of mass
destruction (see Table 2.7-2). MTCR makes no distinction in terms of payload (weaponized vs. nonweaponized).
Predator, Predator B, and Global Hawk fall under Category I definitions (vehicles capable
of carrying 500 kg of payload to a range of 300 km) of the MTCR and therefore are subject to a strong
presumption of denial for export under the existing agreement. The U.S. Defense and State Departments
drafted an updated interim policy to the MTCR in late 2001 to allow UA (including J-UCAS) exports to
selected countries on a case-by-case basis. The policy was used effectively to facilitate the sale of a nonweaponized
Predator system to Italy in 2001.
SECTION 2 - CURRENT UA PROGRAMS
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