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Monday, 5 July 2004 128/2004



TENDERS CALLED FOR TACTICAL UNMANNED  SURVEILLANCE PLANES

Defence  will  spend  $100-$150  million  to  acquire  a  fleet  of  tactical  unmanned   surveillance  planes  under  a  Request  for  Tender  to  be  released  later  this  month,   Defence Minister Robert Hill announced today.

Senator  Hill  said  the  aircraft  would  be  capable  of  providing  capabilities  such  as   airborne  surveillance,  reconnaissance  and  target  acquisition  in  support  of  land   operations.

“The  unmanned  aircraft  will  be  equipped  with  an  integrated  sensor  capable  of   collecting video and still images by day and night,” Senator Hill said.

“While the aircraft will operate autonomously, it will be remotely commanded and  monitored from a ground station where the crew will process the imagery collected  from the aircraft’s integrated sensor.

Whilst this will be the first mature Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system acquired  by  the  Australian  Defence  Force,  Senator  Hill  said  a  trial  of  the  small  Aerosonde   UAV  in  the  Solomon  Islands  last  year  had  proved  the  importance  of  such   capabilities for the ADF of the future.  Additionally, the tactical UAV system would  be complemented by a larger high-altitude strategic UAV, such as the Global Hawk,  as foreshadowed in the Defence Capability Plan.

Senator Hill said the new capability would be operated by the Australian Army, with  a  new  Surveillance  and  Target  Acquisition  Regiment  to  be  formed  and  located  at   Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane.  The new regiment would also include the existing  131  Surveillance  and  Target  Acquisition  Battery,  together  with  a  Combat  Support   Services Battery.

Senator Hill said the project had attracted worldwide interest, with suitable systems  currently  in  service  with  the  armed  forces  of  many  countries,  including  the  US,    Israel, Canada, South Africa and several European countries.

“Australian  industry  is  set  to  benefit  from  the  project,  through  partnership  in  the   international  bids  expected  from  France,  Israel,  South  Africa  and  United  States”,   Senator Hill said.

Tactical  unmanned  aerial  vehicles  are  available  in  both  fixed  and  rotary  wing   configurations  and  can  be  launched  and  recovered in  a  variety  of  ways,  including   conventional  wheeled  take-off  and  landing,  vertical  take-off  and  landing,  catapult   launch and parachute recovery.

The  aircraft  wingspans  are  typically  up  to  10  metres  and  they  will  have  payload   capacities of up to 150kg.  The aircraft will have a radius of action of at least 150km  and  up  to  24  hours  endurance.

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Media contacts  Catherine Fitzpatrick (Senator Hill) 02 6277 7800 0405 351 245

Defence Media Liaison  02 6265 3343 0408 498 664



www.defence.gov.au

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The  Request  for  Tender  will  be  issued  at  the  end  of  July,  with  bids  due  by   November.  Selection of the successful tenderer is expected to occur by May 2005.

Last  Friday,  Senator  Hill  visited  General  Atomics  flight  operations  facility  at  Palm   Dale,  south  of  Los  Angeles,  where  he  observed  test  flights  of  General  Atomics’   Predator and Mariner UAVs.

Last year, Senator Hill also inspected Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk UAV.

