USAF Hunter-Killer
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Hunter-Killer is an unofficial project name based upon an ''
Aviation Week & Space Technology ''Aviation Week & Space Technology'', often abbreviated ''Aviation Week'' or ''AW&ST'', is the flagship magazine of the Aviation Week Network, a division of Informa. The weekly magazine is available in print and online, reporting on the aeros ...
'' article. The U.S. Air Force's Hunter-Killer program was a tactical
unmanned combat air vehicle An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), also known as a combat drone, fighter drone or battlefield UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance and carries aircra ...
s (UCAV) procurement program. The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, a variant of the
MQ-1 Predator The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the Predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ...
won the project and was deployed in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
. The term “HK” or Hunter-Killer was used in the 1984 film ''
The Terminator ''The Terminator'' is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, written by Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd and produced by Hurd. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in t ...
'' to describe autonomous, twin-ducted fan UAS capable of identifying and destroying targets.


History

This is the U.S. Air Force program for which several companies have developed vehicles. Although the J-UCAS concept is a long way from the early idea of a "reusable cruise missile", that notion is apparently alive and well.


Lockheed Martin Minion

In September 2003, an announcement was made that Lockheed Martin's "
Skunk Works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified research and developme ...
" was developing a stealthy air-launched UCAV named "''Minion''". Its
radar cross section Radar cross-section (RCS), denoted σ, also called radar signature, is a measure of how detectable an object is by radar. A larger RCS indicates that an object is more easily detected. An object reflects a limited amount of radar energy b ...
is smaller than that of the F/A-22 Raptor (return smaller than a marble) and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Details released describe it as having a launch weight of and able to carry a reconnaissance payload, a jammer system, a high-power microwave weapon, or four GPS-guided small-diameter bombs. It could also be used as a decoy, though it would need to have radar-enhancement payload as it is described as extremely stealthy. Range is given as up to 1,000 nautical miles (1,850 kilometers). Two would be carried into combat by a single
strike fighter In current military parlance, a strike fighter is a multirole combat aircraft designed to operate both as an attack aircraft and as an air superiority fighter. As a category, it is distinct from fighter-bombers, and is closely related to the co ...
such as a
Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is an American Twinjet, twin-engine, Jet engine, jet-powered, Night fighter, all-weather, supersonic Stealth aircraft, stealth fighter aircraft. As a product of the United States Air Force's Advanced Ta ...
, with one under each wing, and launched from standoff distances to attack heavily defended targets. In practice, two strike fighters are expected to be used, launching four Minions, with the pilot of one aircraft watching out for threats while the other directs the UCAVs over a line-of-sight communications link. After the mission, the Minions would return to base and land conventionally on retractable landing gear. A vague picture released with the announcement showed the Minion to have a certain broad resemblance to various air-launched cruise missiles, such as the Anglo-French Matra-BAe Dynamics
APACHE The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
/ Storm Shadow or the US AGM-158A Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), which is also built by Lockheed Martin and may have some degree of commonality with the Minion. The picture showed the Minion to have a spikelike, square-sided fuselage, with pop-out wings and twin tailfins, with the engine inlet just forward of the tailfins and the exhaust just behind the tailfins. Both the intake and the exhaust are shielded by triangular covers. Despite the stealthiness of the Minion, Lockheed Martin is designing it for low cost, to be substantially cheaper than the $400,000 JASSM. Rumors about a Skunk Works project involving a cruise-missile-like UCAV had been circulating for a year or two before the announcement. There were also very vague and unconfirmed rumors that the Minion was used in an operational evaluation during the
invasion of Iraq An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives ...
in the spring of 2003.


Other designs

Somewhat more visibly, in the summer of 2004, the Air Force, in need of a less expensive short-term UCAV solution with a focus on endurance, opened up a competition for a "Hunter-Killer" UCAV. Specifications include: * An operating altitude of . * Endurance from 16 to 30 hours or more carrying a warload of , in specific six guided bombs. * Fit of SAR/MTI or EO/ IR sensors and laser target designator. The Hunter-Killer would be capable of performing surveillance or reconnaissance missions along with its active combat role. Cost specifications were given as US$10 million per aircraft and $30 million per "system", with each system including two aircraft and the necessary support gear. The Hunter-Killer program has attracted considerable interest and a number of interesting proposals. Northrop Grumman has come up with two concepts. The first is the "Model 395", a militarized version of the Scaled Composites Proteus modified to a pure UAV configuration, with a sensor turret under the nose and a SAR-MTI pod under the forward fuselage, and carrying munitions on the centerline, for example tandem triple racks to carry six munitions. With reduced fuel, it could even carry a single
bunker buster A bunker buster is a type of munition that is designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground, such as military bunkers. Armor piercing shells Germany Röchling shells were bunker-busting artillery shells, developed ...
. At maximum takeoff weight, it would have a ceiling of . The other Northrop Grumman proposal is effectively a half-weight Global Hawk, the "Model 396", with a wingspan of , a length of , and a gross weight of , half that of the Global Hawk. It would be powered by a single Pratt & Whitney 545 bizjet turbofan. General Atomics offered the turboprop-powered Predator B for the role. Aurora Flight Sciences and Israel Aircraft Industries are offering an armed Heron II. Lockheed Martin has responded to the Air Force request but has been keeping quiet about their proposals.
Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
did not submit a proposal, stating the company was busy with other UCAV work.
Raytheon Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with Unite ...
proposed a sixth option, whereby they would offer a combination of sensors, communications systems, and other mission-related systems as a package, and then choose an airframe at a later date. Raytheon's perspective was that, as long as it performs to a minimum set of specifications, the individual airframe is less important than the systems it will carry. The Air Force wanted to field the Hunter-Killer by 2007 and may order up to 60 machines. The program seems focused to avoid " gold plate", and most of the avionics will likely be off-the-shelf.


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Usaf Hunter-Killer Unmanned military aircraft of the United States