BAE Taranis (UCAV Demonstrator) (BAE Systems/MOD)

Contains threads on Royal Air Force equipment of the past, present and future.
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SKB
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

Post by SKB »

Lugzy wrote:....I'd hate to see one of these on Iranian TV .
Don't worry. Iran is very good at making their own stuff. ;)
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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SKB wrote:
Lugzy wrote:....I'd hate to see one of these on Iranian TV .
Don't worry. Iran is very good at making their own stuff. ;)
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What on earth is it , looks like some sort of amusement arcade flight simulator lol

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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Isn't their only achievement a rejuvenated F-5 (!) design?
- I am sure they call it something else than a Freedom Fighter, in light of the suppressed Green Revolution
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

Post by Lugzy »

Just found it , It's the Iranian Qaher 313 stealth fighter lol , probably incorporating features from the crashed us stealth drone they got there hands on ? Looks ok but it's what's inside it that counts , and from looking at pics doesn't look much tbh

Wait wasn't it fake ??????

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shark bait
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

Post by shark bait »

Lugzy wrote: Taranis is a great advertisement for the British aerospace industry , and I'd say it's world class .
It really would be a great flag flyer if they could deploy a few, great advertisement for the RAF too.
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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Deploy a few to do what? Airshows?

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

Post by SKB »

Taranis was never intended to go into full production. It was a built as a BAE technology demonstrator. The Dassault nEUROn will absorb parts of Taranis.

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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SKB
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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Nine red Taranis's doing autonomous displays. CAA is going to love that. ;)

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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As nice as it would be to have nine Taranis flying at the next Farnborough Airshow I cant see our government financing their construction.
I wonder too at the possibility of the digital systems and datalinks being compromised by external sources, such as various forms of jamming, or satellite interference. Having said that it appears to be one hell of a system and would like to see further research into autonomous flying and target detection.

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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downsizer wrote:Deploy a few to do what? Airshows?
Clearly talking about developing it further. I think it would be a worthwhile exercise.
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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Yeah ,,,why would anyone want a cost effective stealth , unmanned , semi autonomous , short to medium range Mach 1 strike aircraft which can perform inflight manovering a pilot in a f-35 could only dream of , which can carry ground attack munitions and air combat missiles and is designed to penetrate heavily guarded airspace and attack targets , with out the risk of losing any crew , all that from a project costing under £300m , compared to the 1.5 trillion dollar and counting f-35 project .

Well it might of been conceived as a demonstrator but it's a British success story , and I can't see why if there was the backing and the vision why the program couldn't move forward , and instead of talking 2030s we could see them operating in the early 2020s ,

We are still in hard times regarding the armed forces , cuts have been made and capabilities lost ,the RAF have seen squadrons and aircraft numbers fall , if you still want to get involved in world conflicts on a tight budget you need to think outside the box , these type of aircraft could rebalance the scales .

We shouldn't be afraid of seizing the future and being one of the leaders in incorporating drones like taranis into our available strike aircraft options in the foreseeable decade , we should be striking while the iron is hot instead of dragging our heels and letting the world catch up .
Yes I'm sure there's still things which need to be done to make taranis everything it was ment to be but compared to the cost of development of other projects it would still be a bargain .

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

Post by Tiny Toy »

bobp wrote:I wonder too at the possibility of the digital systems and datalinks being compromised by external sources, such as various forms of jamming, or satellite interference.
Well, that's why they're autonomous, as opposed to remotely piloted.

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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How autonomous are they? Will they get permission to fly autonomously through airspace in order to reach their designated target? If flying remotely operated drones is not allowed in civilian airspace how will stealthy drones invisible to radar be allowed to do so. Don't get me wrong I'm all for them but I believe aviation safety etc will have a big part to play in their operation.

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

Post by shark bait »

I think the rules are a bit different when it's a warzone.

At the moment it has the ability to route find and fly without connection to an operator. In the future it will be able to select targets autonomously.
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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Lugzy wrote:Yeah ,,,why would anyone want a cost effective stealth , unmanned , semi autonomous , short to medium range Mach 1 strike aircraft which can perform inflight manovering a pilot in a f-35 could only dream of , which can carry ground attack munitions and air combat missiles and is designed to penetrate heavily guarded airspace and attack targets , with out the risk of losing any crew , all that from a project costing under £300m , compared to the 1.5 trillion dollar and counting f-35 project .

Well it might of been conceived as a demonstrator but it's a British success story , and I can't see why if there was the backing and the vision why the program couldn't move forward , and instead of talking 2030s we could see them operating in the early 2020s ,

We are still in hard times regarding the armed forces , cuts have been made and capabilities lost ,the RAF have seen squadrons and aircraft numbers fall , if you still want to get involved in world conflicts on a tight budget you need to think outside the box , these type of aircraft could rebalance the scales .

We shouldn't be afraid of seizing the future and being one of the leaders in incorporating drones like taranis into our available strike aircraft options in the foreseeable decade , we should be striking while the iron is hot instead of dragging our heels and letting the world catch up .
Yes I'm sure there's still things which need to be done to make taranis everything it was ment to be but compared to the cost of development of other projects it would still be a bargain .
Very much agree with your comments, the future could be bright for taranis, and within a few years rather than a decade. The government like to hide behind study after study after study at the moment, and whilst derisking a project is great, there is a great risk of never building anything. Sometimes you just have to take the plunge and taranis seems like a great place to start, especially when the development bill thus far is considered.
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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I am in agreement with Lugzy in that we should take the plunge and become one of the leaders in drone use. The first step would be the development of a full scale version of Taranis complete with weapons/mission bay. It appears that most of the technologies needed have already been researched.

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

Post by SKB »

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^Taranis Development Fund. "Please Give Generously!" ;)

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shark bait
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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SKB wrote: ^Taranis Development Fund. "Please Give Generously!" ;)
I enjoy the sentiment but the MOD always has the money, just the order of priority may be different. I think something like this should be high up the list and so does David, let hope we see some substance to that soon!
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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My donation has already been deducted from my pension in the form of income tax.

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SKB
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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I've wondered if they have more than the one flyable prototype. They probably have spares enough to make another. Likely or not?

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

Post by shark bait »

I hear they have a few spare....

I'm starting a rumour that Astute cost so much becuas they're syphoning funds into a secret facility at scampton housing hundreds of taranis waiting to autonomously reak havoc on any given area!
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SKB
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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

Post by SKB »

Added a new thread about Taranis's predecessors, Corax and Raven: http://ukdefenceforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=370

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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Taranis to enter third testing phase

08 October, 2015 BY: Beth Stevenson

The UK’s BAE Systems Taranis unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator will carry out a third phase of flight tests towards the end of the year, the Ministry of Defence has revealed.

The test programme had gone quiet after two phases of testing in Woomera in Australia, but it will now continue for one more phase to develop technology that could be incorporated into a future combat air system. Details of what will be tested in this third phase remain unknown.

Sqn Ldr Archie Brown, of the unmanned air system team at the Ministry of Defence, told the Royal Aeronautical Society’s president’s conference that while the third phase of testing had been planned, the possibility of a fourth phase and any plans after that have not been determined.

“When we have these results [from phase 3], we will assess the feasibility of any further work, but that decision hasn’t been made yet,” Brown says.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... se-417533/

Taranis began under a four-year £202 million programme in 2006, with a first flight taking place in August 2013.

The industrial partners involved in Taranis, including prime BAE Systems, have lent the skills they developed to the Anglo-French Future Combat Air System programme that is underway.

A team of six companies are some 12 months into a two-year feasibility study to assess the requirements for a future combat aircraft.

“The first year is nearly complete and we are assessing data collected by the six partners to downselect to one [aircraft] design, and that downselect will be made in the next month,” Brown says.

Brown adds that the MoD’s involvement in these efforts does not mean that the future of air combat will necessarily just be unmanned combat air vehicles.

“If the UK were to make a decision to acquire a UCAV, it would be part of a force mix,” he says. The FCAS effort is focused on unmanned because “it’s the area we understand the least, so therefore it makes sense to concentrate on technology development in that area”.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... se-417533/

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Re: Taranis & Future Combat Air System

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The U.K.’s BAE Systems Taranis unmanned combat aircraft technology demonstrator has completed a third round of flight trials. The aircraft was airlifted back to the U.K. on Dec. 8 after the tests at Woomera, Southern Australia, where previous trials were conducted in 2013 and 2014. It is unclear whether further testing has been funded

Stealth must have worked well, haven't heard any chatter on this one.
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