대한민국 무인전투기 개발소식, Korea Releases RFP for UCAV...

 

대한민국이 개발하고자 하는 무인전투기 (K-UCAV) 관련 AW&ST 19일자 기사를 소개합니다. 개발 계획 자체로만 놓고 본다면,

이웃 일본보다 앞서 있다는 언급도 있습니다.

 

일본과 무한 경쟁을 벌이는 것은 아닙니다만, 개발 계획에 있어서는 일단 앞서 있다고 하니 개발 완료 후 실전배치 역시 일본

보다 앞서기를 간절히 바라는 마음입니다.

 

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S. Korea Releases RFP For UCAV Demonstrator

Feb 19, 2010

 

By Bradley Perrett

Beijing

 

South Korea’s technologically ambitious defense ministry aims to test a scaled demonstrator for a stealthy combat drone by 2013, extending the country’s expertise in unmanned aircraft and hedging against cancellation of the KF-X fighter program.

 

With this project, South Korea will be within 10 years of Britain and Germany in flying substantial development hardware for unmanned combat aircraft.South Korea may be ahead of Japan, which has announced no such development effort.

 

Korea Aerospace Industries is well placed to win the project, since it has already embarked on company-funded work to acquire technology in this field, going as far as designing a full-scale aircraft it calls the K-UCAV and flying a 20% scale model of it (AW&ST Oct. 26, 2009, p. 42).

 

The aircraft that the ministry’s defense development agency is asking for will be larger than the model but still smaller than an operational aircraft. The South Korean air force is not known to be seeking a combat drone, and the agency says in its request for proposals that the program is not relevant to any military requirement.

 

Putting the technology-development cart before the operational-requirement horse is common in South Korea. Technologists in industry and government, especially in the defense development agency , often push for advanced programs in the hope that the military will eventually be pressed into paying for full-scale development and production .

 

In this latest project, the winning bidder will build two airframes under the project name UCAV Configuration Design Technology Research.The government will supply radar-absorbing material and two engines of an unspecified type.

 

The project’s objective is to “develop a scaled-down flying demonstrator and ground control equipment to validate core technologies required to develop a low-observable unmanned combat air vehicle,” the agency says.

 

It is also asking suppliers for one “radar-absorbing structure”—load-bearing airframe parts that can be used in exposed positions, such as wing leading edges and chines. Those parts will presumably be tested on the ground.

 

The 17-billion-won ($15-million) budget indicates that the aircraft will be larger than the K-UCAV model. Moreover, that money may be only the government’s contribution to the airframe work. In other countries, manufacturers have helped pay for such developments; in South Korea they are often forced to contribute.

 

Submissions are due by Mar. 23, a preferred supplier will be chosen in June and the aircraft must begin flight-testing by 2013.Testing should be completed in 2014, since the request for proposals says it should be wrapped up 48 months after the approval of the research and development plan, scheduled for August. Spending will peak in 2012.

 

The demanding schedule suggests the project will rely on preliminary development work that has already been done, possibly K-UCAV, the scale model of which first flew in 2008 and was unveiled publicly at the Seoul Aerospace &Defense Exhibition last October.

 

The agency is not publishing specifications for the demonstrators, nor does it say what weapons or sensors they will carry, if any.

 

The request for proposals does not restrict bidding to South Korean manufacturers, but it can be assumed that only local companies will be considered. And there can be just two serious contenders: Korea Aerospace and Korean Air Aerospace, a division of the airline Korean Air whose products include small unmanned aircraft for surveillance.

 

Korea Aerospace is the favorite not only because of its K-UCAV work. The government has cultivated the company as the national fast-jet specialist, especially with the T-50 supersonic trainer and FA-50 light-attack derivative.

 

Korea Aerospace was perhaps merely prescient when it spent its own funds on K-UCAV. Executives said in October they did not know when a government program might begin. But it is likely that the company, working hand in glove with the agency, knew an official technology demonstration effort was imminent.

 

If so, the K-UCAV specification may indicate the characteristics of a full-scale aircraft that the defense ministry’s technologists would like to develop: a gross weight of 4.1 metric tons (8,900 lb.), maximum altitude of 12,000 meters (39,000 ft.), speed of Mach 0.85, and endurance of 5 hr. The K-UCAV would have a 9.1-meter span and 8.4-meter length.

 

Korea Aerospace fitted a weapons bay in its K-UCAV model and successfully dropped stores from it, but it is not known whether the larger aircraft will be so equipped.

 

The agency proposes to inspect bidders’ facilities before awarding a contract. one piece of equipment it wants to see is an autoclave, revealing that it expects the winning design to have extensive composite construction.

 

In pressing ahead with this project, the agency is achieving two unspoken objectives for the South Korean military aerospace technology base.

 

First, it is diversifying and extending the expertise of engineers working on unmanned aircraft. Their current work includes a competition for an army battlefield reconnaissance drone, for which Korean Air and Korea Aerospace are competing, and a medium-altitude, long-endurance surveillance aircraft operating at up to 15,000 meters . The latter, called MUAV, will be built by Korean Air with help by a foreign company under a 450-billion-won program, local media report.

 

Beyond that work, the unmanned-system engineers could already look forward to a proposed high-altitude surveillance aircraft, probably a development of the MUAV. The agency has now added a new branch to their work: combat jets.

 

The agency’s second achievement is to hedge against failure of the KF-X program, which aims at building a Generation-4.5 fighter, perhaps an advanced development of the Eurofighter Typhoon or Boeing F/A-18E/F.

 

The government is backing KF-X, but the parliament, which voted not to fund it this year, may yet kill it. Even if parliament resumes funding, a decision will be made in 2013 whether to go ahead with full-scale development. The air force could instead buy a foreign aircraft, such as the Lockheed Martin F-35.

 

If the KF-X dies, another project will be needed to maintain the skills of South Korea’s combat aircraft engineers. Since the drone demonstration program can lay down a technology base on which later work can build, development of an unmanned KF-X successor now looks like an increasingly feasible option.

 

The South Korean effort appears to be similar in scale and ambition to the BAE Systems Raven, two of which were built. Flights began in 2003, demonstrating automatic flight control of an aerodynamically unstable configuration. The Raven has led to the Taranis, a larger, 8-ton development aircraft due to fly this year and demonstrate fully autonomous systems as well as low-observability features.

 

In calling for proposals, the defense development agency has broken the drone program into four parts:

 

•System integration: analysis, design, modeling and simulation, and project management.

 

•Flying demonstrator: design and integration of the aircraft, including aerodynamics, structure, systems, propulsion, flight control and navigation.

 

•Ground station: design and integration of the ground station, and fabrication of the ground control and communication equipment.

 

•Test and evaluation: ground and flight tests.

 

Separately, an effort by Korean Air to take over Korea Aerospace appears to have died. The takeover looked close last April, when several Korea Aerospace shareholders were discussing disposals of their stakes. But the merger has disappeared from public debate, suggesting that behind the scenes the government has told the parties it wants to keep two competing aerospace manufacturers.