Lockheed-Martin Cormorant MPUAV

Anyone recovered the video yet? What is the video about, by the way? Can anyone describe the content a little?
 
From the Lockheed Martin website:

MPUAV: The Cormorant Story

It can rise out of the depths from a nuclear-powered submarine, spread its wings and fly above the sea.

Nuclear-armed submarines, once a cornerstone of the Cold war deterrent, may soon find a new 21st century mission. Lockheed Martin is developing an unmanned aircraft that can be released from the ballistic missile tube of a Trident Submarine -- 150 feet underwater. Floating to the surface, its wings unfold, booster rockets fire, and it is airborne.

Called the Cormorant, this jet-powered autonomous aircraft could act as a spy plane or deliver firepower in a surgical strike. When the mission is over, the Cormorant receives computer signals from the submarine that can direct it to a rendezvous point.

Landing back in the sea, a tether is connected to the Cormorant by a robotic underwater vehicle and the aircraft can be reeled in to the submarine that is loitering just below the surface.

Made of titanium and other advanced materials, the Cormorant weighs about four tons. To compensate for underwater pressures that are three times greater than the maximum pressure that a typical aircraft can withstand, the inside of the Cormorant will be pressurized with inert gas or air. Smart, stealthy, and fast, the Cormorant's gull-like wings can fold and unfold around the body of the aircraft.

Two Lockheed Martin companies were partnered with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in designing and conducting submerged recovery testing of this unique, reusable, unmanned aircraft.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics brings a legacy of designing the most advanced and stealthy aircraft in the world - manned and unmanned. Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors delivers its prodigious capabilities in cutting-edge ship design and naval weapons systems.

Whether equipped with cameras for surveillance or smart bombs for precision strike against coastal or seaborne targets, the Cormorant will help keep U.S. and allied forces a safe distance from enemy combatants.

The Cormorant also provides our Trident submarine force with a mission that adapts well to current conditions, such as the war on terror.
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Source:
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/how/stories/cormorant.html
 
Lockheed-Martin Cormorant MPUAV

Use(s): reconnaissance and surveillance

Powerplant: 3,000lb JP-5

Dimensions: length: 19ft, wingspan: 16ft

Weight: MTOW: 9,000lb, max payload: 1,000lb

Performance: endurance: 3hr, ceiling: 35,000ft, mission radius: 400-500nm

Launch: RATO

Recovery: splash down

Source:
http://en.ruvsa.com/catalog/cormorant/
 
flateric said:
I'm talking about 'representative drawings'
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The MiG? An RC MiG was modified to demonstrate the concept.
 
Stargazer said:
It would be downright silly to dump promising new technology on the simple grounds that some politicians and high-ranking military brass changed their minds about it. If there is a need to test and validate the technology, it makes sense to keep it going on private funding to possibly reuse it later in another program, and if that's not feasible, to at least keep a technological edge anyway.
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It's really too limited in purpose/launch platforms.

Cormorant was designed around the Ohio SSGN tubes, so yes it would fit into a VPM as well but Virginia Block Vs weren't a thing yet. IIRC back in the day the proposal was 4x Cormorants, ~10x7 Tomahawks, and 4x3 Navalized ATACMS. The last 4 tubes are blocked by a DDS on each side, but would be available if you were using ASDS. There was also a Sub League proposal for 155mm vertical guns that fit into the tubes as well, which if developed out and adopted would replace a couple of tubes.

So we're talking about building a couple dozen of them, tops. Plus the airframe is going to be a pain to build and maintain. Titanium, filled with foam, and nitrogen pressurized.
 
Here's an issue of the Lockheed-Martin Aeronautics Star magazine which discusses the Cormorant's full-scale demonstrations in 2006. The Cormorant test article pictured appears to be the same one as posted above, at least judging by the decal on the ventral fin.
 

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