Tier 2+ (Tier 2 Plus) -- Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical (TRA)
DARO/ARPA/US Atlantic Command program for a semi-autonomous long endurance surveillance UAV.
The Winning Team Comprises:
- Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical, San Diego, CA (team leader, overall design)
- E-Systems Melpar Div. (ground stations)
- Rockwell International (wings)
- Loral Communications Systems (formerly Unisys)
- Allison Engine Co.
- Hughes Aircraft's Radar Systems and Electro-Optical Systems Divisions
- GDE Systems (mission planning software)
- Heroux Inc., Canada (landing gear)
Some of the Losing Teams were:
- Raytheon/Lockheed Martin
- E-Systems Greenville/Grob Aircraft, (with its EVER drone, based on the Grob D 500)
- Motorola/Boeing/Hughes
- Northrop Grumman
Other Offers:
Competitive offers for less sophisticated, but much cheaper vehicles were made by:
- TRW/IAI, Sierra Vista, AZ
offering the 'E-Hunter', a modified 'Hunter' UAV, equipped with the bigger wing of IAI's 'Heron' long-endurance UAV.
- Mission Technology Inc, Hondo, TX
offering its Valkyrie twin-engined, joined-wing, concept, with a range of 4,500 miles and a speed of 220 kts.
Costs and Schedules:
The Phase Two contract of $164 million (the amount is subject to negotiation) was awarded to Teledyne Ryan by the DoD's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) on behalf of the Pentagon's Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO).
The complete program may cost up to $500 million.
The unit flyaway price is supposed to be $10 million in FY 1994 dollars.
Phase Two comprises a 31-month, advanced development and flight test program, including the design, building and testing of two advanced development air vehicles and a ground station, followed by a 12-month flight and systems test program.
this is followed by Phase Three, which includes up to eight additional demonstration aircraft and two ground stations, which would undergo a two year operational demonstration.
Congress wanted to add $60 million in FY 1996 to the Tier 2+ program, but the Senate Intelligence Committee (or the House Permanent Subcommittee on Intelligence) now wants to cancel it in favor of more Tier 3- vehicles.
They always wanted to join or consolidate the two projects (Tier 2+ and Tier 3-).
Proposed Technical Data for the Teledyne Ryan Design:
Purpose: non-stealthy, heavy-payload, long-endurance, near real-time battlefield surveillance UAV.
Construction: standard aluminum frame with composite secondary structures, and all composite wing.
Wing Span: 116 ft.
Length: about 40 ft. (compared to 6 ft. person in drawing)
Height: about 12 ft. (compared to 6 ft. person in drawing)
Gross Takeoff Weight: 20,000 - 25,000 lb.
Performance: 24 hours endurance at a range of 3,000 nm. from its base, flying at an altitude of 65,000 ft.
Engine: one modified Allison AE 3007 turbofan, with 7,200 lbf. static thrust at sea level -- currently rated only up to 50,000 ft.
Payload: 1,800 lb, comprising: threat warning and detection, countermeasures (jamming capability and reel-out/reel-in decoy deception system), 48-in. satellite dish for data link (like C-Span), operating in the Ku and UHF frequencies for wide-band data links of near real-time images, video, and targeting data, SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar, EO (electro-Optical) and IR (InfraRed) sensors.
Source:
http://www.ais.org/~schnars/aero/tier.htm#tier2p
