JULY19-07

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Volume 4, Thursday 19th July, 2007

TOP GUN MOVE OVER Written by Les Rochester

These fighters of the future will make the Top Gun School obsolete. They’ll be piloted by controllers on the ground. The Singapore Armed Forces is leading the race to develop a whole range of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s), and they’ll be putting a number of them through their paces at the Woomera Test Facility this month. The tests will take place at Range E, known as Evetts Field. The trials will be conducted by DSO National Laboratories (DSO) Singapore in collaboration with Singapore Technologies Aerospace Limited, a leading aircraft design and manufacturing company. During the trials there will be restrictions that will apply to access to range areas used for the flight trials. The UAVs, known as drones are a key growth area for the SAF. Indeed, camera-equipped UAVs are so valuable in scanning dangerous territory for enemy forces that the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) has announced it would set up a UAV Command within two years. Defence analysts say the move to form the UAV Command emphasises the important role drones will serve as the Singaporean air force improves its cutting edge. The RSAF has flown drones for about 20 years.

It now uses the Searcher UAV for battlefield surveillance. Apart from the RSAF’s Israeli-developed Searcher, Singapore’s DSO National Laboratories and defence company Singapore Technologies Engineering have developed a surveillance drone called Skyblade. This development has resulted in a series of “SkyBlade” UAVs of various sizes. The “SkyBlade IV” is a short-range tactical UAV, with a takeoff weight of 50 kilograms (110 pounds), including a 12 kilogram (26 pound) payload, a torpedolike fuselage, a straight high-mounted wing with upturned wingtips, cruciform tailfins and a pusher prop driven by a piston engine. The UAV carries an EO-IR sensor system with STA working on a miniaturized SAR. The SkyBlade IV is catapult-launched and recovered by parachute with airbags. The demonstrator for the SkyBlade 1V had flown 40 hours with the longest single mission lasting 6 hours. The UAVs’ small size and low signature help them remain longer in the air, while also allowing them to be less detectable. This makes UAVs useful for carrying out missions such as reconnaissance, sur veillance, damage-assessment, search and rescue, as well as maritime and coastal patrol over wider areas, with no risk to pilot life. The UAV, Skyblade IV, can perform its mission continuously for up to 12 hours or more.

Above: Local Grevillia in flower. Is this the start of Spring?

Olympic Dam wins in BHPB re-shuffle

Graeme Hunt

BHP Billiton has placed high importance on the future of its Olympic Dam mining operations by establishing a new Uranium and Olympic Dam Development Customer Sector Group. It has appointed Graeme Hunt as President to head up this new structure who will report directly to the new CEO, Marius Kloppers. The Olympic Dam mine used to come under the umbrella of Base Metals, headed by Roger Higgins in Adelaide. The new structure which has been implemented immediately will see Mr Hunt operating out of Melbourne, but is expected to spend considerable time in

Adelaide and Roxby Downs. The company’s Media Relations Advisor in Australia, Samantha Evans, told The Monitor the creation of the CSG reflects the importance of both asset and the project to BHP Billiton. “It also reflects the growing importance of nuclear energy in today’s world,” she said. “Unlocking the tremendous potential of the unique Olympic Dam ore body is arguably one of the greatest embedded growth opportunities available to the corporation. “To capture this potential will require delivery of a project the scale not previously undertaken. “This appointment of a seasoned BHP Billiton operator in Graeme

Hunt recognises that this requires dedicated senior leadership. The new CSG will operate on a stand alone basis but will continue to be reported as part of the Base Metals CSG,” she said. The township of Roxby Downs and the community is also expected to benefit from the changes with the company reinforcing its commitment to the local community. Ms Evans said the company will continue to place a high value on the Community in Roxby Downs. “Absolutely - this is fundamentally a reflection of the way we operate. “The community will not see any change in our approach to them,” she said.

Graeme Hunt before this appointment was President of Aluminium based in London. Mr Hunt has strong operational experience as a former head of BHP Billiton’s Australian iron ore mines, which are open pits. That expertise will be important as the company seeks to transform the underground Olympic Dam mine into a huge open pit more than the size of the Adelaide CBD as part of its expansion program. From 1999 to 2004 Mr Hunt was President of BHP Billiton’s Iron Ore operations in Western Australia then became President of the company’s Global Iron Ore division.


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JULY19-07 by The Monitor Inc - Issuu