itps

UAS AdvANCEd TRAINING PROGRAmmES – TECHNOlOGY fOR TOmORROw, TOdAY.

ITPS delivers high-quality Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Test and Evaluation courses to industry and military air arms worldwide. Operational pilots and engineers who will be involved in the testing of UAS receive a foundational programme in UAS technology, flight operations and the principles and techniques of flight tests as well as developing UAS Flight Testing organisations and process.

In front of technology developments, ITPS has provided programmes for over six military organizations and industry aerospace clients. Remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) have ever growing uses in many fields.. Militaries worldwide are developing their capabilities by using RPA in defence operations such as Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) and Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) missions.

ITPS provides flight test training to organisations looking to deploy or expand their UAS operations. The complexity and high cost of vehicle product development requires advanced training for operators in flight testing methodology, Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI), project management, data reduction and analysis and reporting. Practical experience of UAV flight tests and flight test management augments evaluating performance, handling and human-machine interface (HMI) characteristics and learning for associated sensors and systems. Additional topics include regulations and EASA/NATO/ military standards in Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) for airworthiness, powerplant testing, Command Control and Communications (C3), datalink budget strategies, payloads and other test planning as well as Range Safety and risk management.

ITPS has welcomed students from Australian, South Korean, German military and private industry UAV developers such as Lilium and Pipistrel. Short courses by distance learning are available on the ITPS website with optional weeks of flying in Canada. All UAS programmes are customizable to individual organisation requirements.

Creating technology for tomorrow, ITPS has developed a Manned Remotely Piloted Aircraft (MRPA) that allows our training to include ground control beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights in controlled airspace that would otherwise not be allowed during UAS flight training. The MRPA can be operated as an unmanned aircraft and be flown from the ground on fully representable Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) mission. With five cameras on board, MRPA carries a sophisticated EO/IR/laser suite of sensors including a Laser Range Finder (LRF) and an onboard Ethernet downlink that carries all video and communications signals on a multiplexed 10Mbps downlink at 2.2Ghz. Ongoing research at ITPS includes mobile communications tracker testing and an electric motor/propeller efficiency lab.

The trailer mounted mobile Ground Control Station (GCS) is self-contained and self-sufficient. It can be deployed to almost any remote location and allows for both real-world and simulated MALE missions of the MRPA to be planned, executed and analyzed for a multitude of operational or sensor performance parameters. For organisations looking to increase their UAS capability, ITPS provides comprehensive, flexible, and cost-effective training. Go to www. itpscanada.com for more information.

Very little detail about China's alleged hypersonic weapon test has emerged, but it is believed that the HGV was launched on a polar LEO by a Chang Zheng 2C CZ-2C orbital launch vehicle, which is produced by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation’s (CASC’s) China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology subsidiary. The CZ-2C is also understood to be a derivative of the PLA Rocket Force’s (PLAARF’s) Dong Feng-5 (DF-5) intercontinental ballistic missile. According to reports, the launch vehicle can deliver payloads of up to 3,086 pounds (1,400 kilogrammes) when configured in its two-stage version.

The same concern was echoed by JCS vide-chairman General John Hyten in a November interview with CBS News, noting that the rocket “went around the world, dropped off a hypersonic glide vehicle that glided all the way back to China, that impacted a target in China."

Hypersonic missile gap General Hyten noted that while the US military is also developing hypersonic weapons, China appears to have taken the lead with “hundreds of hypersonic tests” carried out in the past five years while the US conducted just nine. The general also pointed out that the PLA has already deployed one medium-range hypersonic weapon, while the US is still “a few years from fielding its first one”.

The US military’s concern over China’s hypersonic weapons technology development is clearly understandable, given that such weapons that can travel at extremely high speeds in excess of Mach 5 (over 6,000km/h). Broadly speaking, there are two main types being pursued today: hypersonic cruise missiles and HGVs (or waveriders).

The former is equipped with an onboard air-breathing engine such as a scramjet or ramjet to travel under its own power to its target, while the latter uses a re-entry vehicle that uses a booster such as a rocket to accelerate into space at before ‘gliding’ down to its target using the shockwaves of its own extreme-speed descent.

“The main concern over hypersonic weapons is that there is no operational missile defence system today that is capable of intercepting these weapons, which is why the present race to develop hypersonic weapons – with countries such as Australia, China, Japan, India, Russia, and the US involved either as national or collaborative development – is such an important one,” Feng Zhu, a senior researcher at a state-sponsored research institute, told AMR.

“Of these, China, Russia, and the US appear to be the furthest along with their development and have performed significant testing in recent years,” explained Zhu, noting that Russia’s airlaunched, nuclear-capable Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile has a claimed range and maximum speed of more than 2,000km and Mach 10.

“[As such], the recent Chinese test of a hypersonic vehicle is concerning for the US military regardless of whether it is a missile or spacecraft because the feat demonstrates that China is likely further ahead in operationalising this capability,” he added. “China is clearly committed to accelerating hypersonic technology development, although most of its development efforts remain highly classified.”

Indeed, Zhu noted that the country has poured significant investments into maturing hypersonic flight and testing capabilities for at least the past decade, with its primary science and technology

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation successfully tested a hypersonic waverider prototype called Starry Sky 2 in August 2018.