Emirati Light Attack Aircraft Breaks Cover
- November 13, 2017, 3:12 AM
With a pedigree tracing back to the Embraer EMB 312 Tucano, Calidus’s PT6A-powered B-250 is a brand-new light attack/training aircraft equipped with Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics. The company said it intends to begin manufacturing the type in the UAE.
Unveiled at the Dubai show this week, the Calidus B-250 is a light attack/trainer aircraft that has been developed in Brazil but which will be built in the UAE by Calidus (Chalet A34-35) as part of the Bader program. A facility is being completed in Al Ain to build the aircraft, which is intended for a range of duties, including ISR, counter-insurgency, close air support and training.
Developed under conditions of some secrecy in just 20 months, the B-250 has been designed by Novaer at São José dos Campos, near São Paulo, under the leadership of Joseph Kovács, who created the Embraer Tucano. The B-250 draws on Kovács’s work in producing the redesigned Golden Aircraft/US Aircraft Corporation A-67 Dragon, but incorporates significant elements of composite structure. It has a stepped tandem cockpit and is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68 that develops 1,600 shp.
The avionics are provided by Rockwell Collins in the form of the touchscreen Pro Line Fusion system, which supports a digital head-up display. Calidus is performing the missionization of the system and will handle further updates, drawing on Fusion’s open systems architecture.
For the ISR/light attack mission the B-250 is fitted with an electro-optic turret and can carry a range of weapons on its seven hardpoints. The example in the static display is being shown with GPS-guided bombs from Tawazun Dynamics, the LIG Nex1 LOGIR imaging infrared precision rocket and DS-16 smart munition. Avibras Skyfire-70 and Equipaer 70-mm rocket pods are also on show.
A second B-250 is taking part in the daily air display.
Alongside the B-250 is the T-Xc Sovi basic trainer aircraft, which is also a Novaer design, first flying in Brazil in 2015. The side-by-side aircraft has a pressurized cabin that permits a service ceiling of 25,000 feet, and it can be powered by either piston or turboprop powerplants. Novaer designed the aircraft with an aim of providing a successor to the Brazilian air force’s aging T-25 Universal and T-27 Tucano fleets.
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-...13/emirati-light-attack-aircraft-breaks-coverhttps://www.ainonline.com/aviation-...13/emirati-light-attack-aircraft-breaks-cover
...
With four GBU-58 Paveway II 250-lb laser-guided bombs, two self-defence Sidewinder AAMs and a drop tank, the B-250 is able to attack a target 560 naut miles (1,037 km) distant, flying at 250 kts. For surveillance only, with turret and three tanks, that increases to 1,180 naut miles (2,185 km) at 280 kts.
Ferry range is 2,400 naut miles (4,445 km); endurance 12 hrs; maximum level speed 301 kts (557 km/h) and payload, 3,960 lb (1,796 kg). Operational cost is said to be less than $1,200 per flight hour.
Calidus has complete ownership of the B-250’s intellectual property, so the scene is now set for production of the UAE’s first manned combat aircraft. The next Dubai Airshow starts on November 17, 2019; we may see more of the B-250 then.
http://aviationweek.com/dubai-air-show-2017/uae-plans-combat-aircraft-production
Made in UAE
UAE is Launch Customer for Multi-spectral Recon Pod
Nov 13, 2017 - 10:29 AM
UAE’s ministry of defense announced at the Dubai Airshow 2017 that it has ordered the MS-110 reconnaissance pod from UTC Aerospace Systems/Goodrich. The deal is worth $140 million and covers an unspecified number of pods. The UAE is the first customer for the multi-spectral derivative of Goodrich’s DB-110 dual-band sensor system that has been acquired by more than a dozen F-16 operators, as well as being operational on the F-15, Tornado and P-3 Orion. The UAE air force already operates the DB-110 on its F-16s.
The UAE air force’s other fighter community—which flies the Dassault Mirage 2000—is also benefiting from recent deals through the placing of a $120 million order for the P3 guided bomb from Tawazun Dynamics. This new weapon is being shown for the first time at the Dubai show, both on the Tawazun Dynamics stand and under the Calidus B-250 in the static park.
In other deals announced on the second day of the Dubai air show Global Aerospace Logistics was awarded a contract worth nearly $400 million to provide logistics and maintenance support for UAE Joint Aviation Command helicopters, while Advanced Integrated Systems received a $130 million contract to provide support services for an unspecified reconnaissance aircraft. Maximus Air received a follow-on contract to provide heavylift support for a further two years, while SCG was contracted for UAV services.
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-...-launch-customer-multi-spectral-recon-pod?amp
A look at the products of
QinetiQ which signed an agreement with a UAE company for the transfer of technology and manufacturing of its products..
It is worth noting that the company is a member of the
Taranis team..