MALAT unveiled here the Maritime Naval Rotary Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (NRUAV) being developed with under cooperation with India. In fact, the platform for the first NRUAV is the Chetak (Alouette III), widely used by the Indian Navy. The helicopter could be deployed for mission of 6 hours, up to a distance of 120 km from the launching vessel.
Employed as an ‘elevated mast’, NRUAV can extend the vessel’s coverage over a much larger area, providing early warning and detection of aircraft, and cruise missiles, surface vessels and even subsurface activity. For example, its radar could easily detect a patrol boat from 80 nautical miles, automatically detect and track surface targets and effectively handle 64 airborne targets. Being transformed into a pilotless platform, the helicopter will be equipped with multiple payloads, for multi-mission performance, enabling aerial shipborne resupply, maritime surveillance and other missions to continue regardless on weather conditions.
It has been demonstrated that automatic landing, relying on closely coordinating the helicopter’s flight controls in reference to the, ship’s landing deck rolling under high sea conditions is safer than a pilot controlled landing under such conditions. The NRUAV features automatic take-off and landing from aviation capable ships and from unprepared landing sites.
Among the sensor suites that can be carried by the NRUAV are different Maritime Surveillance Radar systes, capable of surface and counter-submarine operation, resolution sharpening, synthetic apperture radar (SAR) and Inverse SAR modes. Electro-optical payloads are also carried. Airborne intelligence also accommodate electronic – a SIGNIT/COMINT Suite that can be carried on UAVs, like the EL/K-7071 COMINT and EL/K-7071 SIGINT systems EL/L-8385 Electronic Support measures (ESM). Among the optronic payloads, stabilized Plug-In Optronic Payload (POP) Family on display includes POP300LR Observer, Mini-POP and Multi-Mission Optronic Stabilized Payload – MOSP3000. The entire sensor suit is controlled from the ship’s command information center (CIC).
