Читать книгу Introduction to UAV Systems - Mohammad H. Sadraey - Страница 47

Reaper UAV has a single turboprop engine on the rear fuselage, a fixed tricycle landing gear, a high aspect ratio wing, with a V‐tail. It has an aileron for roll control and a ruddervator for longitudinal and directional control. The air vehicle is equipped with UHF and VHF radio relay links, a C‐band line‐of‐sight data link, which has a range of 150 nm, and UHF and Ku‐band satellite data links.

The ground control station (GCS) is built into a single 30 ft trailer, containing pilot and payload operator consoles, three data exploitation and mission planning consoles, and two synthetic aperture radar workstations together with satellite and line‐of‐sight ground data terminals. The GCS also includes a data distribution system, which is equipped with a 5.5 m dish antenna or Ku‐band ground data terminal and a 2.4 m dish antenna for data dissemination. The flight can be controlled through line‐of‐site data links or through Ku‐band satellite links to produce a continuous video. Some mass and geometry features as well as flight performance of Reaper are provided in Table 1.2.

Predator and Reaper still have two major weaknesses: (1) the inability to operate in contested airspace with effective enemy air defenses and (2) jamming. These highlight the advances required for future Reaper versions to maintain its operational significance. Jamming can pose a significant threat to the Predator’s data links and GPS navigation.

Table 1.2 Reaper data and performance

No.	Parameter	Value (unit)
1	Wingspan	65 ft 7 in
2	Length	36 ft 1 in
3	Maximum takeoff weight	10,494 lb
4	External payload weight	3,000 lb
5	Internal payload weight	800 lb
6	Turboprop engine power	900 hp
7	Maximum speed	260 knots
8	Range	1,200 mi
9	Endurance – fully loaded	14 hours
10	Service ceiling	50,000 ft