UK's First Reaper Drone Squadron at RAF Waddington

Discussion in 'Postwar' started by Gage, Oct 26, 2012.

  1. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

  2. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Good find.

    They've come on a lot since the ones they had in 2003 in Iraq....They were launched like V-1's off the back of a 1970's Bedford with a launch ramp welded on the back. The Bedford nearly rattled itself to bits on launching, some of the rocket fell off as it took off and it never came back IIRC they were ment to deploy a parachute. Most of my Troop were sat watching one being launched to fly over Basrah from Sheiba Air Base....Oh how we laughed :lol:
     
  3. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    Nice to see the small demo against them, Andy (I would have used the Reaper on em').
     
  4. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Nice to see the small demo against them, Andy (I would have used the Reaper on em').

    They're exercising their democratic right to peaceful protest.
    Fair play to them.
     
    11th Armoured likes this.
  5. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    They're exercising their democratic right to peaceful protest.
    Fair play to them.

    :)
     
  6. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Wonder if we'll see 'em pottering about on training much, or are they too discrete?

    I was amazed when I saw the size of the things at an airshow - I'd stupidly assumed they were quite small, but obviously they have to be big enough to carry the full weapon load.
    (Bod reckons there's a bloke in that front bulge... he may be right.)
     
  7. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Scruffy sod his GSM Bar is crooked :lol:
     
  8. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    (Bod reckons there's a bloke in that front bulge... he may be right.)

    They carry expendable 'little people' :D
     
  9. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    Wonder how good the optics are?
     
  10. idler

    idler GeneralList

    I'm sure they don't let them drink and drive drones.
     
  11. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Is there any record of surveillance drones flying over the U.K. from bases other than Waddington? Seems to be a growing phenomenon in the U.S.
     
  12. mapshooter

    mapshooter Senior Member

    Good find.

    They've come on a lot since the ones they had in 2003 in Iraq....They were launched like V-1's off the back of a 1970's Bedford with a launch ramp welded on the back. The Bedford nearly rattled itself to bits on launching, some of the rocket fell off as it took off and it never came back IIRC they were ment to deploy a parachute. Most of my Troop were sat watching one being launched to fly over Basrah from Sheiba Air Base....Oh how we laughed :lol:

    'Ramp welded on the back' = nonsence. The entirely launch assembly was a palletised system originally developed for the US Aquila RPV program, it was actually a catapault assembly.
    '1970s bedford' - I think not** they used the 14 tonne, the original intention had been a 4 ton but during development it became clear that 4 ton wasn't nearly big enough.
    'rocket fell off' - JATO is a well established technique to boost an aircraft for takeof (used widely with some carried based aircraft), the whole idea is that when the rocket burns out it falls away.
    'deploy a parachute' - yup, parachute recovery was used. Of course doctrinally the recovery site was nowhere near the launch site, so anyone hanging around the launch site waiting to see a return may have been doomed to disappointment.

    ** unless of course the post is totally confused and refers to the use of AN/USD 501 Midge (AKA CL-89) in Kuwait 1991 which did use 4 ton, this seems more likely since Midge did have JATO, but in 2003 Phoenix, which replaced Midge did not. Of course as anybody faintly familiar with the matters knows, Midge was not a RPV, it was a pure drone that flew pre-programmed flight path switiched on its sensors as programmed and recording on film that was processed after recovery.

    Finally, the RAF isn't going to be launching Reapers out of UK, the aircraft does not have the relevant airworthiness certification for flight in any UK airspace.
     
  13. LCplCombat

    LCplCombat Member

    You can see the woman in the parades lips move, counting the time :D
     
  14. rockape252

    rockape252 Senior Member

    Hi drew5233,

    Is this the UAV your on about ?

    See BAE Systems Phoenix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Quote

    "The Phoenix saw limited operational use as part of the British contribution to Kosovo Force (KFOR) and in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom."


    Regards, Mick D.
     
  15. Wills

    Wills Very Senior Member

    http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP722.pdf



    Unmanned flight Guidance (CAA) UK Airspace Civil and Military




    'This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read'.
    Winston Churchill


    Send for British Airways:


    British Airways Flight Operations Department Notice ***
    There appears to be some confusion over the new pilot role titles.
    This notice will hopefully clear up any misunderstandings. The titles
    P1, P2, and Co-Pilot will now cease to have any meaning, within the BA
    operations manuals. They are to be replaced by
    Handling Pilot,
    Non-handling Pilot,
    Handling Landing Pilot,
    Non-Handling Landing Pilot,
    Handling Non-Landing Pilot, and
    Non Handling Non-Landing Pilot.
    The Landing Pilot, is initially the Handling Pilot and will handle the
    take-off and landing except in role reversal when he is the
    Non-Handling Pilot for taxi until the Handling Non-Landing Pilot,
    hands the handling to the Landing Pilot at eighty knots. The
    Non-Landing (Non-Handling, since the Landing Pilot is handling) Pilot
    reads the checklist to the Handling Pilot until after Before Descent
    Checklist completion, when the Handling Landing Pilot hands the
    handling to the Non-Handling Non-Landing Pilot who then becomes the
    Handling Non-Landing Pilot. The Landing Pilot is the Non-Handling
    Pilot until the "decision altitude" call, when the Handling
    Non-Landing Pilot hands the handling to the Non-Handling Landing
    Pilot, unless the latter calls "go-around", in which case the Handling
    Non-Landing Pilot, continues Handling and the Non-Handling Landing
    Pilot continues non-handling until the next call of "land" or
    "go-around", as appropriate.
    In view of the recent confusion over these rules, it was deemed
    necessary to restate them clearly.
     
  16. rockape252

    rockape252 Senior Member

    Hi drew5233,

    Quote

    "Scruffy sod his GSM Bar is crooked"

    Yes, he should have been checked out before recording :)

    It's a "Clasp" not a "Bar" on the "General Service Medal"


    Regards, Mick D.
     
  17. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

  18. urqh

    urqh Senior Member

    The Watchkeeper although unarmed and no plans to arm at present is indeed tested and flown in the UK. Near Owens abode...Royal Artillery system. As biggish as the reaper.
    Aberporth ex RAF base in South Wales would be a good starter for flying regs and rules at present. Which will be changing in the near future. Creech in Nevada is still the first sqn home. Sats are used via Oakhanger, Corsham in Wilts is Paradigm HQ PFI money and Colerne is the second, standby or contingency sat links to USA. Also use fibre networks as backup to States. The Brits are big on the Sat Skynet 5 not just for phoning home from Afghanistan chaps...Try finding the link between int gathering and operation with our civvies at Corsham and you'll have rings drawn round you but its there. Iraq 2 had RAF embedded with States sqns using predators before Reapers as part of a joint UK USA operation with our guys in Iraq under USA not home command.

    Waddington protest was set up in Sept 2010 as just a lone vigil by peace campaigner Helen John of Greenham fame. There is no intent to do a Greenham. Just to make folk aware of the British involvement be it right or wrong. I'm not commenting. Suffice to say, the RAF are not by any means in favour of all things uav. See their own attempts at getting this debate into the public domain. The RAF future is unmanned...No matter what any of us think or want. Not today, not tomorrow but unmanned is the way and the path. The RAF are not in full agreement of the way forward and want this debated. Some of the problem is moral...and yes you can take an bloke out planting his IED, you cannot however take out a bloke dressed as a policeman or Afghan army buddy, neither if we put all our future eggs in one basket stop a future Fulcrum version of Soviets fighters taking out a reaper flying over the Volga.
     
  19. urqh

    urqh Senior Member

    2 MOD RAF publications...PDF format are interesting reads...Beware poopy...contains a what if....

    The UK Approach to Unmanned Aircraft Systems

    Air Power uav's the wider context

    General search of google will bring em up...Shows the future as the RAF and MOD see it but with interesting critisisms and objections by some.
     
  20. mapshooter

    mapshooter Senior Member

    Is that the very good paper on UAV futures published by the Defence Concepts and Doctrine Centre a year or so ago? Goes strong on persistant surveillance and such things as microUAVs perching on the window sills of the ungodly.

    Watchkeeper is 'pending airworthiness certification', it is the first UAV in the world that requires it. It's also delayed its entry into service by a couple of years, the manufacturer, one of the most experienced UAV makers, has found the process somewhat challenging.

    Watchkeeper will be based at Boscombe Down where new facilities for the Army have been built. It requires airworthiness certification to make the short flight from Boscombe over the A303 to Salisbury Plain where it can fly over the military training area (which doesn't need certification). The two regts operating Watchkeeper will both be in Larkhill, 10mins drive from Boscombe Down. Eventually, they hope to be able to fly them over the Sennybridge training area in Wales using Aberporth as the airfield and transiting normal airspace.
     

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