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Published in polar biology.

Airbus Unveils LOUT Stealth Drone Testbed

AIN said:

Airbus has lifted the veil on its Low-Observable UAV Testbed (LOUT) program, which it has been working on in “Skunk Works”-like secrecy since 2007. The program has recently completed its “iterative camouflage optimization” phase, prompting Airbus and the German defense ministry to partially lift the lid on the project and provide some details about the program. The non-flying testbed was shown to media in carefully controlled conditions while it was mounted on a pole in a radar cross-section (RCS) measurement anechoic chamber at Airbus’s Manching plant in southern Germany.

Having already schemed and tested a heavily faceted stealth fighter that bore some resemblance to Lockheed's then-secret Have Blue/F-117 in the early 1980s as part of the Lampyridae project, Airbus Germany and its MBB/EADS predecessors renewed the study of various stealthy configurations in 2007 in their offices in Bremen and Manching, following which LOUT was formally launched by the German MoD in 2010. By 2015 the baseline shape of LOUT had been fixed. The path to the final shape began with 2D planform evaluations, followed by 3D layouts, and then full 3D configurations. The three most promising were built in scale-model form and tested in the wind tunnel to assess aerodynamic properties before the final configuration was selected.

The final shape is a four-tonne diamond-shaped craft measuring around 12 meters in both span and length, representative of a craft with a specified range and high-subsonic speed performance. It has low-RCS diverterless inlets and a thrust-vectoring flat exhaust nozzle that are shielded from ground-based sensors. The LOUT incorporates a glazed cockpit and glazed apertures to represent the installation of electro-optical sensors. It also has a representative cover on the spine for an aperture that could accommodate an electronically-scanned antenna for communications, using spread-spectrum datalinks for low probability of intercept. Weapons bay and undercarriage doors are included to demonstrate the ability to overcome discontinuities in the fuselage skin. The skin is treated to provide surface-wave attenuation that decouples mutually spaced scattering effects.

On July 5, 2017 Airbus flew the Sagitta 3-meter span, twin-engined UAV with a remarkably similar planform (albeit with two vertical fins) that was also launched in 2010, and developed in conjunction with the DLR (German aerospace center) and universities in Chemnitz, Munich and Ingolstadt. It made its first flight at South Africa's Overberg test range. The vehicle was described as a 1:4 scale model of a UAV demonstrator, and it is possible that it acted as a testbed to further validate the flying properties of the final LOUT design.

LOUT is intended to demonstrate a holistic approach to low observability, including signature reduction in radar, thermal, acoustic, and visual domains, as well as the use of electronic countermeasures and electromagnetic emission control. Moreover, notional mission management systems are integrated so that mission planning can be optimized to take account of the detailed signature characteristics of the craft. Attention has been paid to low RCS across a wide frequency spectrum, from VHF to Ka-band.

Following the construction of the LOUT, it was placed in an anechoic chamber for a rigorous series of signature measurements to establish a reference. The craft was designed with modularity in mind to permit the replacement of key elements. Some sub-components have been redesigned, or received new treatments, to counter various “hot-spots” and other issues or to test new technologies. This iterative camouflage optimization phase is now complete.

LOUT is not intended to produce a flying testbed, but to provide a vehicle for developing and understanding low observable technologies to inform other products. It is expected that such technologies will find their way into forthcoming Typhoon fighter developments as part of that program's Long Term Evolution (LTE) roadmap, and it will contribute to elements of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS/SCAF) being developed by France, Germany, and Spain, including low-RCS remote carriers and the New Generation Fighter.

UAV robot wars coming soon

maybe the EU will ramp up their defense spending

China wants an economic zone between LEO and the moon worth $10 trillion by 2050.

China Proposes Establishing Moon-Based Special Economic Zone

China-briefing said:

Bao Weimin, a Director of the Science and Technology Commission of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has been reported in Chinese and Russian state media as suggesting that China would benefit from establishing an “Earth-Moon Special Economic Zone”.

Bao said that Beijing is considering creating the first Earth-Moon economic zone by 2050. According to him, China is planning to invest in studies on how much it would cost for the idea to come to fruition, as well as for the deployment of a transportation system linking Earth and its natural satellite.

The CASC is the main contractor for China’s national space program, while the project could bring in around US$10 trillion for China, the state-linked Science and Technology Daily newspaper reported.

With an earth-moon economic zone, China aims to ensure that it has the ability and the first presence right to establish the rules of behavior for who has access and who can benefit. This also has long term implications for US-China, China-Russia, and China-India relations as well – all have moon-based exploration projects currently underway.

Bao said that the field has huge economic potential and thus the country should study reliable, low-cost aerospace transport systems between the Earth and Moon.

The basic technology is set to be finished by 2030, while the key transport technology is expected to be created by 2040. By the middle of the century, China could successfully establish the space economic zone, according to Bao.

China has been rapidly developing its space sector and studying the Moon in recent years. In July, private company i-Space (also known as Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology) launched a carrier rocket in the first successful orbital mission by the Chinese commercial space industry. Last year, China launched its Chang’e 4 probe, successfully landing its lunar rover on the far side of the Moon on January 3 this year.

China has already started investing in Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) – a technology that it plans to use to power a lunar base. The SBSP’s deployment will take place in stages, with the first satellite scheduled for deployment in low-Earth orbit by 2025 and the GEO-based SBSP to be deployed by 2050.

Other important steps on Beijing’s way to establishing an Earth-Moon economic zone would be a study on the feasibility of 3D printing and lunar manufacturing by 2035 as well as a manned lunar mission, which is scheduled to take place by 2036.

China is also currently planning new lunar probe launches, as well as the deployment of satellites that will ensure a communication bridge between the Earth and Moon.

Dezan Shira & Associates’ Chris Devonshire-Ellis comments: “While the proposal sounds fun, there is a very serious component to this: ‘Who owns the Moon?’ According to the United Nations Outer Space Treaty, signed by every space-faring country, no nation can claim sovereignty over Earth’s lunar satellite. 102 countries have entered the 1967 accord; China joined in 1983. I suspect that Bao’s intent is to lay grounds for Beijing to start to erode the existing treaty and to begin the process of permitting ownership of lunar sites in future.”

The sheer number of applications for this is crazy. We could be doing remote control construction projects from our own homes in the near future, integrate cell phone functions to the arm, or even add prosthetics that go beyond the typical ranges of a human hand. 

Past a point it may become preferable to have a tech limb, especially if they integrate that into VR or Remote Control applications. Ideas posed in the movie "Surrogates" might be less wacky than it was made out to be.