An unmanned combat air vehicle that has been used by Israel’s
military forces for decades is being upgraded with modern sensors
and marketed to the U.S. Navy as an advanced multi-role smart cruise
missile.
This weapon is designed to loiter, seek and destroy ground targets,
but unlike unmanned combat aircraft, it is expendable and does not
return to base after a strike mission. Because it loiters, it can
be confused with an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), but it is essentially
a cruise missile. It is called Cutlass, or combat uninhabited target
locate and strike system.
Cutlass combines the airframe of the Harpy UAV, made by Israel
Aircraft Industries, with advanced sensors made by Raytheon Systems
Co., in Tucson, Ariz. Both firms funded the development of Cutlass
and have partnered to market the technology to the U.S. Navy.
Harpy has been in operation in the Israeli Air Force for many years—it
was used in the 1973 war against Syria. It is an armed drone, typically
tasked to destroy surface-to-air missile sites and anti-aircraft
guns.
IAI and Raytheon conceived the Cutlass concept after the 1999 air
war over Kosovo, where U.S. pilots flew more than 3,000 sorties
against air-defense sites. This mission is called SEAD (suppression
of enemy air defenses). The most commonly used SEAD weapon is the
HARM (high-speed anti-radiation missile), fired from Air Force or
Navy jets.
Cutlass would help reduce the number of manned aircraft sorties
required in SEAD missions, said Richard Triebel, project manager
at Raytheon. Cutlass is “available in the very near term,”
he told a conference of the Precision Strike Association. He declined
to disclose the price tag for Cutlass, but said it is “cost
effective for early engagement missions.”
Even though Harpy is not sea-launched, Triebel said that Cutlass
would be adapted for ship-based operations. It would fly for six
hours at 100 knots. Its maximum range is 1,000 km, he said. The
direct line-of-sight range is 150 km, but it can be extended via
relays built into each weapon.
The launch is rocket-assisted from a canister and the weapon is
satellite-guided. Each canister has two weapons. Weighing less than
300 pounds, Cutlass has a 6-foot wingspan and is 7 feet long. Triebel
said its shelf life is 10 years.
The data link in Cutlass is compatible with the Defense Department’s
tactical control system, which is the standard for UAVs. It also
can exchange data with the Link 16 air tactical network.
The mission-planning software is Windows-based, said Triebel. It
connects the operator to dial-in libraries of data on target types.
He said that Cutlass could be assembled and ready for a mission
within three hours.
Cutlass primarily is a SEAD weapon, relying on a blast-fragmentation
warhead, but it also can be used against vehicles or buildings,
said Triebel. Other potential missions for Cutlass are reconnaissance,
target acquisition and battle-damage assessment, he said. It operates
at an altitude of 6,000 feet, to avoid ground fire.
“We’ve had a lot of fun trying to find the right home
for this weapon,” said Triebel. “It’s not a UAV,
but it looks like a UAV. ... We see it evolving into a series of
weapons.”
IAI and Raytheon are trying to convince the Navy that it should
buy Cutlass, because “there is nothing quite like it in the
Navy inventory,” said an industry source who did not want
to be quoted by name. “It’s a loitering system, which
makes it look like a UAV, but it kills like a weapon.”
The competition for Navy dollars will intensify as the service
moves forward with the development of an unmanned combat drone,
the UCAV, which will be used for SEAD, strike and surveillance missions.
The program currently is managed by the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency. The UCAV project director, William J. Scheuren,
told National Defense that he did not believe that Cutlass and UCAV
would be competing for the same mission, because the Navy UCAV will
not be available until 2012.
Raytheon is working to identify other sensors that can be added
to Cutlass, so it can help other platforms find radiating targets
when it is not performing the SEAD mission.
The U.S. Army had expressed interest in Harpy during the Kosovo
operation, said the industry source. But the Army backed away from
it, because the system, when it’s ground-launched, violates
an international arms-control treaty that restricts the use of long-range
cruise missiles. As a sea-launched weapon, however, Cutlass would
not violate the treaty. The Israeli Army launches Harpy from the
ground.