Dayton Daily News
February 4, 2002

Loitering EW Killer May Take Flight

Drones would act as weapons supplement

By Timothy R. Gaffney, Dayton Daily News

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE - The Pentagon is testing an unmanned airplane that could be dropped like a bomb, sprout inflatable wings, then fly off to attack anti-aircraft targets with grenades or other small weapons.

The Loitering EW Killer, as it's known, is conceived as a cost-cutter weapon that would supplement other systems designed to foil or destroy electronic warfare-EW-targets, such as the radars of anti-aircraft missile or gun batteries. Testing is under way in Quantico, Va.

If the Air Force decides to buy the weapon, LEWK could become an Air Force program managed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with other unmanned aerial vehicles. The project was initiated by the Marines and is now managed from a Pentagon office.

"I think this is going to be the next UAV du jour," said Dwight H. Early III, former lead service transition manager for LEWK at Wright-Pat.

One of the military's newest programs, LEWK reflects the Defense Department's growing interest in unmanned combat planes.

U.S. commanders in Operation Enduring Freedom used Global Hawk and Predator UAVs to hunt for Taliban and al-Quaida fighters in Afghanistan. In at least one instance, a Predator UAV armed with missiles attacked a ground target just months after the idea had been tested on a U.S. target range. Boeing is preparing to fly a stealthy killer-drone concept dubbed the X-45.

LEWK is a low-cost concept with a price goal of $40,000, according to a Pentagon summary. Early said the goal is around $50,000.

The concept vehicle would weigh just 650 pounds and carry up to 200 pounds of sensors and weapons. It could be launched from ground, sea or air.

At a meeting the Wright-Kettering Chapter of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International last week, Early described how a fighter jet could carry several LEWKs under its wings and drop them like bombs. Released, a LEWK would pop out a small parachute to stabilize it, inflate its wings, and fire up a small piston engine to power its propeller.

Then it could either direct itself with preprogrammed instructions or follow radio-control signals to a target area. It could fly as far as 1,200 miles or be able to loiter over an area for up to eight hours, Early said.

Once its sensors found a target, a controller could order it to drop a small bomb or fire grenades from a built-in launcher, he said. At the end of its mission, LEWK would fly back to a home base and land with a parachute.

The program started in May, and subscale prototypes have tested the novel inflatable wings. Early said a fullscale prototype has flown, but only with fixed wings.

Still in the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration phase, LEWK is far from production. And the UAV landscape is littered with other concept planes that have been tested and abandoned.

But Early said top military commanders are enthusiastic about LEWK, and he likened its versatility for other uses to a small pickup truck.

"I call it the S-10 truck" of UAVs, he said.