EADS Barracuda

The project temporarily indicated " Barracuda" developped at the point by EADS Military Air Systems is a demonstrator of combat drone (or UCAV, Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle) fruit of a German-Spanish co-operation.

Description of the Project

This drone is before a whole technological demonstrator designed to replace in a medium-term future the hunter bomber Panavia Tornado of the Bundeswehr in its reconnaissance missions then, as from 2015, to carry out missions of combat like RQ-1 Predator.

In-flight tests

The 1st flight took place on April 2nd, 2006 with San Javier (close to Murcia in Spain). The mission lasted 20 minutes and the flight proceeded in an entirely autonomous way, followed only by one station on the ground to ensure the safety.

This prototype was damaged at sea little before the landing close to Murcia on September 23rd, 2006. The development is currently at the dead point. It is not very probable that it has one day a successor, EADS working on another project of drone, the Euro Hawk, European version of RQ-4 Global Hawk.

The base of Murcia/San Javier is a training center of pilots of the Spanish air force. It is the base of the lifting patrol Patrulle Aguila and also a turntable of the transport companies air.

Data sheet

Scale: 7,22 m
Length: 8,25 m
Motorization: an engine of Pratt & Whitney Canada of 14 kN thorough
Equipement: various military sensors optronic. Its electric orders of flight have triple redundancy.

External bonds

Film of the 1 {{er}} flight
Report/ratio in {{of}} with photographs of the 1 {{er}} flight

Random links: