KZO (aircraft)
Encyclopedia
KZO is an unmanned aerial vehicle
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...

 (UAV) with stealth
Stealth technology
Stealth technology also termed LO technology is a sub-discipline of military tactics and passive electronic countermeasures, which cover a range of techniques used with personnel, aircraft, ships, submarines, and missiles, to make them less visible to radar, infrared, sonar and other detection...

 characteristics manufactured by Rheinmetall
Rheinmetall
Rheinmetall AG is a German automotive and defence company with factories in Düsseldorf, Kassel and Unterlüß. The company has a long tradition of making guns and artillery pieces...

 Defence Electronics of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

A KZO system consists of 10 UAVs and 2 ground units, consisting of one control station, one radio, one launch, one maintenance vehicle with a refuelling facility for the UAVs and one recovery vehicle.

The UAV is launched with a booster rocket directly out of its container. Landing is done with a parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

.

The KZO's main objective is to locate mobile threats and provide target locations for artillery. KZO replaced the German Army
German Army
The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the disbanding of the Wehrmacht after World War II, it was re-established in 1955 as the Bundesheer, part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr along with the Navy and the Air Force...

's other main UAV , Drohne CL 289
Canadair CL-89
|- References :* Personal experience in Canadair Design Office 1952-75* Picker & Milberry, Canadair - The First 50 Years, CANAV ISBN 0-921022-07-7...

.

The Taifun attack drone was a concept of an armed variant fitted with an intelligent millimeter-wave radar seeker that perform search and destroy attacks autonomously. It destroys its target with a hollow-charge warhead. However, the German Army decided against this concept in favor of the IAI Harop
IAI Harop
The IAI Harop is an unmanned combat air vehicle developed by the MBT division of Israel Aerospace Industries. Rather than holding a separate high-explosive warhead, the drone itself is the main munition. This hunter-killer is designed to loiter the battlefield and attack targets by...

.

Two electronic warfare variants have also been developed as the Mücke ("mosquito") and the Fledermaus ("bat").

Features

  • Wingspan: 3.42m
  • Length: 2.28m
  • Body diameter: 0.36m
  • Noise-reduced two-stroke engine driving 2 blade propeller
  • Cruise speed: 220km/h
  • Endurance: 4 hours
  • Sensor: stabilized forward looking infrared
    Forward looking infrared
    Forward looking infrared cameras, typically used on military aircraft, use an imaging technology that senses infrared radiation.The sensors installed in forward looking infrared cameras, as well as those of other thermal imaging cameras, use detection of infrared radiation, typically emitted from a...

  • Digital data recorder for 10 minutes of video data
  • Real-time datalink
  • Navigation: inertial, location via datalink, additionally GPS
    Global Positioning System
    The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...

     (not needed for operation)
  • Reduced visual, acoustic, radar and infrared signature (stealth technology
    Stealth technology
    Stealth technology also termed LO technology is a sub-discipline of military tactics and passive electronic countermeasures, which cover a range of techniques used with personnel, aircraft, ships, submarines, and missiles, to make them less visible to radar, infrared, sonar and other detection...

    )
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK