Her Majesty's Ship Tamar (who has red lions rampant on her sides lest anyone mistake her for a warship) has been conducting trials with the Royal Navy's new AeroVironment Puma aeroplane.
According to a Royal Navy article: "The Puma could fulfil some of the helicopter’s intelligence-gathering role – with its 50-times zoom camera it feeds live footage back to a mother ship at ranges up to a dozen miles.".
It is interesting to note that the bridge watch of a River class patrol vessel may see small boats with a pair of binoculars at ranges of up to twelve nautical miles (about fourteen statute miles),whilst it's mast head radar may see small boats at about eighteen nautical miles (about twenty-one statute miles),dependent on their radar cross section and the radar's performance.
A suitable radar carried eleven thousand feet above a River class patrol vessel by an Allsopp Helikite,may be able to detect surface targets at ranges of over one hundred and thirty nautical miles (about one hundred and fifty statute miles),Helikites may also be useful for gunnery spotting,mine detection,electronic support,and radio relay.
Whilst a Hermes helicopter may be able to detect surface contacts seven hundred and fifty nautical miles (about eight hundred and sixty statute miles) away from it's ship,and return,without either refuelling or carrying auxiliary fuel tanks.
The article expounds: "Just over 4½ft long, with a wingspan of 9ft and weighing as much as six bags of sugar, Puma can survey an area of up to 270 square miles of ocean – that’s larger than Greater Manchester* – looking for suspicious activity during sorties lasting up to 2½ hours."
Again,it is interesting to note that the bridge watch of a River class patrol vessel may observe small boats with a pair of binoculars over an area of about four hundred and fifty square nautical miles (about six hundred square statute miles) whilst it's mast head radar may observe small boats over an area of about one thousand square nautical miles (over thirteen hundred square statute miles),all day,every day,in both cases.
A suitable radar,such as Osprey,carried at eleven thousand feet above a River class patrol vessel by an Allsopp Helikite may be able to observe surface targets over an area of about fifty-five thousand square nautical miles (over seventy-two thousand square statute miles),all day,every day for weeks at a time.
Picture: Grand Logistics
Whilst a Hermes helicopter may be able to observe surface targets over an area of over four hundred and thirty thousand square nautical miles (over five hundred and seventy thousand square statute miles) in a period of eight hours,without either refuelling or carrying auxiliary fuel tanks,if flying in a straight line and a little less than that on a round trip.
The Royal Navy article continues: "Puma is relatively cheap – certainly much cheaper than sending a helicopter up – easy to launch and recover, is difficult for foes to spot and keeps the ship out of harm’s way.".
It is not clear how Puma can keep the "ship out of harm's way" when it's range is less than that of the ship's onboard sensors and the vessel must close with the target to use it's very short range weapon systems and boarding parties,in any case,a River class vessel without a Puma shall be less expensive than a River class vessel with one.
Whilst the Puma's cost per flying hour may be less than that of a helicopter,it's cost per flying hour and per square mile of coverage is likely to be far higher than that of an Allsopp Helikite.
The Hermes helicopter shall cost more per flying hour than the Puma aeroplane but,as well as searching about seven hundred times as many square miles of sea per flying hour,and doing that with active radar and passive radio,visual and thermal sensors,it shall also be able to engage and destroy sea (surface or submarine),land and air targets many hundreds of miles from it's ship,targets which Puma can neither detect nor engage,in addition to performing many other tasks.
In summary,the Puma Aeroplanes,built in the Simi Valley in the state of California in the United States of America,shall allow a River class vessel to look at things which it can already see with it's onboard sensors,which is of little benefit (this should have been obvious to any competent officer before they were even purchased),however,the inexpensive Helikite,designed and built in Fordingbridge in the English county of Hampshire in the United Kingdom,which has already been used by the United Kingdom's armed forces on combat operations,shall allow the vessel to see things which it cannot see at present,allowing it to operate in a more efficient and more effective manner.
However,neither Pumas nor Helikites may replace the capabilities of a helicopter.
Why then,is the Royal Navy wasting tax payers money on toy aeroplanes,is it because they are "transformational"?
*Most sources state that Greater Manchester has an area of four hundred and ninety-three square statute miles.