LUNA is a lightweight medium range reconnaissance and surveillance UAV system which has been in service with the German Army since March 2000. It has performed over 1,000 mission flights and been successfully deployed in Kosovo, Macedonia and Afghanistan. The LUNA (Luftgestützte Unbemannte Nahaufklärungs Ausstattung) airborne unmanned close reconnaissance system is manufactured by EMT based in Penzberg, Germany.
OPERATION
LUNA is operated by a crew of two operators with a launch and recovery team of two, and is transported by small road vehicle or aircraft. A typical system includes ten air vehicles, two catapult launchers and two vehicle mounted ground control stations (GCS). In the German Army system, the ground control station is mounted either in a ****ter on a light truck or integrated in a 4×4 Wolf jeep. A DURO 6×6 armoured all-terrain vehicle has been used as a GCS for the NATO winter exercise in Norway.
The reconnaissance and surveillance flight and mission plan can be preprogramed into the air vehicle prior to launch, and can be altered during flight.
The launch is by a 6m rail, lightweight bungee catapult which is folded for transportation. The time between reaching a launch site to the first launch is less than 30min. Air vehicle recovery and relaunch takes less than 15min and involves installing the reusable parachute pack and exchanging the reusable fuel cartridge.
The microwave tracking communication link transmits image and systems data in real-time from the airborne vehicle to the ground station. The flight is monitored and controlled from the virtual cockpit.
Recovery is by parachute. The descent speed is 4m/sec. Impact dampers on the airframe protect against touchdown damage. As an alternative in mine infested or in mountainous terrain, aircraft recovery is by flying the air vehicle into a recovery net.
AIR VEHICLE
The air vehicle is very small, with a wing span of 4.17m and a length of 2.28m. Take-off weight is 37kg. The fuselage and wings are constructed of glass fibre epoxy composites.
The air vehicle’s avionics suite includes an autopilot and fully digital aircraft management system. The sensors include an attitude gyroscope, rate of turn sensors, magnetic compass, air data sensors and accelerometers. The vehicle uses differential global positioning system navigation and datalink autotracking. The system also uses a dead reckoning back up navigation system via computation of the range and azimuth data.
ENGINE
A two-cylinder, two-stroke engine rated at 5.0kW is fitted above the fuselage. The engine drives a three-bladed folding pusher propeller. The operator can choose to turn off the engine so the air vehicle can approach and loiter over the target area in silence. The engine is restarted when the air vehicle leaves the target area in order to continue the surveillance mission or to return to base.
DATALINK
The microwave link for air vehicle tracking operates at C-band. The command uplink and the downlink operates at 5MHz analogue / 10.7Mbit/s digital. The radio system deploys an automatic recontact procedure after any loss of signal. The system uses frequency hopping and a video scrambler and digital decoder is available as an option.
The datalink range is 80km. The range is extended with the deployment of airborne or ground relays.
Luna
