Miniature Air Launched Decoy
The ADM-160 Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD) is a radar decoy drone under development by the US company Raytheon .
functionality
Radar bait drones are used to reduce the efficiency of enemy air defenses. For this purpose, such a drone has a so-called Signature Augmentation System (SAS), which is able to increase the radar cross-section of the drone many times over. Furthermore, MALD should be able to simulate the exact radar profile of a combat aircraft or bomber. As a result, a MALD drone looks like a normal combat aircraft on the radar (e.g. F-16 or F-15 ). This property opens up a wide range of options for weakening and deceiving enemy air defenses. You can use MALD drones to lure enemy fighters away from your own aircraft, allowing them to reach their targets unhindered. The enemy air defense can also be "saturated" with MALD drones. H. you offer them more goals than they can fight. This saturation is of benefit to your own aircraft, as they cannot be combated at all or only to a limited extent.
development
The predecessor of the MALD drone is the ADM-20 Quail drone , which was decommissioned in 1978. MALD development began in the mid-1990s when Teledyne Ryan and other companies were asked for suggestions for a small air-launched decoy. In May 2003, the Raytheon group was selected by the US Air Force as a producer; the project is managed by DARPA . To date (February 2008) 33 of 35 flight tests that have been carried out since June 2007 have been successful. Furthermore, Raytheon was commissioned in April 2008 to complete the development of the MALD-J variant for active radar jamming by 2011. The US Department of Defense has now verified the program so that pre-production will begin in 2008. In January 2009 Raytheon received US $ 12 million available to carry out studies on an improved "Block II" variant, which is to have a new data link and increased radiation power. The first flight test took place on January 13, 2010.
There is currently an order for 1,500 MALDs at a targeted unit price of around US $ 30,000 . On March 17, 2009, the US Air Force accepted the first small series models. By May 2010 Raytheon had delivered over 100 missiles, and on May 13, 2014 the delivery of the 1,000th MALD-J missile was announced.
technology
The drone is powered by a very small TJ-50 turbojet with 0.22 kN thrust, which is a product of the DARPA Small Engine Advanced Program and is supplied by Hamilton Sundstrand . The core of the drone is the SAS (Signature Augmentation System), which can simulate almost any aircraft for the radar. Due to the modular electronics, it is also possible to use other payloads such as B. to install active radar jammers. MALD uses a coupled GPS / INS system for navigation . Furthermore, up to 256 waypoints can be set before the start. MALD can be used by almost any US aircraft due to its swivel wings , even the F-22 (internal).
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| length | 2.85 m |
| width | 0.50 m |
| height | 0.39 m |
| span | 0.0 - 1.71 m (swivel wing) |
| Takeoff weight | approx. 115 kg |
| speed | up to Mach 0.9 |
| Service ceiling | > 10,670 m |
| steering | GPS , INS |
| Range | approx. 900 km |
| Resilience | > 2 g |
| drive | Hamilton Sundstrand TJ-50 with 0.22 kN thrust |
| SAS frequency range | approx. 0.03 - 30 GHz |