You are talking about UK search and rescue, military and Maritime and Coastguard Agency? This is not “breaking news” as such if it’s the same thing. Search and Rescue – Helicopter (SAR-H) was put in place by the last government as a 25-year PFI starting in 2012. Soteria (CHC, Thales UK and the Royal Bank of Scotland) was selected as preferred bidders by the MoD and the DfT to provide SAR services using 24 S92 helicopters (if I recall Soteria even released pictures of the S92 in their proposed colours). Then the new government came in and suspended the programme, reviewing it as a matter of urgency. No contract was signed for Soteria to actually provide the service, however. Sounds more like it’s back on.

Afraid I haven’t been able to find any other details, but yes it is a subscale Neuron built by the French radio-controlled plane company Aviation Design, who also built the Moyen Duc and Petit Duc. Probably being used as Sanem says.

If you look closely at the images on Aviation Design’s website, that Neuron model is there.

http://adjets.free.fr/adjetspro1GB/clients/dassault/dassault.htm

First flight of Neuron proper I think is scheduled for mid-2012 with roll-out about the same time next year.

Next Monday . . .

The Scavenger requirement looks interesting. It’d be nice to see Mantis selected, rather than yet another foreign UAV.

Scavenger must be a rename for OUAS, which in turn was previously part of Project Dabinett. It appears to focus on sensors more than platform and mentions stealth, which wasn’t a prerequisite of OUAS. There is/was another MoD website somewhere that details the Scavenger requirement in full but I can’t seem to find it at the moment.

Dassault could do systems integration, customisation, marketing, & support for those it sells. It gets an ITAR-free platform which it could sell to markets where it’s strong & BAe is relatively weak, including some which wouldn’t like to be seen buying anything Israeli. BAe would get extra hardware sales, & could feed any useful Dassault modifications back into those it sells itself.

I can imagine a Dassault model with a mainly Thales sensor package, & a BAe model with mainly Selex sensors.

I wonder if there is any possibility (I’d welcome the input of those who understand aerodynamics better than I do) of a jet engined HALE version.

That’s exactly what I think has been initially proposed in terms of industrial co-operation. A report for the French National Assembly published last year detailed much of what might be done with Mantis on the French side. I also believe that BAES is considering jet engines as an alternative to turboprops.

Aviation Week detailed much of France’s requirements taken from their report earlier this year:

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awst/2010/02/15/AW_02_15_2010_p30-201990.xml

Quentin Davies (obviously before a change of government) confirmed later in Parliament that preliminary talks had begun with France and Italy about the Mantis proposal.

Yep. Profits go back to Blighty but not much more. Same thing with Rolls Royce Liberty Works (formerly Allison).

No. “Profits going back to Blighty but not much more” is not correct, the total value of the work that BAE Systems Inc is actually engaged in on the F-35 is far lower than that of BAE Systems UK. Your statement makes it sound like nothing is happening over in the UK with all the work being undertaken in the States with the profits being sent back to BAE Systems in the UK.

Totally correct BAE Systems Inc though is firewalled from BAE Systems UK because of the Special Security Arrangement. No British BAE Systems employees are allowed access to certain classified parts of BAE Systems Inc work whatsoever. As for Rolls-Royce, again no. Work is being conducted at both Indianapolis and Bristol (including on the Liftsystem) with components being manufactured at Hucknall and Bristol. Bristol has overall responsibility for the development of the Liftsystem, turbomachinery, three-bearing swivel module among other areas. Indianapolis is concentrating on the gearbox, clutch, driveshaft and nozzle, construction and testing of the Liftfan. There is also work on the F136 engine being undertaken in the UK and the US.

UK – @1,200 BAE Systems employees employed on the F-35.

Brough

– Design/engineering of horizontal tails. The F-35A static test frame AG-1 is currently undergoing fatigue and structure testing at Brough until about October next year.

Samlesbury

– Design, manufacture and assembly of aft fuselage
– Manufacture and assembly of horizontal and vertical tails

Warton

– Systems: fuel, crew escape and life support, prognostics health management integration, mission systems

Woodford

– Design/engineering of vertical tails

US – @400 employed (mostly on EOTS laser subsystem, management computer, CNI modules and EWS) at various sites including at Nashua.

There’s also a video now posted via Aviation Week:

Sure. I agree about Craig Hoyle’s credentials but reading this lengthy thread, some can be fairly dismissive about other points of views or experience just because one heads a well-known magazine, while yourself, I assume, has preferred to write for a lots of magazines (?). That’s why I posted.

Like Dare 2, I would prefer to read a pilot’s viewpoint on flight testing specific than a journalists, but certainly agree that if it had been someone who had also flown the Eurofighter and Gripen, it would have made the Rafale article even more interesting. Reading the article again and some of the other posts on this thread, the Rafale is obviously a great aircraft, a fantastic piece of French engineering and really deserves to start finally getting some foreign orders soon.

Saab’s offer has got somewhat more interesting. They have just detailed an enhanced offer to Brazil, including an offer of full involvement in Gripen NG development, production of up to 80 per cent of the airframes and the establishment of an assembly line and sales/marketing of the Gripen NG for the South American region. Matching the French offer, Saab has also said it wants to join the KC-390 programme that would include support for international marketing as well as signalled that Sweden wants to look at it for its long-term strategic airlifter needs. Saab also proposes to offer the Super Tucano to Swedish Air Force to replace the SK 60/Saab 105.