Pakistan Navy inducts ATR-72 MPA and LUNA NG UAV.

On January 4, the Pakistan Navy’s (PN) Director General of Public Relations announced that the PN officially inducted “marinized” ATR-72 aircraft and LUNA NG unmanned aerial vehicles.

RAS-72 Sea Eagle and LUNA NG UAV (Picture source: Pakistan Navy)

Though the PN showed two ATR-72 aircraft, only one of them was configured as a maritime patrol aircraft (MPA). The Sea Eagle is a cost effective multi-role maritime patrol aircraft with anti-submarine warfare capabilities and equipped with state-of-the-art technology for superior situational awareness. The Sea Eagle is a variant of the twin-engine turboprop, regional aircraft ATR 72 series. In the offered configuration, the aircraft is equipped with a long-range multimode radar and EO/IR sensor to deliver aerial, maritime and ground surveillance. Moreover, the aircraft features an acoustic processing system with sonobuoy launchers, a self- protection suite and two weapon hard points, enabling unique maritime and anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

The installed mission systems and sensors are managed by the Aerodata AeroMission system. The AeroMission can display feeds from the installed sensors on each control station and has a sensor fusion algorithm, providing the onboard crew with comprehensive situational awareness.

RAS-72 Sea Eagle  (Picture source: Rheinland Air Service)

Also commissioned on 4 January were two LUNA NG reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition UAVs from the German manufacturer EMT.

The light-weight LUNA NG aircraft is designed as a powered high-performance plane made of glass and carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) for long endurance and low acoustic, thermal and radar signatures. A feature of LUNA NG is its ability to perform glides without engine power with no acoustic signature and to restart the engine at any time. This permits operations in true acoustic stealth.

The LUNA NG TUAS aircraft can be easily equipped with a data link relay payload, which turns the UAV into a flying relay platform, enabling beyond line-of-sight operation of the unmanned ISR aircraft.

Due to its modular, multi payload concept LUNA NG can be fitted with up to three state-of-the-art payloads, including but not limited to: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), high resolution digital photo or video cameras, onboard data storage, meteorological sensors, radio relay, sensors for land mine detection, EW payloads, AIS (Automatic Identification System), gas and particle samplers, or radioactivity contamination sensors (CBRN).

LUNA NG (Picture source: EMT)