Liberal Men and Women/HAWC Folly

The "Folly" project is a HAWC project to create an UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle). So far, two seperate designs have been developed.

First Generation: "Volley" class

The "Volley" is a UCAV designed and built with its own dedicated micro-carrier (only approximately three times the length of the plane). The carrier is a short runway on top of a small hull. Inside the ship is the entire crew of six including pilot for the "volley" UCAV. the Ship was officially christened "Hawk's Folly" after a naval engineer comment after seeing the ship for the first time. This name stuck with the entire project, and the drone was titled the Volley class because it rhymed, and served a purpose that that was not a bad name for.

Specifications

"Hawk's Folly" carrier

The "Hawk's Folly has a steam catapult and arrestor wires designed specifically for the "Volley" UCAV and is incapable of carrying any other type of aircraft. Additionally, there is a 15 degree ski jump at the end of the run way which is necessary for the "Volley" to take off.

General Characteristics

• Length: 100 ft (runway), 60 ft (hull)
• Beam: 30 ft
• Draught: 25 ft
• Propulsion: 2x steam turbines, 2x shafts
• Speed: 20 knots cruising, 25 knots full, 30 knots emergency
• Range: 2,000 nautical miles at 20 knots

"Volley" UCAV

General characteristics

• Crew: 1 remotely
• Length: 30 ft
• Wingspan: 34 ft
• Height: 5 ft
• Wing area: 150 sq ft
• Empty weight: 10,000 lb
• Loaded weight: 25,000 lb
• Max takeoff weight: 25,000 lb off "Hawk's Folley", 35,000 lb off of real runway
• Powerplant: 4x JEC "Striker" thrust vectoring afterburning turbojets, 8,000 lbf dry/15,000 lbf wet each with 20 degree thrust vectoring
• Fuel capacity: 1,500 US gal

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 2.8 (1,840 MPH)
• Cruise speed: Mach .8 (525 MPH)
• Combat radius: 1,000 mi
• Ferry range: 2,500 mi
• Service ceiling: 60,000 ft
• Rate of climb: >80,000 ft/min
• Wing loading: 166.7 lb/sq ft
• Thrust/weight: 2.4 wet, 1.28 dry

Armament

• 2x 15 mm CM15 Vulcan cannon, 5,000 rounds total
• 12x 1,000 lb wing hard points
  • Usual loadout:
    • 2x 2,000 lb torpedo bombs (using two hardpoints each)
    • 2x radar guided BVR AAMs
    • 6x heat seaking close range AAMs

Second Generation: Buzzer drones

The second generation was developed with the initial purpose of the "Folley" project in mind, bomber escorts. They are designed to be carried by a bomber and launched if challenged. The craft used to carry them at the moment is a modified CP-40 aircraft. The CP-40 has had computers installed throughout most of the cargo bay, carries an extra person to command the two drones, and has had two cannons removed for the drone mother ship communication system. While the technology exists, no one is yet capable of successfully dividing their attention well enough to pilot more than two drones at a time.

Specifications

CP-40D Drone Mother Ship

General characteristics:

• Crew: 3
• Length: 33 ft
• Wingspan: 33 ft
• Height: 9 ft
• Wing area: 400 ft²
• Empty weight: 18,000 lb
• Loaded weight: 25,000 lb
• Powerplant: 2× Cairhienen CE-P4-07B "Cyclone" liquid-cooled V16 engines, 3,500 hp each
• Number in service: 2

Performance:

• Maximum speed: 375 mph
• Cruise speed: 117 mph
• Range: 5,000 mi
• Service ceiling: 16,500 ft
• Wing loading: 62.5 lb/ft²
• Power/mass: 0.28 hp/lb

Armament:

• 2×23mm "Reaper" Cannons
  • 850RPM Max Rate of Fire
  • 875 MPH exit velocity
  • 1000 round capacity
• 2x Buzzer Drones occupying all hard point space

Buzzer Drones

The drones are wingless and are forced to fly through the air by brute force, but with their low weigh, thrust vectoring, and powerful computers can do so with little difficulty.

General characteristics

• Crew: <=1 remotely
• Length: 10 ft
• Width: 6 ft
• Height: 2 ft
• Empty weight: 1,000 lb
• Loaded weight: 2,000 lb
• Powerplant: 2x JEC "Striker HE" thrust vectoring high efficiency turbojets, 6,000 lbf each with 30 degree thrust vectoring
• Fuel capacity: 1,500 US gal
• Number in service: 6

Performance

• Maximum speed: 450 MPH
• Cruise speed: 300 MPH
• Combat radius: 100 mi
• Ferry range: 500 mi
• Service ceiling: 30,000 ft
• Thrust/weight: 6.0

Armament

• 2x 23 mm CM23 Vulcan cannon, 2,500 rounds total

Cost for various parts

• Total project cost: >cr30 billion
• Manufacturing Cost for "Hawk's Folly": >cr750 million
• Manufacturing cost for "Volley": >cr600 million
• Manufacturing cost for Buzzer" >cr250 million
• Conversion cost for CP-40D: >cr 300 million

Related Projects

Projected third generation cross over with the Lancer Project.