The Roll Out of UAV Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE)
PRESS RELEASE
Bandung, December 20, 2019
The UAV Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) which is able to fly continuously for 24 hours is an indispensable vehicle to maintain the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia efficiently right from the air and also can reduce the potential for loss of life (operates without a pilot). The needs of air surveillance is grow along with the increasing threat in border areas, terrorism, smuggling, piracy, and theft of natural resources such as illegal logging and illegal fishing.
The initiation of the development of UAV MALE has been started by the Ministry of Defense, Balitbang since 2015 involving the TNI, the Director General of the Ministry of Defense, BPPT, ITB, and PT Dirgantara Indonesia (Persero), and also agreed the Design Requirement and Objective (DR&O) which will be soon operated by the TNI, especially the Air Force. The design process begins with preliminary design activities, basic design by making it twice in the wind tunnel model and followed by the test results which came out in the year 2016 and 2018 in BPPT, as well as the making of engineering documents and drawing in year 2017 which financed by the Ministry of Defense, Balitbang and BPPT. In year 2017, the joint agreement was formed as a Consortium for Unmanned Aircraft (PTTA MALE) with members consisting of the Indonesian Ministry of Defense, specifically the Directorate General of Pothan and Balitbang, the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), the Indonesian Air Force (Dislitbangau), Bandung Institute of Technology/ITB (FTMD), BUMNs which are PT Dirgantara Indonesia (Persero) and PT Len Industri (Persero). Also in year 2019, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN) was involved as a member of that consortium.
In year 2019 we begin the manufacturing phase, which starts with the design structure process, the calculation of finite element method, making 3D drawings, and detailed 2D drawings done by BPPT engineers and supervised by PT Dirgantara Indonesia (Persero). And it continues with the process of making tooling, molding and followed by the fabrication with the pre-preg process with an autoclave. In this year also procured the Flight Control System (FCS) produced in Spain, which is projected to be integrated in the first prototype of UAV MALE, that will be manufactured by PT Dirgantara Indonesia in early 2020. The integration process is carried out by BPPT engineers and PT Dirgantara Indonesia (Persero) which has been trained in integrating and operating the control system.
By the year of 2020, we will manufacture 2 (two) unit prototypes, each for the purpose of flight testing and structural strength testing at BPPT. In the same year, the process of military products certification will also begin and it is hoped that by the end of 2021 the type certificate will be issued by the IMAA.
The integrating weapons systems activities on the UAV MALE prototype will be carried out starting in year 2020 and it is projected to have acquired the military product type certification in year 2023.
By this independence, we are hoping that the Indonesian UAV MALE can fill the needs of the Indonesian Air Force squadron and be able to oversee the territory of the Republic of Indonesia through the air.
In addition, these activities also can evolving the local industries in accordance with the mandate of Law No. 16 year 2012, concerning the Defense Industry. To coincide with the UAV MALE roll out event, the Head of BPPT, Hammam Riza and PTDI's President Director, Elfien Goentoro also signed the MoU on Resource Utilization, as well as Facilities and Infrastructure.
"Hopefully the all work stages in the process of developing this UAV MALE can run smoothly as we have planned and later can be optimized for the needs of Surveillance and Target Acquisition which later can also be perfectly weaponized, with a Maximum Endurance of 30 (thirty) hours in Maximum Cruising Speed ​​calculation around 235 km/hour, "said PTDI President Director, Elfien Goentoro.
Other than that, BPPT also conveyed their needs for Aircraft with a rain making configurations as outlined in the Letter of Intent (LoI), where BPPT had previously operated that kind of aircraft in order to carry out artificial rain missions, namely NC212 made by PTDI since year 1993.
"The rain making configuration aircraft for BPPT can be deployed to handle Forest and Land Fires, and anticipate prolonged drought with Weather Modification Technology, by sprinkling salt (NaCl) on the potential clouds. These are the kind of issues that have often arisen in Indonesia lately, "added PTDI President Director, Elfien Goentoro.
PRESS CONTACT
Adi Prastowo
Manager of Corporate Communication & Promotion
PT Dirgantara Indonesia (Persero)
Mobile Phone : +62 811 2121157
Office Number : +62 22 6053217
E-mail: aprastowo@indonesian-aerospace.com
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Source : Humas PTDI