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Al Musayara-20

In the 1990s, Iraq began research and development work on Unmaned Arial Vehicles (UAVs) designed and built specifically as unmanned vehicles. The initial work was the responsibility of Iraq's Military Research and Development Committee (MRDC), directed by Dr. 'Imad from 1993 until 1996. Between 1995 and 1997 the MRDC worked on the Al Yamamah UAV project, which formed the foundation of subsequent indigenous UAV development in Iraq. The Al Yamamah project consisted of three designs, the Al Yamamah 2, Al Yamamah 3, and Al Yamamah 4. The Al Yamamah 2 and 4 UAVs were propeller-driven with pusher piston engines. The Al Yamamah 3 was jet powered, using a TS-21 turbo-starter from the Russian Su-7/FITTER aircraft. Iraqi engineers realized that most UAVs were not jet powered because slower, propeller-driven UAVs were simpler to construct and control and could remain airborne longer. Problems with the L-29 UAV conversion program in the late 1990s caused the Ibn-Firnas General Company to copy the Yamamah 2 design, increase the size of its tail boom, and rename it the Al Musayara-20 (aka RPV-20 or UAV-20), in order to fulfill Saddam's request to produce the first fully autonomous UAV.

Ibn-Firnas, headed by Major General Ibrahim Isma'il Smain, had at least three UAV projects under way. The first was a small RPV known as Sarab-1 used solely as an air defense artillery training target. The Sarab-1 had a 1-to 1 ½-km range and some 60-70 was built. The second was the Al Musayara-20, which was larger, powered by a 342-cubic centimeter (cc) motor, and used commercial GPS navigation to fly a programmable flightpath (see Figure 22). The third was colloquially known as the "30-kilo airplane" because it was intended to have a 30-kg payload capacity.

Ibn-Firnas's "30-kilo airplane", also known as the Al Musayara-30 or RPV-30, was intended to have a 30-kg payload capacity. Prototypes were built and tested, but the "30-kilo" program experienced controllability problems and was not completed by the time of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Although unable to complete the project at the time OIF, ISG judged that it would have been able to produce larger UAVs given more time.

In the fall of 2002, MIC selected the Al Musayara-20 over the Iraqi Air Force entry (called the Iraqi Hawk) due to its superior performance.In June 2002 an Al Musayara-20 UAV flew a demonstration flight that lasted three hours and covered a total distance of 500 km, although a source with direct access claimed the UAV remained within 15 km of its launch point. The UAV was initially controlled by the ground control station, then switched to autopilot shortly after takeoff and remained on autopilot until recovery. In November 2002, Ibn-Firnas concluded a contract to provide 36 Al Musayara-20 UAVs to the Iraqi Army for battlefield reconnaissance (the Republican Guard ordered a similar number). The contract specified the delivery of: Thirty Al Musayara-20 with autonomous, programmed guidance; Six Al Musayara-20 with remote-control capability, for training purposes only; Twelve Yamama-11 training aircraft (probably targets); Eight simulators; Control, navigation, and reconnaissance equipment; Six ground control stations. In its 2004 Report, the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was been unable to confirm if the specified items were delivered.

Al Musayara-20

As stated above, the Al Muysayara, or UAV-20, was the most successful of Iraq's efforts to produce an autonomous UAV. Pre-OIF U.S. intelligence feared that Iraq's small UAVs were "probably intended to deliver biological warfare agents." Another judgement, later retracted, stated that Iraq intended to attack the U.S. with its unamnned UAVs. This assessment was based on alleged Iraqi procurement of U.S. terrain software for its guidance systems and reports that the UAVs could travel 500 km. ISG determined that, although BW dispersion was an inherent capability of the small UAV, that the Al Musayara-20 was designed as a battle field reconnaissance. ISG did note, however, that if Iraqi leadership made the decision and if a suitable dispenser system were available, this UAV did have the range, payload, guidance, and autonomy necessary to be used as a biological weapon delivery platform. The UAV-20 did not, however, have sufficient payload capacity to serve as an effective CW platform, as judged by ISG.

Requirements for the Al Musayara-20 in the Army contract include ".aircraft equipped with control, remote control and navigation systems via GPS, and gyroscopic autopilot system" (i.e., automatic preprogrammed G&C using GPS and gyros). Further specifications are shown in the table below. The Al Musayara-20 used a video camera for reconnaissance, but had no means of downlinking the video in real time. The video was recorded on board and could be viewed only after the aircraft was recovered. At one point, there was a request for Ibn-Firnas to develop an electronic countermeasures payload for this aircraft, but it lacked sufficient payload capacity, according to a UAV engineer.

Ibn-Firnas developed the Al Musayara-20 as a reconnaissance platform, according to 'Abd-al-Tawab 'Abdallah Al Mullah Huwaysh, the former Minister of Military Industrialization, driven by lessons learned from the Iran-Iraq war where many general officers were shot down on helicopter reconnaissance missions. However, other roles were considered. In late 2002 or early 2003, Republican Guard Major Anmar 'Amil Hiza' obtained approval from the Presidential Diwan to use UAVs like cruise missiles to attack command and control targets of known locations. Anmar contacted Ibn-Firnas and requested a flight test be arranged to determine if existing UAVs could perform this mission. Anmar's requirement was for airplanes that work as cruise missiles, covering the distance of 120 km, carrying 20 kg of explosives ("TNT") and flying over 3 km high, with the accuracy of 99% after entering the coordinates of the target into the flight computer. After being impressed by tests, Anmar placed an order for 50 Al Musayara-20 UAVs. Ibn-Firnas officials, however, were suspicious of Anmar's story about using TNT and, to avoid committing to the project, advised Anmar' they would need more details on the mission in order to build the UAVs for him. Huwaysh, too, was reportedly suspicious about this story, since the conventional mission could reportedly be better acomplished with missiles. A BW platform conversion would require replacing the recovery parachute with a dispenser system and agent and limiting the UAV to one-way delivery missions, in the same way that the cruise missile mission would require. This procurement attempt left some doubt in ISG's mind as to the actual use of the UAV-20 as a reconnaissance vehicle, but did not uncover any evidence for any CBW intent.

Examination of two Al Musayara-20 UAVs captured after OIF shows they used British WAE-342 piston engines. This would seem to follow the lessons of the Al Yamamah project of the early 1990s.

The guidance systems utilized by the Al Musayara-20 were, like most of the program's components, imported from foreign entities in violation of U.N. sanctions. Ibn-Firnas imported Micropilot MP2000 and 3200VG autopilots, embedded GPS cards, and industrial computers for the Al Musayara-20 from Advantech, a Taiwanese firm. Engineers at Ibn-Firnas wrote the guidance software for the Advantech computers incorporated in the guidance system. GPS waypoint data were programmed on a laptop computer and loaded into the UAV's guidance computer prior to flight. GPS equipment was also reportedly procured from Russia. Iraq also obtained four MP2000 and two 3200VG autopilots through an Australia-based procurement agent. These autopilots were never installed in UAVs because they arrived just before OIF. It was in this shipment that the U.S. mapping software came, providing U.S. intelligence agencies momentary evidence that Iraq had built its UAVs to attack the U.S. homeland (this holding was retracted before the start of OIF).

Another possibile guidence system for the UAV began in 1998, when the Al Razi General Company of MIC began experimental work on a laser control system for use with UAVs. The experiments culminated with a UAV test flight using the laser control system in early 2000 at the Tikrit Air Academy. The UAV, identified as an Ibn-Firnas "Musayara," flew to a distance of 6-10 km at an altitude of 700 meters. The Musayara UAV in this experiment was painted red with a yellow stripe as was the vehicle identified by an Ibn-Firnas UAV technician as the "30 kilo" aircraft. However, the dimensions provided for the UAV used in the laser guidance experiment are smaller than the Al Musayara-20. The laser control system served only as an uplink command signal, although research was under way on a two-way control link. The laser control system required an optical tracker to track the UAV and keep the laser aimed at the laser receiver on the UAV. In March 2000, Al Razi Company published a report on the laser control flight test for MIC. Huwaysh was displeased with the results. He felt the system was not practical for UAV control because of the short range of the system, and he canceled the program. If this program had been successful, ISG judged that Iraq would have been able to launch and recover UAVs without transmitting in the radio frequency spectrum. The directional nature of the laser would make UAV control signals virtually impossible to detect, depriving an adversary of indications and warning of UAV employment via signals intelligence (SIGINT). Additionally, a laser control system would be much more difficult for an adversary to jam or spoof. If the reports of Huwaysh's cancellation of the project are accurate, either Huwaysh obviously did not appreciate this potential operational advantage, or he did not consider it important.

Other foreign components identified in the Al Musayara-20 (depicted in Figure 24) include:

• Remote-control unit labeled "PCM Telecommand System, Skyleader Radio Control Limited"
• Feranti Technologies vertical gyro Type FS60P
• Video recorder labeled "VCR Vinton Military Sytems Ltd"
• Single rate gyro units labeled "BAE Systems"
• Electronic unit labeled "DMS Technologies, 08/02"
• Sony 700X Super Steady Shot, digital eight video camera, model DCR-TRV530E
• Humphrey vertical gyro, model VG34-0803-1
• Multiplex Micro-IPD 7-channel narrowband receiver 35 MHz
• Schmalband-Empfanger multiplex Uni 9, 35 MHz