The Navy is experimenting with multiple kinds of payloads as well as different sensor packages on its Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (STUAS), according to a service official.
Rear Adm. William Shannon, program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons, told an audience yesterday at the Sea Air Space Exposition hosted by the Navy League the service is experimenting with those different payload and sensor packages because of the improved technology of the sensors.
“Doesn’t sound like much, but thanks to the reduction in many of the sensor packages, it’s actually a very powerful capability,” Shannon said about the STUAS. He added the STUAS is about 130 pounds with a 14-pound payload.
Shannon said the service has deployed a STUAS at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and another at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., where the Navy is experimenting with those different payloads and sensor packages. He added the service and other Defense Department organizations might employ those packages. Different STUAS payloads include Day/Night Full Motion Video cameras, infrared marker, laser range finder and Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers, according to a Navy statement.
STUAS, built by Boeing [BA] subsidiary Insitu, Inc., will consist of a number of Air Vehicles (AV), Ground Control Systems (GCS) and multi-mission payloads that will provide intelligence coverage, surveillance, reconnaissance and communications relay for up to 10 hours per day continuously, with a short surge capability for 24 hours per day, according to a statement.
STUAS will have a minimal operating radius of 50 nautical miles (nm) and the AV will be capable of up to 80 nm per hour (knots) with a service ceiling of 15,000 feet density altitude, the statement said.
Shannon said STUAS is an upgrade to the ScanEagle, a small, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) also built by Insitu. ScanEagle has run intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions for the Navy under a services contract as well as for the Netherlands (Defense Daily, March 20).
ScanEagle also provides electro-optical/infrared and mid-wave infrared imagery reconnaissance for Marines in Afghanistan (Defense Daily, Dec. 5).
The Navy awarded Insitu a two-year, Tier II contract for the design, development, integration and test of STUAS in July 2010 (Defense Daily, Aug. 2, 2010).