(Credit:
AeroVironment)
The U.S. Air Force has gone all-in by authorizing full production of the AeroVironment backpack-sized Wasp III micro air vehicle, which will soon to be standard issue for combat controllers and USAF special ops, according to the Pentagon. This follows the U.S. Marine Corps' purchase of a Wasp III system, which it plans to deploy at the platoon level as a complement to the Raven (PDF).
Weighing in at a mere 1 pound, the plane's diminutive 29-inch wingspan can still loft a variety of hefty payloads in addition to its infrared cameras that stream video directly to ground control. The Wasp is launched by hand and can be operated either manually or programmed for auto-pilot with autonomous GPS navigation, according to AeroVironment. The Wasp III is part of Air Force's Battlefield Air Targeting Micro Air Vehicle program (BATMAV), which will allow troops to scan enemy targets from 5 kilometers away for up to 45 minutes at a time, according to the company.
(Credit:
AeroVironment)
The U.S. Special Operations Command is going green with its purchase of a hydrogen-fueled robo-plane that can loiter in the stratosphere for up to five days at a time.
The high-altitude long endurance (HALE) Global Observer will cost $57 million for the first drone, with two more in the pipeline for an additional $108 million. The drone, or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), is powered by a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine designed and built by AeroVironment, which has already successfully tested a scaled down model during a five-day stretch in an altitude chamber above a simulated 65,000 feet.
The UAS's role will be to provide communications relay and remote sensing, including HDTV video and third-generation mobile voice, video and data using off-the-shelf technology, according to the manufacturer. The unit is expected to be deployed in two years, contingent on continued government funding.
The Global Observer, with its "persistent, global, stratospheric loitering capability" (PDF), will mean one more "eye in the sky" over Godforsakenstan, but applications are not limited to defense. Homeland security, storm tracking, weather monitoring, wildfire detection, mapping, environmental monitoring and crop management (got to keep an eye on those poppies) are some of the other potential applications.
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