AeroVironment to build long-endurance surveillance UAVs

Army asks AeroVironment to provide small long-endurance surveillance unmanned aircraft in $11 million deal. Puma LE is a ultra-lightweight group 2 aircraft that is launchable by hand or by bungee, and provides flight endurance of as long as 6.5 hours.

U.S. Army unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) experts needed long-range small unmanned aircraft for Kosovo that warfighters can launch by hand in the field. They found their solution from AeroVironment Inc. in Simi Valley, Calif.

Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., announced an $11 million contract to AeroVironment on Friday for the RQ-20 Puma Long-Endurance (LE) unmanned aircraft system for surveillance missions.

Puma LE is a ultra-lightweight group 2 aircraft that is launchable by hand or by bungee, and provides flight endurance of as long as 6.5 hours.

This represent Group 2 capabilities in a Group 1 footprint while stowed in a two-case mission packout, company officials say. The Puma UAV weighs 23.5 pounds. The Puma’s secondary payload bay offers dedicated power and Ethernet wireless connectivity, providing 3.4 pounds of payload capacity.

The hand-launched Puma LE can operate in all environments and provides an operational range of 37.3 miles over land and water when used with the AeroVironment long-range tracking antenna.

Operators can swap between Mantis i45 and the optional Mantis i45 N for day and nighttime operations. Its plug-and-play, interoperable line-replaceable unit (LRU) components can be shared across other Puma all-environment (AE) aircraft.

Source: M & A Electronics