More unmanned air vehicles are being pressed into service in Iraq to help in the fight against improvised explosive devices (IED). Early versions of the General Atomics Warrior extended-range multi-purpose UAV are being delivered to the US Army using funding from the Department of Defense's Joint IED Defeat Office (JIEDDO), which is also looking at using Northrop Grumman's MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical take-off and landing UAV in Iraq.
The Block 0 Warrior being deployed to Iraq is essentially an I-Gnat UAV that comes off the same production line as other members of General Atomics' Predator family. "We expect to have six by the end of December," says Brig Gen Bill Phillips, the army's deputy programme executive officer aviation. Subsequent Block A Warriors will have a diesel engine, automatic take-off and landing capability and a tactical common datalink.
Northrop says the army is also looking at using JIEDDO funding to field three Fire Scouts now being built for the delayed Class IV UAV element of the service's Boeing-led Future Combat Systems programme. Potential operations in Iraq would use the UAV's airborne stand-off minefield detection system to look for IEDs, it says.
Source: Flight International
