PETER LA FRANCHI / CANBERRA
Bell has been studying arming its TR-911 Eagle Eye tiltrotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV) with Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire anti-armour weapons.
Jeff Cromar, Bell director international military programmes business development, says "pre-design work" on arming options has been completed. The Eagle Eye "with some modifications, would be quite suitable for doing that".
Cromar says two options for Hellfire carriage have been examined, based on fuselage and wing mounting configurations. The wing-mounted option would require the nacelle tilt to be held at a maximum 60° to the horizontal during launch to allow the missile to pass beneath the proprotor disc.
The fuselage mounting option would avoid that requirement. Associated modifications would include the addition of a laser designator into the present electro-optical sensor suite.
Cromar says the armed version has not been taken to the market. However, "if somebody wants it, we could do it", he adds.
Armed Eagle Eye would most likely be developed as part of a future TR-911 upgrade programme. Bell is also planning to increase the proprotor blade length by 150mm (6in) and to uprate the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW200-55 heavy fuel engine to enable carriage of heavier payloads.
Source: Flight International
