The US Marine Corps (USMC) is to test a maritime variant of the BAI Aerosystems Exdrone unmanned air vehicle (UAV) following positive results during a recent series of exercises.
The USMC Warfighting Laboratory is upgrading ten BQM-147A Exdrones to Dragon drones with a shipboard launch and recovery capability, heavy-fuel engine (HFE), forward-looking infra-red sensor and differential global-positioning system. The USMC plans to deploy them on at least one ship, for demonstration purposes, this year.
The USMC and US Army have fielded the Exdrone as a low-cost reconnaissance air vehicle equipped with a colour television camera. The delta-platform flying wing is powered by the Quadra 100SS. It is launched by pneumatic rail and recovered by parachute.
The air vehicle has a service ceiling of 10,000ft (3,000m), mission endurance of 2.5h and operational range of more than 50km (30nm). An Exdrone system consists of ten air vehicles, two ground-control stations and ground-support equipment, including the launcher.
The BQM-147 modification with an HFE reflects the US Department of Defense's (DoD) continuing interest in fielding UAVs with this type of powerplant. This is despite its failure so far to qualify a diesel-burning powerplant for the aborted TRW/Israel Aircraft Industries Hunter drone as well as the troubled Alliant Techsystems Outrider tactical UAV.
The DoD says that the decision to replace the Outrider's HFE with the UK's UAV Engines 801R rotary engine "recognises that HFE technology is not yet available for application to small UAVs."
It has created a consolidated HFE development programme to mature this technology independently of specific aircraft projects.
"A common HFE family appears unfeasible-significant common-technology applications at the subsystem and component level, however, show promise, such as compressor, fuel pump, injector, rings and perhaps pistons, rods and valves," the Pentagon says.
Source: Flight International
