Ramon Lopez/ORLANDO
Raytheon is offering the US armed forces an expendable small unmanned air vehicle (SUAV) capable of a wide range of missions and launch from a number of different platforms.
The SilentEyes SUAV is an unpowered metal glider that would be launched from fighters or larger UAVs such as the General Atomics RQ-1A Predator. Pre-programmed with destination co-ordinates, the SUAV would autonomously glide to the target using GPS satellite navigation.
If used for battle damage assessment, SilentEyes would orbit a target three or four times and transmit freeze-frame television imagery to a US Air Force Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intelligence aircraft or a Predator ground exploitation station. During an attack, SilentEyes would provide near real-time video images before, during and after the event.
Costing as little as $5,000, the unit is 546mm (21.5in) long with a 70mm diameter and weighs27kg (60lb). The battery-powered SilentEyes would carry a 1.4kg payload: an infrared camera, laser radar, laser spot tracker, unattended ground sensor or a warhead. Other missions could include chemical/biological agent detection, communications relay and suppression of enemy air defences.
A smaller version would have folding wings and tail surfaces so it would fit into a Raytheon ALE-50 towed decoy dispenser. After ejection, a jettisonable parachute would slow the SUAV for wing deployment. Other concepts include deployment from a Raytheon Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missile and simple ground launcher or mortar/artillery system that would boost the SUAV to 10,000ft (3,000m) and 15km (10 miles) for the US Army. A powered version is also being considered.
Raytheon began work four years ago with company funding, demonstrating the technology in a joint US military experiment in 1999. Flight testing continued last year in Montana with SilentEyes deployed from a Cessna light aircraft. Raytheon expects funding from the US Air Force UAV Battlelab for a demonstration using Predator.
Source: Flight International
