Sikorsky has emerged as a late entrant in the US Navy's vertical take-off and landing unmanned air vehicle competition. The helicopter manufacturer is offering a development of the Cypher II being tested by the US Marine Corps.
Cypher III will be a scaled up, turbine-powered design based on the USMC machine. The US rotorcraft builder is teamed with Science Applications International (SAIC) and General Dynamics.
SAIC was a potential competitor, offering the Vigilante - a development of the US SportCopter Ultrasport 496, a small kit-built helicopter. SAIC also has experience on the Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawk programme.
General Dynamics will be responsible for the ship and command and control systems integration work. The Vigilante will serve as a testbed since the Cypher III has not been built.
Source: Flight International
