The US Army's fly-off involving four tactical unmanned air vehicles (TUAV) suffered its first casualty when an AAI Shadow 200 was destroyed in a crash on 11October near Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
The Shadow 200 began its system capability demonstration (SCD) on 4 October and had completed two check flights before the air vehicle - one of three involved in the SCD - crashed. AAI check flights resumed on 13 October with another Shadow 200 completing a 42min flight evaluation. A fourth Shadow 200 will be used to complete the fly-off.
The $325 million TUAV competition also includes the General Atomics Prowler II, the Alliant Techsystems Outrider, and the S-TEC STM-5B Sentry. The US Army plans to wrap up the fly-off before the end of November and select the TUAV contractor by January.
Source: Flight International
