Northrop Grumman offers its Bat rail-launched medium-altitude UAV for IED-hunting Sand Dragon B program
WASHINGTON, 17 Aug. 2011.Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designers at the Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems sector in San Diego are using the company's Bat unmanned aircraft in the U.S. Air Force Sand Dragon B program to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other roadside bombs.The Northrop Grumman Bat UAV is a rail-launched, net-recovered, runway-independent UAV shaped like a bat in flight. The UAV has a 12-foot wingspan, has a 212-pound gross weight, and will be equipped with the Cobalt 190 electro-optical sensor from the FLIR Systems Inc. Government Systems segment in Arlington, Va., says Mark Gamache, the Sand Dragon B program manager at Northrop Grumman Aerospace. Gamache disclosed the company' BAT entry in the Sand Dragon B program this week at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Unmanned Systems North America trade show in Washington.Northrop Grumman won a $26.2 million contract last week to develop and deploy the Sand Dragon B UAV with counter-IED capability. Awarding the contract on 12 Aug. were officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Northrop Grumman joins the Chandler May Inc. AME Unmanned Air Systems segment in San Luis Obispo, Calif., on the San Dragon IED-hunting UAV program. Chandler May AME has been working on the Air Force's Sand Dragon medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV program since early 2010 to conduct route surveillance on missions lasting as long as 24 hours.
Chandler May AME won Air Force Research Lab contracts worth $16.4 million in 2010 and $2.14 million this year for the Sand Dragon UAV program. Chandler May AME is providing the company's Fury B catapult-launched UAV for Sand Dragon. Fury B is a rail-launched UAV recoverable in a net that can fly missions as long as 24 hours. The Chandler May AME Fury B UAV for Sand Dragon is being fitted with a dual-band radar and electro-optical sensor to help detect and locate IED threats.
The Northrop Grumman Bat UAV entry in the Air force Sand Dragon B program is a medium-altitude UAV that can be configured with different-sized fuel tanks and different sensor payloads. The Bat has a blended body design able to carry a 3.2-cubic-foot payload.
The Bat Northrop Grumman Bat UAV has two engine variants -- a Hirth electronic fuel-injection engine, as well as a heavy fuel-variant, which runs on a version of JP-8 fuel, the most widely used fuel used by the U.S. military, Northrop Grumman officials say.
For more information contact Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems online at www.as.northropgrumman.com.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
