Fury 1500 tactical unmanned aerial system achieves SATCOM video downlink, delivers beyond line of sight capability

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., 10 Sept. 2012. A Fury 1500 tactical unmanned aerial system (UAS) from AME Unmanned Air Systems (AME UAS) transmitted live, full-motion video to a ground terminal over a high-bandwidth commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) satellite communications (SATCOM) link.

Fury 1500, developed at AME's UAS facility in San Luis Obispo, Calif., is operated and controlled by AME's SharkFin UAS Mission Management software.

"This is an important milestone for the tactical UAS community,” says John Purvis, president and CEO of AME UAS. Beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) capability “puts Fury alone in the low-altitude, long-endurance, large payload, tactical UAS market.

“Now with BLOS,” Purvis continues, “we have blurred the line between tactical and strategic unmanned ISR without the need for a fixed runway. This is a huge win for the warfighter and intelligence community. The UAS can operate from almost anywhere with a minimal forward deployed crew. We feel Fury has a critical mix of capabilities for both now and in the foreseeable future."

Designed for a broad range of missions, Fury 1500's modularity, large volume, 190-pound useful load, and 1.5 kilowatts of available power supports several payloads simultaneously while maintaining more than 16 hours of endurance.

“BLOS capability solidifies the Fury's position as the longest-range tactical runway-independent UAS flying today,” according to an AME representative. “With BLOS, the Fury is able to support missions at distances previously impossible using tactically deployed unmanned systems.”

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