Page 24 - Australian Defence Mag Jul-Aug 2020

24 SURVEILLANCE IN LAND DOMAIN LAND 129
JULY/AUGUST 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
INSITU PEDIGREE
Two of the four companies vying to meet these demand- ing requirements already have significant UAV association with Army.
ScanEagle UAVs from Insitu Pacific, a Boeing subsidiary, flew 45,000 hours in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2006 and 2011 under contract to Defence in support of Army and coalition operations .The ScanEagles were subsequently re- placed by Shadow 200s manufactured by AAI Corporation, a subsidiary of Textron Systems which is now offering its Aero- sonde 4.7 in the current tender.
12 plus hours of surveillance I’d probably put a ScanEagle 2 on the launcher.”
Formally launched in 2014, the ScanEagle 2 variant fea- tures a purpose-built Orbital heavy fuel engine, endurance of up to 18 hours, a payload increased from 3.4 to 5 kg, a ceiling of 19,500 ft and a cruise speed of 50-60 knots. A larger nose enables the UAV to carry day and night cameras simultaneously, with performance enhanced by a fully digi- tal video system.
Based on technology developed and tested on ScanEagle, the Integrator deploys larger payloads for similar 12-16- hour missions while utilising the same catapult and sky- hook launch and recovery method.
Known as the RQ-21 Blackjack in US Navy and US Ma- rine Corps service, the twin boom, pusher propeller-driven Integrator is also deployed by Canada, the Netherlands, Po- land and Oman.
The UAV is 2.4 metres long with a wingspan of 4.9 me- tres and features six payload areas with power and Ethernet connectivity holding a maximum of 18 kg, a cruise speed of 55 knots, 16 hours’ endurance, a 19,500 ceiling and line-of- sight range of 102 km.
The standard payload configuration includes an electro-optic imager, a midwave infrared imager, a laser rangefinder, target designator and an infrared marker, but the system’s modular design enables rapid customisation with imagers, communica- tions systems, EW systems and signals intelligence capabilities.
BELOW: Australian Army soldier, Gunner Luke Jackson, prepares the Schiebel S100 Camcopter unmanned aerial system for a flight at Shoalwater Bay Training Area during Exercise Hamel 2018.
“TWO OF THE FOUR COMPANIES VYING TO MEET THESE DEMANDING REQUIREMENTS ALREADY HAVE SIGNIFICANT UAV ASSOCIATION WITH ARMY.”
Andrew Duggan, Managing Di- rector of Insitu Pacific, told ADM the company is proposing a solution based on its Integrator UAS but also offering the potential to draw on air vehicles from its wider UAS family, primarily ScanEagle 2.
“The RfT is not specific about providing only one (type of) air vehicle,” he stated. “It’s coming to the point now where we can genu- inely offer a family of systems –
common launch and recovery hardware, common control hardware, and a common training regime.
“You wouldn’t have to train a 20th STA Regiment bom- bardier separately for each platform, it’s just a different icon on the screen with different performance parameters.
“I’m not going to go into types and numbers at this time, but if the mission says I need a very high-end electronic warfare capability I put Integrator on the launcher; if the mission says I just need a very long-endurance camera for
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