RQ-7 UAV

Abstract

The Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (TUAS) RQ-7 provides the Army Brigade Commander with dedicated Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RSTA), Intelligence, Battle Damage Assessment (BDA), and Force Protection. In line with the Army's Aviation Restructure Initiative (ARI) three Shadow Platoons are being integrated into the Combat Aviation Brigade's (CAB) Apache Reconnaissance Battalion. This will provide Aviation Brigades with Manned-Unmanned-Teaming (MUM-T) and enhanced Aerial Scout capabilities. The RQ-7B Shadow has logged over 1,050,000 flight hours, most of which were flown in support of Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO). The full Shadow system consists of four air vehicles with payload, two Universal Ground Control stations, two Universal Ground Data Terminals, one Portable Ground Control Station with Portable Ground Data Terminal, Ground Support Equipment, two launchers, ten High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs) with trailer(s), and a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle. Each system is equipped with one Maintenance Section Multifunctional (MSM) and is supported at the division level by a Mobile Maintenance Facility (MMF). The baseline fielded payload was the electro-optic infrared (EO/IR), but half of those have been replaced with a Laser Designator (LD) payload. All 104 systems required by the Army Procurement Objective (APO) have been procured. In 2010 the Army G8 established an RQ-7B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) MODs program. Justification: Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 RQ-7B UAS Base funding of $12.773 million will be utilized in the following: 1) $10.654M will be used to continue modifications for the RQ-7B UAS, 2) $2.119M provides interoperability and enhancements for the One System Remote Video Terminal (OSRVT). The $10.645M for modifications of the RQ-7B UAS will continue development of the air vehicle modifications to allow operations in a Global Positioning System (GPS) denied environment. This is a phased, multi-year effort. Phase I (FY16) provided a trade study to determine the best hardware and software alternatives. Phase II (FY16) initiated the design and development through preliminary design review. Phase III (FY17) will complete design and development through critical design review and conduct engineering flight testing. Phase IV (FY18) will complete development, qualification, and developmental testing. RDTE also provides interoperability modifications that support Manned Unmanned Teaming with the AH-64 Apache Helicopter, and Test and Evaluation to support the capability improvements.

Document Details

• Document Type: R2 Budgetary Justification
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2018
• Source ID: 0305233A_7_2040_PB_2018
• Change Summary Explanation: The additional funding in FY 2018 is for the GPS denied project, specifically to begin integration of the M-Code GPS receiver.
• Service Agency Name: Army

Entities

Organizations

• United States Army

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Air Platforms
• Autonomy

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Aircrafts
• Battle Damage Assessment
• Contracts
• Damage Assessment
• Engineering
• Force Protection
• Global Positioning Systems
• Ground Control Stations
• Ground Support Equipment
• Laser Target Designators
• Program Management
• Reconnaissance
• Reconnaissance Aircraft
• Test And Evaluation
• Unmanned Aerial Systems
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
• Unmanned Systems

Readers

• Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.

Technology Areas

• Autonomy
• Autonomy - UAVs
• Directed Energy
• Space