RQ-7 UAV

Abstract

The RQ-7Bv2 Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (TUAS) 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 11 Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) Apache Reconnaissance Battalions. This will provide Aviation Brigades with Manned-Unmanned-Teaming (MUM-T) and enhanced Aerial Scout capabilities. The RQ-7B Shadow has logged approximately 1,180,000 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. An Improved Payload for Shadow, selected by Product Manager Electro-Optic/Infrared (PdM EO/IR), will be integrated and qualified in FY 2019-2020. 110 of 115 Shadow systems required by the Army Acquisition Objective (AAO) have been resourced. Justification: Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 RQ-7Bv2 TUAS Base funding of $7.817 million will be utilized for the following: 1) $4.757M will be used for test and evaluation of the RQ-7Bv2 TUAS, 2) $3.060M provides interoperability and enhancements for the One System Remote Video Terminal (OSRVT).

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2020
Source ID
0305233A_7_2040_PB_2020
Change Summary Explanation
+$5M increase for RQ-7B digital enhancements
Service Agency Name
Army

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Army

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Battle Damage Assessment
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Contracts
  • Damage Assessment
  • Engineering
  • Force Protection
  • Ground Control Stations
  • Ground Support Equipment
  • Program Management
  • Reconnaissance
  • Reconnaissance Aircraft
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Unmanned Systems
  • Warfare

Readers

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

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs
  • Directed Energy

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