MAGIC
Abstract
The Medium Altitude Global ISR and Communications (MAGIC) project is an Air Force led technology and concept development to test the ability for medium altitude remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) to stay aloft for a five-day duration with a minimum of 1,000 pounds payload capacity of multiple intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors. The MAGIC project concept was initiated in 2010 by five COCOMs ranking this initiative as the highest priority joint concept and tecnology demonstration (JCTD) but the with the Air Force accepting this initiative it is no longer under consideration as a JCTD. Data gathered from the MAGIC project will support end-to-end long endurance ISR planning. Persistent ISR supports both regular and irregular warfare. The challenge to supporting regular and irregular warfare is the integration of legacy ISR architectures with emerging end-to-end infrastructures. The MAGIC project will provide the USAF with critically needed data regarding sensor and aircraft performance parameters at a five-day duration flight. This data will augment the Persistent ISR study completed by ACC and AFMC in March 2011. This project is designed to meet the requirement of two joint urgent operational needs for long dwell and persistent ISR. The objectives of the MAGIC project is to fly an RPA for a duration of five days with a minimum sensor payload of 1,000 pounds at 20,000 feet. In FY10, OSD/DDR&E (now ASD/R&E) provided $5M to AFRL for initial funding of the MAGIC project. In FY11, DDR&E provided an additional $5M to keep the project moving forward. The Air Force followed suit and provided $3M of end of year FY11 below threshold reprogramming (BTR) to allow the Aurora Flight Sciences development team to set up for an operational five-day running engine bench test in preparation for an inflight five-day duration flight test of the Orion RPA at a later date. The five-day duration running engine bench test is projected to occur in late January or early February 2012.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Project
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2013
- Source ID
- 67A026_0305205F_7_3600_PB_2013
Related Documents
- Root: Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
- Child Accomplishment: MAGIC
- Child Cost Item: c5f5cf114645ce402aea72ded8c5716a