Vulture
Abstract
The objective of the Vulture program is to develop and demonstrate the technology to enable an airborne payload to remain persistently on-station, uninterrupted and unreplenished, for over five years performing strategic and tactical communications, position/navigation/timing (PNT) and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions over an area of interest. Vulture technology enables a re-taskable, persistent pseudo-satellite capability, in an aircraft package. The technology combines the key benefits of an aircraft (flexibility & responsiveness, sensor resolution, reduced transmit/receive power, affordability) with the benefits of space assets (on-station persistence, no logistics tail, energy independence, fleet size, absence of in-country footprint). The system has potential in numerous roles: operation as a single platform, as a formation of multiple aircraft, or as a constellation providing infrastructure augmentation or recovery. The technology challenges include structural integrity of very lightly-loaded airframe structure, efficient and reliable energy collection, storage/retrieval and management, and reliability technologies capable of allowing the aircraft to operate continuously for five years. The Vulture program will conduct subscale and full-scale technology maturation and demonstration activities to prove out critical technologies. The anticipated transition partner is the Air Force.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2012
- Source ID
- a4767b5fd00fdbfdf0fa52d60d8c6787