Micro Air Vehicle

Micro Air Vehicle: Backpackable UAV for Tactical Reconnaissance & Surveillance

DefenseReview.com, November, 2005

Excerpts from original article by David Crane.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have already proven their unique capabilities and importance in the U.S. military's prosecution of the war on terror. However, Hunter/Killer operations are just part of the equation for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. FCS also needs small, lightweight, and affordable man-portable/backpackable UAVs that can be used by dismounted infantry soldiers, Marines, and Special Operations personnel for reconnaissance, security, and target acquisition operations in open, rolling, mountain, desert, and urban warfare (a.k.a. restricted warfare) environments, and that's where the new Honeywell Micro Air Vehicle (or, Ducted Fan Micro Air Vehicle) comes in. Developed under a two-phased Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTD) program and described by Honeywell as a "modular, scaleable family of systems supporting soldiers in both urban and open terrain", the Honeywell MAV goes a step further than conventional Small UAV systems (a.k.a. Mini-UAV systems) like the AeroVironment (AV) Raven and Dragon Eye SUAV systems (just two examples) in that it features both "hover and stare" and "perch and stare" capabilities, so it can provide real-time combat information (or recorded information) while in the air or on the ground. This operational versatility is made possible by the MAV's lift-augmented ducted fan propulsion system which gives the MAV VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) capability and allows it to operate virtually anywhere, even in confined spaces. And, once it gets there it can loiter in one spot, either in the air (hover and stare mode) or on the ground (perch and stare mode). While operating in the latter mode, the MAV essentially becomes an unattended ground sensor and continues to collect data. In this ground sensor mode, the MAV uses much less fuel. When the MAV needs to move to a different location or follow a moving target of interest, in can just take off and go.

The source of this article can be found here.

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