Long-Duration, Eye-in-the-Sky Monitoring for Airfield Threat Detection

Base and airfields in forward-operating areas are continually threatened by small enemy forces using portable weapons. It is desire to develop a small UAV to assist military personnel in base and airfield patrol and protection. Current small UAVs are limited in their military effectiveness due to their lack of payload-carrying capability, minimal flight time to support a military mission, and lack of significant bandwidth to transmit collected data. To address these issues, DRA proposes a soaring UAV that has an autonomous refueling (recharging) capability. Available high-power transmission lines are the power source. The UAV will use readily available lines to charge its batteries, and then continues its mission when desired. This UAV also utilizes soaring aerodynamics to significantly enhance endurance and reduce power consumption. Finally, the data collection issues are addressed through the application of the EO/IR sensor and image processing technology developed under previous and current DRA efforts.