Raytheon [RTN] is providing its Coyote Unmanned Air System (UAV) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for hurricane tracking and modeling, the company said Wednesday.
The Coyote is a small, expendable UAS that can be launched from an air or ground-based A-size sonobuoy tube or common launch tube for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The aircraft can be used for targeting assistance, perimeter security, and research missions, Raytheon said.
NOAA and Raytheon scientists intend to use the latest version of the Coyote to monitor the track and intensity of storms. The team recently completed a successful calibration flight over Avon Park, Fla., where the UAS was launched from a P-3 hurricane hunter aircraft in preparation for deployment during the next storm season, Raytheon sad.
“This successful flight gives us additional confidence that we will be able to use this unique platform to collect critical continuous observations at altitudes in the storm environment that would otherwise be impossible,” Joe Cione, a hurricane researcher at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and chief scientist of the Coyote program, said in a statement.
“We’ve made significant improvements to Coyote. It can now fly for up to one hour and 50 miles away from the launch aircraft. Raytheon technology is playing a key role in enhancing safety for hurricane researchers, and helping to deliver vital information about potentially deadly storms to the American people.” Thomas Bussing, vice president of the advanced missile systems product line at Raytheon, added.
Raytheon highlighted NOAA successfully deployed a Coyote from a P-3 into the eye of Hurricane Edouard in 2014. The agency plans to expand use of the UAS in the 2016 hurricane season.