LAS VEGAS–The Insitu-built Integrator developed under the Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (STUAS) program has taken its first flight and is ready to enter the next phase of development, the top executive of the Boeing [BA] subsidiary for the program said yesterday.
The one-hour flight test of the Integrator, designated the RQ-21A, in July paves the way for Insitu along with the Navy and Marines to begin the developmental test and operational test program (DTOT) at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif., this month, Ryan Hartman, Insitu’s senior vice president for integrator, told reporters on the sidelines of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference here on Tuesday.
The STUAS program is designed to provide a persistent maritime and land capability for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) as well as for targeting. The Integrator was preceded by the ScanEagle (RQ-21), also built by Insitu. ScanEagle accumulated thousands of flight hours in Iraq and Afghanistan and continues operations in various parts of the world.
The planes are launched with a catapult and recovered when a wing clips a vertical cable, that can be set up on a ship or on land.
Integrator is more than twice as large in weight as ScanEagle and is capable of carrying bigger and more diverse payloads, Hartman said.
The Integrator is currently in the Engineering and Manufacturing Development stage. Once that phase is complete, it is slated to enter low-rate initial production (LRIP), Insitu said.