UAS Strengths and Weaknesses

The UAS mission I am comparing between military and civilian platforms are that of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR). The military platform could employ the use of a RQ-20B Puma by AeroVironment.

The Puma according to AeroVironment is comprised of the following features: “360 degree gimbal, EO, IR, camera, IR Illuminator, 20km range, 3.5+ endurance hours, 500ft AGL, hand and rail launching, autonomous or deep stall landing” (AeroVironment, 2017).

The police platform would be comprised of the Vanguard ShadowHawk. The ShadowHawk contains the following options within its platform: “full autonomous operation, electro-optical camera, Infra-red capability, nighttime sensors, 15km range, 3hour endurance (depending on payload), and a transportable GCS with complimentary travel case” (Vanguard, 2017).

The strengths and weaknesses between both platforms are derived from the endurance offered and by power regeneration. The Puma provides longer endurance over the ShadowHawk, via the use of a power adapter and addition of solar power cells.

Furthermore, the Puma offers a wide array of payload offerings and data target. The GCS employed by each, offers manual control which is a benefit when unplanned circumstances are presented, waypoint settings via GPS programming by the operator in order to control the UAV’s flight heading. Strengths of the ShadowHawk employ design developments such as “Kevlar fuel tanks, transponders, developments for using tazzers, grenade launcher, and a 12 gage shotgun mounted on the aerial platform” (TopGun Military, 2013).

Weaknesses of both platforms is derived from continual design development and improvements.
The Puma is mainly an ISR vehicle and therefore expanding its endurance time to over 3.5 hours will further increase its mission’s capabilities.

ShadowHawk improvements could entail further expanding its endurance time and integrating a larger fuel tank or derive a slower expelling fuel source to derive greater endurance time. The use of a battery platform could also be considered for future design utilizing PEM’s. Further future applications could entail the realization of expanded missions duration times as well as hostile force engagement and detainment.

References

AeroVironment. (2017). UAS:RQ-20B Puma AE. Product Specifications,
Retrieved from http://www.avinc.com/uas/view/puma

Top Gun Military. (2013). Police UAV Drones Coming Soon.
Retrieved from https://youtu.be/q0-bbz183nE


Vanguard. (2017). ShadowHawk Unmanned Aerial System. ShadowHawk Airframe
Characteristics,
Retrieved from http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/709bcc_afcf73d27be44c7e82d0029f04743c11.pdf

Comments

  1. Jacobo J. GaitanAugust 9, 2017 at 11:18 AM

    Timothy,

    Interesting platforms the ones that you discussed, I'm not familiar with either of them. One thing I noticed during this assignment is that we all have mentioned ISR as the UAS mission that can translate from then military to the civilian sector, either for search and rescue or for aerial photography. I guess that's because most UAVs have some type of camera sensor that can be used pretty much in any area that you can think of. You did mention tazzers, grenade launchers and 12 gauge shotguns being developed for the ShadowHawk, I think that's also a capability that can be used by the military as well as law enforcement agencies.

    Good post!

    Jacobo

    ReplyDelete

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