Argentina’s New UAV Project

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Argentina has been confronting various challenges, which have brought it to push forward its UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) project.

Argentina’s Ministry of Defence decided to develop the Argentina Air Force Base in Chamical, Province of La Rioja as the main base exclusively for UAVs in the country. With this respect, details of the most recent UAV project, the 2A Vigia, have just been released.

According to UASVision, the Vigia 2A, originally developed as the PAE-22365 Project, was devised by the Center for Applied Research (CIA) under the Aeronautical University Institute (IUA) with funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

This military development demonstrates the intent of Argentina’s air force to develop a tactical MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance/medium altitude, long range) UAV of national design, unlike the SARA Project FAS-0091, undertaken by the INVAP and the Ministry of Security, which had dual and not specifically military applications.

This is a MALE Class II UAV, capable of autonomous navigation via satellite link. Its navigation is controlled from an autopilot by Cloud Cap Technology Piccolo II + GPS / INS with capacity for take-off and automatic landing. It has capacity for radio and satellite link before discontinuation conventionally so the aircraft  can return safely to base. One can enter and process a maximum of 1,000 waypoints, check the onboard computer airworthiness and the operation of each system, with the ability to define anomalies detector and emergency situations. This equipment is regulated by export controls of the United States.

The Vigia 2A has a ballistic parachute as standard equipment for emergency situations.

As payload, it has a usable space of 400x400x800 and up to 50kg. In the prototype, it is ballasted to maintain the center of gravity of the apparatus. The powerplant is a Japanese HK 700E engine.