UAV to Demonstrate Flight in Harsh Environments

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Unmanned aerial systems are sometimes required to operate in harsh weather conditions, dust, etc. The U.S. Navy has selected L3Harris Technologies to participate in phase two of a demonstration to identify and evaluate unmanned aerial systems capable of operating in austere deployed environments without additional support systems.

L3Harris was one of two teams selected by the Navy to participate in the three-week demonstration later this year in Yuma, Arizona.

L3Harris’ FVR-90 is a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) long-endurance UAV. It is equipped with a patented Hybrid Quadrotor (HQ) technology offering an innovative solution to ensure efficient operations than conventional VTOL platforms. It combines the VTOL functionality of a quadrotor with the efficiency, speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft.

Its Hybrid Quadrotor technology allows it to take off in a confined area with a small crew and transition between horizontal and vertical flight quickly and accurately. The aircraft is different from existing ‘runway independent’ unmanned air systems, requiring no separate launcher or recovery device. It offers increased capability, portability, and smaller operational footprint for military and commercial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications.

The demonstration is part of a multi-phased selection process to evaluate state-of-the-art technologies, inform future acquisition strategies and satisfy merit-based competition requirements for potential Other Transaction (OT) awards for prototyping, according to suasnews.com.