Meet the Condor

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A new unmanned aircraft system, the Condor, has been unveiled by Lockheed Martin. The small UAS is designed to support small unit teams with tactical intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) and targeting support. It has been developed as a Group I fixed-wing UAS in collaboration with the US Air Force (USAF) Research Laboratory.

According to the company, the Condor’s mission flexibility is centered around a single battery configuration, which provides an endurance of 4.5 hours. This can be further extended to 6.5 hours with a pair of batteries, although this would reduce the payload capacity of the UAS. Additional power supplies including fuel-cell technology or expendable batteries could also be integrated to extend mission endurance out to between seven and 10 hours, as Steven Fortson, who is responsible for spectrum convergence and unmanned solutions at the company, told janes.com.

The UAS is due to undertake Foreign Comparative Testing with the USAF later in the year. Areas of interest will include developments in fuel-cell technology.

“Modular payload and power bays allow the operator to configure the aircraft to favor either mission endurance or mission capability,” he explained. “Because the payload bays form the air vehicle’s ‘outer mould line’, larger volume payloads are easily accommodated.”