AeroVironment, a maker of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical missile systems (TMS), is working with General Dynamics Land Systems (GD), a maker of ground combat vehicles, to produce highly integrated and effective tactical UAS and TMS for armored ground combat vehicles.
The collaboration is intended to deliver next-generation capabilities to warfighters through fully integrated system solutions, with collaborative projects addressing the upcoming U.S. Army Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) and U.S. Marines Corps Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle (ARV) programs.
“By integrating the leading small tactical UAS and loitering missile systems with the leading armored combat vehicles, our team will deliver a new level of battlefield lethality, survivability, and combat effectiveness to protect and enable the warfighter,” says Kirk Flittie, vice president and general manager of AeroVironment's UAS business.
Flittie notes the enhanced integration "will ensure precise, mobile lethality with increased automation, decreased workload, and fewer operators required for small drone and loitering missile systems deployment. AeroVironment and General Dynamics Land Systems are ready today to equip our warfighters with more lethality tomorrow.”
The purpose of the partnership, says Don Kotchman, U.S. vice president and general manager of General Dynamics Land Systems, "is to deliver a decisive advantage to ground combatants, to see first and strike first, across the tactical landscape. We're confident this integrated capability - expanding the warfighter's situational awareness, survivability, and over-the-next-obstacle lethality - will define the market for years to come.
Kotchman notes the integrated capability can be done without adding significant burden to the servicemember or vehicle commander's cognitive or physical workload.
"The benefits will be had in all environments, including urban, forest, desert, or other terrain," Kotchman says. "This is the right partnership between industry leaders to offer real innovation to our customers.”
AeroVironment says the Army's NGCV program will benefit dramatically from automated drone scout and precision loitering missile engagement technology, tightly coupled into the GD armored vehicle electronic architecture to rapidly geolocate and, if necessary, finish targets.
Likewise, it notes, the Marine Corps ARV project has evolved beyond a straightforward replacement for the light armored vehicle into a networked family of manned vehicles, ground robots, and drones, collectively capable of not only reconnaissance but also electronic warfare and long-range precision strikes. The vehicle is designed to launch a drone, scout deep, and then deploy precision fire and electronic warfare. It also will have an open architecture design that is upgraded with new technologies as they become available.
The two companies have assembled a proposed integrated prototype system that includes AeroVironment's Switchblade® loitering missile launched from a Griffin III demonstrator, as well as a Shrike 2 vertical takeoff-landing forward flight system that takes off and lands on the Stryker A1 30mm prototype vehicle.
The intent of the joint collaborative efforts is to develop a solution that will include the integration of AeroVironment's Switchblade and Shrike 2 systems from prototype entrants to the Marine Corps ARV program, the companies point out. Both efforts plan to tightly integrate AeroVironment's systems into the backbone electronic architecture of the GD vehicles.
About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., journalist who writes for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He's the author of several books on historical military firearms; two historical mysteries, Full Moon and Asylum Lane; and his latest historical thriller, A Case of Dom Perignon; all available at www.amazon.com.