ScanEagle — the way you want it

Every great platform in aviation history shares a few characteristics: They are all adaptable and extendable, and evolve easily as technology and missions begin to change. When the sketches went up on the board for ScanEagle, this was clearly apparent in the early concept development. Since our first successful flight tests and through our more than half-million combat flight hours, we have been improving and extending the power of ScanEagle unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The following is a list of our current options for the platform — all tested and fielded right now for various Insitu customers. Expect this list to grow as our engineers, partners and payload directorate team continue to concept, design, test and deploy new options.

Automatic Identification System

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) data relay option for Insitu’s UAS effectively extends the eyes of a ship beyond the horizon. AIS allows maritime authorities to track and monitor vessel movements. The International Maritime Organization requires AIS to be fitted aboard international voyaging ships with gross weight of 300 tons or more and all passenger ships. Relaying AIS data via an aerial asset effectively extends the eyes of the ship beyond the horizon. Flying since 2008, ScanEagle’s AIS payload enables receipt of AIS data. ScanEagle relays that data back to the controlling vessel, or to other networked assets.

Benefits:

• Detect threats hours away from you: The automatic identification system on Insitu aircraft helps buy the time you need to make informed decisions.
• See approximately seven miles to the horizon: A ScanEagle aircraft can extend that to more than 55 miles. AIS relay range is approximately 80 miles from the aircraft, giving you a 135-mile radius for threat identification.
• Distribute AIS data to networked assets: Receive data on your onboard geographic information system (GIS) automatically. A data feed is available for onboard GIS mapping packages. If the ship is so equipped, users can configure their GIS to automatically receive AIS data from the ground control station.
• Distribute data to networked assets: The video analyst can send AIS data to any networked workstation or server.

Insitu aircraft equipped with the AIS data relay option can receive and transmit the following data:

• Maritime mobile service identity number
• Navigation status
• Rate of turn
• Speed over ground
• Longitude
• Latitude
• Position accuracy
• Course over ground
• True heading
• Time stamp
• Ship size
• Ship cargo

Once an aircraft initiates an AIS data stream, that data is automatically sent to shipboard systems.

Bandit Digital Data Link

The AES-compliant, frequency agile Bandit Digital Data Link (Bandit DDL) system from L-3 Communication Systems-West encrypts data, so intelligence remains secure. A breakthrough in encryption technology, Bandit DDL is the first-in-class digital transmission solution to meet encryption requirements mandated by the Office of the Secretary of Defense for sensitive but unclassified information. Bandit DDL feeds encrypted data in near-real time from the aircraft to remote viewing terminals including ROVER, OSRVT, Video Scout and Insitu ground control stations.

Benefits:

• Stream secure full-motion video data from one of Insitu’s sensor payloads or stream other data from a custom payload.
• Dodge interference — frequency agility: Change aircraft transmission channels remotely.
• Keep eyes on target — signal Improvement: When the pattern of an antenna transmission signal is not uniform, ground receiving equipment has difficulty receiving the signal. The winglets introduced with Bandit DDL emit highly uniform antenna transmission patterns. Strong transmission signals keep eyes on target.
• Available as a field-level upgrade for most Insitu systems. Bandit DDL is not compatible with early releases of the ScanEagle variant NightEagle™ (1.2 and earlier).

Restrictions

Export approval required outside the U.S.

Transponder

The ultra-light Mode C Transponder helps with aircraft deconfliction during military missions and also enables easier integration of the system into applications within the National Airspace. The mode C Transponder is standard issue on all Insitu unmanned aircraft systems. The component is programmable during flight and, as such, allows the vehicle to become as covert as necessary with the flip of a switch — even at low altitudes. If you are flying in congested airspace, you can turn on your transponder to add another degree of safety, and when you are flying out on a mission, away from air traffic and friendly skies, you can turn off the transponder to remain undetectable.

The transponder is capable of modes 3/A (four-digit identification code) and 3/C (code plus encoded altitude) and is compliant with RTCA DO-144 specifications and TSO C74c standards.

Specifications:

• GPS altitude encoding
• Mode 3/C compliant
• Fully programmable from the ground
• Complete with lost link programming
• Industry-leading size and weight (less than 4 oz.)
• TSO C74c compliant
• RTCA DO-144 compliants

Heavy fuel engine

When ScanEagle first deployed with the U.S. Navy in July 2005 aboard amphibious transport dock USS Cleveland (LPD-7), Insitu committed itself to resolving a shipboard logistics hurdle — fuel. No one had figured out how to make a lightweight yet powerful heavy fuel engine (HFE). Since naval vessels typically carry only this less-flammable diesel-type fuel, maintaining operations for a small gas-fueled aircraft like ScanEagle could be a challenge. So while Insitu engineers were busy refining ScanEagle’s fielded, gas-fueled engine, Insitu worked with partner Sonex Research Inc. to keep efforts focused on the heavy-fuel solution. In 2006, Insitu and Sonex brought new technology to the market with the introduction of the HFE-configured ScanEagle. The small-footprint, expeditionary system was evolving, and in 2007, it became the first UAS to operate aboard a destroyer-class vessel, USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79).

The heavy fuel engine had an additional benefit: When ScanEagle is configured with the heavy fuel engine, endurance increases.

Benefits:

• Enhance safety
• Simplify battlefield logistics
• Use diesel-based fuel (JP-5, JP-8, others)
• Reduce acoustic signature
• Increase endurance

Engine hush kit

Insitu’s hush engine was developed in partnership with Northwest UAV Propulsion Systems. The hush kit allows the low-altitude ScanEagle unmanned aircraft to fly even lower without being heard. Lessons learned from flight in combat since 2009, under the acoustic challenges of mountainous and maritime environments, led to improvements that further reduce the system’s acoustic signature in Insitu’s second-generation hush engine.

Benefits:

• Undetected low-altitude flight
• Comparable endurance (to ScanEagle Block D) and performance
• In-field component upgrade

ScanEagle serial number 08-513 was Insitu’s 513th production aircraft, but Insitu aircraft are modular, and they are reconfigured in the field to suit the mission, so even early models like ScanEagle 08-513 can be updated for flight with today’s capability. In 2009, when the ScanEagle system had just logged 150,000 service hours in Iraq and Afghanistan, ScanEagle 08-513 was being reconfigured with Insitu’s latest hush technology and mid-wave infrared imager. The new engine let the aircraft fly undetected at lower altitude and produced the best video possible. Insitu’s experience and reliability, evidenced in ScanEagle 08-513, reduce exposure to risk and stretch initial investment.

Strobe lights

Anti-collision strobe lights are one of the many ways that Insitu shows we are dedicated to responding to our customers’ needs and providing the safest, most reliable UAS. Anti-collision strobe lights fielded in late 2011 provide greater visibility to ground personnel and other aircraft in the area of operations. The strobes can be seen for at least three miles from any angle, and operators can activate or de-activate the lights as the mission requires.

Insitu engineers worked hard to pack the power and safety requirements of the strobes into a miniature package that maintained the endurance in excess of 24 hours that our customers had come to expect. To provide the desired safety requirements without compromising capability, our engineers worked to minimize weight and power draw.

Since we first entered theater with the U.S. Marine Corps in 2004, we have listened to the requirements of the warfighter. Simultaneously, we have listened to requirements of civil aviation associations such as the United States Federal Aviation Administration and the European Union Jarus to ensure Insitu systems meet the requirements of the industry and the concerns of the public. If you are flying in congested airspace, you can turn on your strobe lights to add another degree of safety, and when you are flying out on a mission, away from air traffic and friendly skies, you can turn the strobes off to remain undetectable.