VTOL UAS Use

The Department of Defense (DoD) is focusing on vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability in future UAS procurements.  Richard Whittle, known for his book about the Predator UAS, this year wrote three articles about VTOL UAS.  The articles discuss DoD’s need for VTOL UAS capabilities and potential solutions in the near term.

While DoD is allowing industry to come up with innovative concepts, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing concepts that will produce prototypes in the coming year.  DARPA is answering the military services’ urgent requirement by building the Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES) with the help of Lockheed Martin and Plasecki Aircraft.  The “transformer” looking aircraft is designed so that the fuselage/payload under the wing structure is modular.  Depending on the mission, the aircraft is configured to provide the warfighter the most flexibility.  By using this concept, the “useful load” will serve a small military unit in remote areas.  Described as a tilt-rotor design, the propulsion system is similar to the existing V-22 Osprey manned aircraft (Whittle, 2016b).

The Army is vocal about their need for VTOL.  Earlier this year, Gen Lundy stated that the Army has sufficient UAS to do their mission, but lack VTOL capable unmanned aircraft that can respond quicker to their operational needs.  Currently, UAS at forward operating bases are at times more than four hours from the troops they support.  Future UAS need to be runway independent and be able to support quicker.  They also will be needed to perform more than just traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions (Whittle, 2016c).

The Marines are just as eager to get VTOL capable UAS.  They have requested resources in the Fiscal Year 2018 budget to develop a new sea-based, armed VTOL UAS.  Lt. General Davis believes the technology is available and that technology demonstrations can occur within a year of receiving their funds. Among the potential candidates are the Bell Helicopter V-247 Vigilant, Northrup Grumman TERN, and a tiltrotor offered by Karem Aircraft, the inventor of the Predator UAS. USMC wants to operate their future armed VTOL UAS from ships as well as from austere locations (Whittle, 2016b).

While these examples of VTOL capable unmanned aircraft focus on DoD requirements, the civilian sector will greatly benefit from these advancements.  The commercial sector, particularly those that operate in remote environments are in need of VTOL capable UAS because runways are far from their areas of operations.  While the commercialization of the V-22 Osprey has not taken off, one can expect that this will not be the case for these new VTOL UAS.   

References

Whittle, R. (2014). Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Whittle, R. (2016a, October 26). Davis: Marines Want VTOL Drone Before FVL. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://breakingdefense.com/2016/10/davis-marines-want-vtol-drone-before-fvl/

Whittle, R. (2016b, October 17). DARPA Do-It-All Drone Among New VTOLs Nearing Flight. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://breakingdefense.com/2016/10/darpa-do-it-all-drone-among-new-vtols-nearing-flight/

Whittle, R. (2016c, January 14). Army’s Got Enough Drones; New Ones Should Be VTOL, Lundy says. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://breakingdefense.com/2016/01/armys-got-enough-drones-new-ones-should-be-vtol-lundy-says/