Wasp Leads the Way for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Background

Built by AeroVironment (AV) Inc. of Monrovia, Calif., the Wasp is a small unmanned aircraft system that provides real-time video reconnaissance and surveillance over an area of interest. Back-packable and hand-launched, Wasp is battery-powered, has a wingspan of 16 inches and flies for up to 45 minutes at operational altitudes up to 1,000 feet. It is designed to operate in land and sea environments.

Scope

AV has delivered approximately 100 Wasps to the Navy and Marine Corps through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in what it characterized as low-rate initial production of the micro unmanned aircraft for the services to evaluate.

Timeline

AV won a DARPA award in 1996 with its Black Widow, a precursor of the Wasp regarded as the world’s first micro air vehicle. In 2005, DARPA contracted AV for several evaluation units on behalf of the Navy and Marine Corps. The next phase is to transition the Wasp into a full-rate production program, which is anticipated by the end of 2007.

Who’s in charge

Bob Curtin, vice president of business development, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), joined AV in 1980, and has responsibility for small and stratospheric UAS. He has led numerous programs for AV, including the development and operation of AV’s record-setting Helios solar powered UAS.

“We’ve been in the UAS business for about 20 years, starting back in 1986 when we delivered the first small UAS, Pointer. Since then, we’ve been delivering an increasing number of hand-launched, battery-powered unmanned airplanes. The one that’s in production now in the highest volume is called Raven. We build Raven for the Army, and also build an airplane called Dragon Eye for the Marine Corps.

WASP is much smaller than Raven and Dragon Eye. It weighs about a half-pound, as opposed to just over 4 pounds for the Raven or Dragon Eye, and has the same user interface and ground control system as the Raven. By providing a common user interface and control system, we enable users to operate multiple unmanned aircraft, and optimize the value delivered through our training program. The basic capabilities of our family of small UAS are similar, but Wasp’s small size enables it to be transported, launched and operated even more easily in close quarters.

The Marines and the Navy are our primary customers right now, which is why we developed a “marinized” version that is able to operate and land in the ocean. The Navy is interested in preboarding reconnaissance. While a boarding unit is still a safe distance from a ship, they can use Wasp to get a good look at it. The Navy also is interested in using it for policing oil terminals. The Marines want organic reconnaissance for small units.

When small UAS were first developed in the ‘80s, it was purely to get a picture over the next hill. Soon they’re going to be used for relaying data, and they will carry other types of sensors. I think we’re at the very early stage of the technology. We were crawling in ‘86, now we’re walking. We’re still not running, even though we’ve delivered over 4,000 small UAS that are used extensively in current operations.”