Prototype demonstration catches 400-pound unmanned system
NewsFebruary 07, 2017
ARLINGTON, Va. Aurora Flight Sciences engineers performed a full-scale technology demonstration system that repeatedly captured a 400-pound Lockheed Martin Fury unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that accelerated to representative flight speeds via an external catapult. The test was conducted in December 2016 for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) SideArm research effort, which seeks to create a self-contained, portable apparatus able to horizontally launch and retrieve UASs of up to 900 pounds.
The Aurora Flight Sciences' system is capable of recovering aircraft up to 1,100 pounds, exceeding DARPA’s design objectives, officials say.
“SideArm aims to replicate carriers’ capability to quickly and safely accelerate and decelerate planes through a portable, low-cost kit that is mission-flexible, independent from local infrastructure, and compatible with existing and future tactical unmanned aircraft,” says Graham Drozeski, DARPA program manager. “We’ve demonstrated a reliable capture mechanism that can go anywhere a 20-foot container can go—the DARPA-worthy challenge we had to overcome to make SideArm’s envisioned capabilities possible. We are pleased with the progress we’ve made enabling a wide variety of sea- and land-based platforms with persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike capabilities.”
The program, SideArm, is part of DARPA’s individual investment in Phase 1 research for Tern, a joint program between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR). With the demonstration of the capture system complete, DARPA engineers are now working to identify potential transition partners and exploring using SideArm with other UAS platforms.
SideArm fits in the footprint of a standard 20-foot shipping container for easy transport by truck, ship, rail, C-130 transport aircraft, and CH-47 heavy-lift helicopter. Engineers designed, the small-footprint system to operate in truck-mounted, ship-mounted, and standalone/fixed-site facilities. A crew of only two to four people can set up or stow the system in minutes.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIX3_QCmaUM;w=529&h=472]
SideArm owes its small size to combining its launch and capture equipment into a single rail that folds for transport. Rather than using a traditional capture method that uses a net to catch the UAS, the system snags a hook on the back of the vehicle and directs the hook to travel down the rail. This approach provides slower, more constant and controlled deceleration, which is safer for the vehicle.
Read more on unmanned systems:
Can you trust that drone?
Counter-drone system reaches TRL-9 status
Textron starts on-water testing of unmanned maritime vehicle
