Puma AE: An “All Environment” Mini-UAV
Related Stories: Americas - USA, Coastal & Littoral, Contracts - Awards, Delivery & Task Orders, Design Innovations, Forces - Marines, Forces - Special Ops, New Systems Tech, Other Corporation, Sensors & Guidance, Surface Ships - Combat, Surface Ships - Other, Transformation, UAVs
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Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that can perform battlefield missions seem like a recent phenomenon, but countries like Israel and Canada have been building and using them for 3 decades now. Israel translated its early lead into a globally competitive UAV industry; Canada has not, as the early lead generated by projects like the CL-289 and CL-227 Sentinel/”flyng peanut” withered on the vine. As American forces began to adopt UAVs more widely, however, opportunities were created for domestic manufacturers to establish volume production, and become global leaders.
Meanwhile, the American penchant for technology and the pressure of battlefield requirements began to create another opportunity: greater UAV diversity. At the high-end, UAVs moved from brigade, fleet group, and division surveillance roles, and began to replace high-end national reconnaissance assets (vid. RQ-4 Global Hawk). At the brigade and division levels, armed UAVs began to give these devices important strike roles in counterinsurgency scenarios (vid. MQ-1/9 Predator family). At the same time, the march of technology had made another new development possible: large numbers of “mini-UAVs” small enough for soldiers to carry, with electronic sensors that could capture good quality imagery and then relay it to troops over expanding electronic networks.
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The mini-UAV market may lack the high individual price tags of vehicles like the Global Hawk, or the battlefield strike impact of an MQ-9, but it does have 2 advantages. One is less concern about “deconfliction” with manned aircraft, as described in “Field Report on Raven, Shadow UAVs From the 101st.” Mini-UAVs usually fly below 1,000 feet, and a styrofoam-like body with a 5 foot wingspan is much less of a collision threat than larger and more solidly-built platforms like the RQ-7 Shadow, or the Cessna-sized MQ-1 Predator.
The other advantage is mini-UAVs’ suitability for special operations troops, who are being employed in numbers on the front lines around the world. “Raven UAVs Winning Gold in Afghanistan’s ‘Commando Olympics’” details the global scale of this interest – and a recent $200 million US SOCOM contract for a new mini-UAV with breakthrough capabilities underscores it again….
Aerovironment’s Mini-Mes
Smithsonian NASM
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The mini-UAV market focuses on flying devices that can be carried, launched, and recovered by soldiers. They generally have ranges up to 20 km, and an endurance of 1-3 hours in the air. These UAVs aren’t designed to do depth reconnaissance, but to look over the next hill, watch a neighborhood in a city before troops enter it, patrol a base’s outer perimeter, etc. Even smaller micro-UAVs are in development, and focus more tightly on “this building” or “this engagement”. Higher level assets like Textron AAI’s RQ-7 Shadow, IAI’s I-View 250, Elbit’s Skylark II, or the Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle require additional support equipment for launch/recovery, and have the ability to cover “this sector” or even “this city”.
The late Dr. McReady’s Aerovironment, Inc. has a history of aerial innovation, from human and solar-powered flight to early entries that helped define the mini-UAV market. Their main competition is Israel’s Elbit Systems (esp. the popular Skylark I)... and as their history shows, their own designs.
1990: Aerovironment delivers the first privately-developed FQM-151 Pointer hand-launched UAVs, for “extended evaluation” by the US military and Special Operations communities. Some are used in Iraq and Kuwait during Desert Storm in 1991.
The subsequent Puma UAV design, begun in 2001, can be fairly characterized as a Pointer UAV that incorporates most of the industry’s advances since 1990.
2003: Aerovironment’s Dragon Eye/Swift (RQ-14) wins the US Marines’ competition for a mini-UAV.
2004: A new Aerovironment mini-UAV, the RQ-11A Raven, is soon fielded under limited expedited orders with the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division, and some special forces. This is not a formal competition, however, but an outgrowth of a 2002 ACTD (advanced concept technology demonstration) project.
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Fall 2005: The US Army’s RPUAV competition arises from the RQ-11’s success. SOCOM joins this competition, and the upgraded RQ-11B Raven wins.
The US Marines switched from Dragon Eye to the Raven B in 2007, and the US Air Force now fields them too. Raven has also proved popular with foreign militaries, and is in service with Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Spain.
August 2006: The USAF picks another Aerovironment mini-UAV for its BATMAV UAV competition, and deliveries begin under the 5-year $45 million contract. The Wasp UAV began as a DARPA project, and the larger Wasp-III is a 1-pound vehicle with a wingspan just under 3 feet. It is called a ‘micro-UAV,’ but in truth it sits on the borderline between mini-UAV systems and true micro-UAvs.
In late 2007, the US Marines began buying and issuing Wasp-IIIs at the platoon level, complementing the Raven B which is issued at the company and battalion levels. In January 2008, the USAF approved full-rate BATMAV production.
June 2008: SOCOM’s AECV program aims to select a mini-UAV that can be used by all branches, including Navy SEAL teams and USMC MARSOC. It picks the Puma AE, a new UAV from Aerovironment that adds a stabilized micro-camera, waterproofing, and the ability to land and recover the UAV on water.
The Puma AE
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Puma is slightly larger than Raven or the even smaller Wasp, but it is still man-portable and hand-launched. The original Puma was almost 6 feet long, with a wingspan of 8.5 feet. Aerovironment pursued the typical young industry profile of build-field test-build as it developed the AE variant, issuing modified UAvs to units in the field for evaluation and feedback.
The US SOCOM contract has been the Puma program’s focus for a some time now, as SOCOM’s specifications led Aerovironment to conclude that its larger Puma platform was a better fit than the existing RQ-11B Raven. Along the way, Puma has been used for hybrid fuel cell experiments, and an “Aqua-Puma” driven by requests from the field served as an interim step along the road to the final Puma AE.
The hand-launched Puma AE’s most significant innovation is that it can land on both land and water, surviving near-vertical “deep stall” final approaches. In addition to the obvious special forces scenarios like river infiltrations, the ability to land on water and in very tight areas on land means that Puma can also be used from boats and ships, without vessel modifications for landing systems or vehicle storage.
The other big innovation is its sensor system. Previous mini-UAV systems tended to have micro-cameras that could be moved by the operator to pan, tilt, or zoom. What they usually have not had was a camera that was fully stabilized to fix on a designated point and provide a steady, constant image that compensates for aircraft movement etc. Recently, firms like Israel’s Bental Systems have begun to offer stabilized micro-payloads. Puma AE incorporates this innovation in an EO/IR day- and night-capable, waterproof sensor package that provides this kind of image tracking and stabilization. Other payload designs can be clipped in as they are developed for military or civilian applications.
Control is exercised from Aerovironment’s Ground Control Station (GCS) with a line of sight communications range of 15 km, and the system has its own internal GPS for positioning. The Ground Control Station is shared by the firm’s Raven and Wasp/BATMAV systems. Flight endurance is about 2 hours in the production version, and typical flight altitude is 100-500 feet. Like other mini-UAVs, Puma relies on its small size, small radar profile, and quiet engine to avoid detection.
Contracts and Key Events
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July 1/08: AeroVironment, Inc., wins a 5-year (base year plus 4 one-year option periods), maximum $200 million indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract for an “all environment capable variant small unmanned aircraft systems” from the US SOCOM’s Program Executive Office – Fixed Wing. It covers aircraft, ground control systems, spares, repairs and training under a combination firm fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost reimbursable arrangement. The initial delivery order is valued at $6 million, and is fully funded.
Work will be performed in Simi Valley, CA and the base year period lasts for exactly 1 year from date of contract award. This contract was awarded through full and open competition (H92222-08-D-0048). See also Aerovironment release.
March 6/08: AeroVironment announces a 9 hour flight for a modified Puma powered by an onboard fuel cell/ battery hybrid energy storage system. During the flight, a 2-camera payload system provided a live, streaming video feed from the Puma. Aerovironment developed the battery pack, power electronics and controls portion of the hybrid energy storage system, which used London-listed Protonex Technology Corporation’s Pulse UAV fuel cell system.
This successful demonstration is not part of the SOCOM bid, but is conducted under Aerovironment’s separate small business innovation research (SBIR) Phase II contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). AFRL’s goal is to develop advanced energy storage and propulsion technologies for unmanned aircraft. The overall program advanced swiftly from kickoff in January 2007, to a 5-hour flight in May 2007, a 7-hour flight in July 2007, and then this 9-hour flight. Aerovironment release.
Additional Readings & Sources
- Aerovironment – UAS: Puma AE
- Aerovironment – UAS Advanced Development Center: Fuel Cell Puma
- Designation Systems – Aerovironment Puma. Differs in a number of significant respects from the Puma AE.
- Aerovironment – BATMAV. Also known as Wasp-III.
- See DID’s coverage of the RQ-11 Raven, beginning in Feb 2005 with “Raven UAV Draws Raves From The Field” and including “Field Report on Raven, Shadow UAVs From the 101st”.
- DID (Set 30/05) – AeroVironment Given SBIR contract for New UAVs: Can They Do It Again? DID is following up on this story to determine if it has a connection with Puma.
