ScanEagle’s base Insight UAV platform was originally developed by Washington state’s Insitu, Inc. to track dolphins and tuna from fishing boats, in order to ensure that the fish you buy in supermarkets is “dolphin-safe”. It turns out that the same characteristics needed by fishing boats (able to handle salt water environments, low infrastructure launch and recovery, small size, 20-hour long endurance, automated flight patterns) are equally important for naval operations from larger vessels, and for battlefield surveillance. A partnership with Boeing took ScanEagle to market in those fields, and the USMC’s initial buy in 2004 was the beginning of a market-leading position in its niche.
This article covers recent developments with the ScanEagle UAV system, which is quickly evolving into a mainstay with the US Navy and its allies. Incumbency doesn’t last long in the fast-changing world of UAVs, however. The RQ-21 Integrator, also from Insitu, is getting set to push the ScanEagle aside:
The ScanEagle Family
he ScanEagle is solidly based on Insitu’s original “Insight” platform, with different variants distinguished by their payloads and accompanying equipment rather than their aerodynamic design. The UAVs are launched by catapult, and autonomously recovered using a folding “skyhook” and catch-line. These UAVs fill a niche between hand-launched mini-UAVs like Aerovironment’s RQ-11 Raven or Elbit’s Skylark I, and runway-capable tactical UAVs like Textron’s RQ-7 Shadow, Aeronautics DS’ Aerostar, or IAI’s Searcher II. Its long endurance is actually superior to its tactical UAV competitors, but its payload weight limit is significantly smaller.
ScanEagle has been demonstrated or used from a wide variety of ship classes and types, and the family includes a number of specialty variants from sniper locator, to bio-warfare agent detection (BCAS). A NightEagle conversion kit adds a different front end with thermal imaging sensors, and allows field conversion of ScanEagle aircraft in 2-3 hours. More drastic modifications are found in the ScanEagle Compressed Carriage (SECC), whose smaller fold-out wings allow it to be launched from an aircraft pylon, or a submarine.
Boeing contractor, Iraq:
ScanEagle returns
ScanEagle returns
That combination of versatility, long endurance, and small size appears to be succeeding in the global defense marketplace, without really impairing the market for tactical UAVs.
Boeing has had field representatives in theater for a few years now to support and operate the ScanEagle UAV from ships and ashore,receiving high battlefield praise and a fairly regular stream of contracts from the USA and Australia. Canada has signed on for battlefield surveillance services, the Dutch are using ScanEagle as an interim UAV, Poland has purchased the platform, Singapore has conducted tests from its own naval ships, and a US Navy presentation suggests that the Colombian, Iraqi, and Tunisian navies are also using it. Other customers wait in the wings, with reported interest from Kuwait and Pakistan, among others.
The latest US Navy ISR contract will have ScanEagle competing against the Aerosonde-G for naval buys of UAV services, and against both the Aerosonde G and Saab’s Skeldar helicopter UAV for land-based surveillance missions.
The UAV field continues to change quickly, and so Insitu’s flagship product will also have to contend with an internal competitor. Boeing’s Insitu division has begun to offer a next-generation “Integrator”platform, which was picked as the US Navy and Marine Corps’ next-generation RQ-21A Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System. As it deploys, it will replace the existing US Navy ScanEagle services contracts. It’s also reported that service contracts with other countries will begin incorporating the RQ-21, either as a main UAV or as a switch-in option.
The RQ-21A Integrator boosts endurance to over 24 hours, and raises maximum payload from about 13.2 pounds/ 6 kg to about 50 pounds / 23 kg. Wingspan rises from about 10.2 feet/ 3.1m to 15.8 feet/ 4.8m, and body length rises from 3.9 feet/ 12m to 7 feet/ 2.1m. Its sensor package will be a bit more versatile, too, with TV zoom and mid-wave infrared cameras, plus an infrared marker and a laser rangefinder (but not, yet, a target designator), all in a single package, instead of the ScanEagle’s swap-in options. Launch and recovery methods are the same as the ScanEagle’s, and use the same equipment.
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