The US Marine Corps has purchased two Insitu Integrator unmanned aircraft systems to provide pre-deployment training at 29 Palms, California.
The first system will be delivered next month and the second soon after. The U.S. Navy plans to purchase two similar Integrator systems for its special-warfare forces.
This “early operational capability” (EOC) option has been exercised under the Navy/Marine Corps RQ-21A Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (Stuas) development contract awarded to Boeing subsidiary Insitu in 2010. Stuas is a development of the commercial Integrator, and the decision to field EOC systems follows an operational assessment of the UAS at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., earlier this year.
The two, four-aircraft Integrator systems purchased by the Marines will be delivered to 29 Palms to support Mojave Viper pre-deployment training for units heading to Afghanistan, according to Col. James Rector, program manager for Navy and Marine Corps small tactical UAS.
Mojave Viper exercises are currently supported by one ScanEagle system operated by Boeing and Insitu under their ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) services contract. “One system allows them to see one valley,” Rector said Aug. 16 at the AUVSI Unmanned Systems North America show in Washington. “The EOC Integrator systems will allow them to look at multiple valleys and provide more realistic training.”
The EOC systems also will be operated by Boeing and Insitu under their ISR services contract and used only for training.
The Marines are not planning to deploy the Integrators operationally, “but since they have bought them, they may elect to take the EOC systems [to Afghanistan].”
Development of the Stuas is on track, Rector says. The preliminary design review was completed last month and the critical design review is scheduled for December. The RQ-21A is meeting its key performance parameters and exceeding the threshold endurance requirement of 10 hr., he says.
Rector says the Navy is handling its first potential foreign military sale of the RQ-21A, to the Netherlands, which has announced plans to acquire ScanEagle systems as a first step.
Insitu, meanwhile, says it is close to a significant direct commercial sale of the Integrator.
Source: Aviation Week