AeroVironment has unveiled its new drone – called P550 – that can stay airborne up to five hours on a single charge to conduct reconnaissance missions and even drop bombs during strike missions.
The drone was unveiled at the Association of the United States Army’s (AUSA) Annual Meeting & Exposition held in Washington.
The company is aiming to enable the drone to get a spot in the US Army’s Long-Range Reconnaissance (LRR) program.
The drone is capable of taking off and landing vertically alongside carrying up to 15 pounds of bombs, cameras, or sensors, and is aimed at improving the soldiers’ battlefield awareness at a substantially low-cost.
P550 drone specifications
AeroVironment’s P550 drone has dimensions of 17 feet by 9 feet (5.2 meter x 2.8 meter). It is roughly 55 pounds (24.9 kgs) by weight.
An autonomous Group 2 eVTOL unmanned aircraft system (UAS), the P550 can be remotely piloted or fly autonomously –depending on the need and requirements on the battlefield.
The drone gives forces an adaptable, autonomous UAS that quickly adapts to changing mission requirements in minutes.
Always prepared for action in any environment, it offers advanced situational awareness and enhanced force protection, including targeting and strike capabilities.
The modular open system approach (MOSA) design enables integration with various third-party payloads, data links, and mission planning software offering adaptability to evolving mission demands, according to the company’s claims.
Moreover, the company also states that it can be reconfigured in the field in less than five minutes by swapping payloads and batteries without using specific tools. The up to five hours of battery endurance also makes it an attractive option for the forces.
The drone has a link range of 24 miles (40 kms), which can extend to up to 37 miles (60 kms) with DDL range depending on GCS Radio.
It is man-portable and designed for ease of transport and can fit into a small Humvee or with a 3-case pack-out.
Moreover, it offers the option for quick assembly as it has tool less quick-connect airframe which could be ready to fly in under 10 minutes once out of the box.
For surviving in contest environments, the drone has a VNS Day/Night VIO navigation system with laser terrain matching, flexible radio options with frequency hopping.
AeroVironment’s tie-up with Parry Labs
Further, it is also features AVACORE – an open autonomy software framework – and SPOTR-Edge computer vision for onboard detection. The onboard detection feature drastically reduces the operator’s load.
Earlier this year, AeroVironment had entered into a teaming agreement with Parry Labs for the P550 drone – which is built with the intention of serving in the Army’s LRR program.
Parry Labs’ team of MOSA leaders and digital systems experts have created a foundational platform using an open and intelligent software stack, SWaP-C optimized hardware, and a digital engineering environment for collaborative build, test and integration .
“Our customers rely on AV’s market-leading UAS to perform critical missions in challenging and hostile environments, while offering a verified and validated MOSA architecture from both software and hardware standpoints in order to eliminate vendor lock,” said AV’s Vice President of Engineering, Cris Sapera.
“By teaming with Parry Labs, our valued P550 customers can expect a truly open system architecture that will have predefined Major System Components with validated open interfaces for quick, seamless replacement as needed.”
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