SOCom to mount Hellfire missiles on Hummingbird - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

SOCom to mount Hellfire missiles on Hummingbird

U.S. Special Operations Command is planning to mount Hellfire missiles on, strengthen the skin of, and add redundant flight controls to prototype versions of the A160T Hummingbird UAV, said Army Maj. Scott Beal, SOCom Hummingbird program manager.

Hummingbird maker “Boeing is completing a design to mount Hellfires on the rotocraft’s stub wings at the beginning of January,” Beal said at the 2008 Army Aviation Association of America Unmanned Aircraft Symposium in Arlington, Va.

SOCom is testing seven prototypes purchased in 2005 as part of a technology demonstration phase slated to continue through March. In August, officials tested the UAV’s ability to exchange data with One System Remote Video Terminal, Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, and Enhanced Position Location Reporting System, Beal said.

The Hummingbird is a 35-foot, 5,500-pound UAV that can carry a 500-pound sensor payload and fly up to 142 knots. It has flown unrefueled for 18.7 hours with a 347-pound payload of electro-optical/infrared sensors, Beal said.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched the program in 1998. In October 2007, DARPA awarded Boeing $6.3 million for additional Hummingbird development and testing. If the Hummingbird becomes an official program of record, it would enter service 2012, Beal said.