Mary-Louise Hoffman
Henry Finneral, vice president of tactical unmanned aircraft systems at Textron, has said the company plans to equip two upcoming variants of its Shadow TUAS with modern payload, communications and power systems in an interview with Defense News posted Friday.
Jen Judson writes Textron also looks to test new weapons such as a company-built laser guided bomb on its future V2 and M2 Shadow drones.
The company was awarded a $116.5 million contract by the U.S. Army in April to convert the service branch’s existing V1 Shadows into a V2 configuration.
Textron plans to build the V2 variant  with an updated engine technology, a longer wingspan and a digital system that can integrated with the U.S. military’s Tactical Common Data Link, according to Judson’s report.
Finneral told Defense News that Textron wants its M2 variant to incorporate a beyond line-of-sight connectivity architecture intended to support communications in different tactical missions.
