Scott Nicholas
The U.S. Navy has selected an AeroVironment-built unmanned aircraft system for deployment from submarines to operate in anti-access and aerial denial environments.
AeroVironment built Blackwing for a joint capability technology demonstration sponsored by the Navy and U.S. Special Operations Command known as Advanced Weapons Enhanced by Submarine UAS against Mobile targets, AeroVironment said Monday.
Kirk Flittie, vice president and general manager for AeroVironment’s UAS segment, said that the Blackwing is designed with options for integration into a variety of surface vessels and mobile ground vehicles to provide reconnaissance capacity for client operations.
The new system looks to build on the company’s UAS operations and its Switchblade lethal miniature aerial missile system, AeroVironment noted.
AeroVironment added that Blackwing uses a miniature electro-optical and infrared payload, selective availability anti-spoofing module GPS and the company’s Digital Data Link for the UAS platform the launches from underwater.
