Boeing subsidiary Insitu has announced the newest member of its growing fleet of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), ScanEagle3.
According to the company, the midsize ScanEagle3 was designed as a commercial product to provide customers with the optimum combination of payload, endurance, mobility and cost to support a wide range of applications.
Insitu says this commercial approach provides additional benefits to Insitu’s customers through commercial pricing, as well as global exportability through a commodity jurisdiction from the U.S. Department of State stating that ScanEagle3 is not covered by U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Over its predecessors, ScanEagle3 offers a significantly increased payload capacity – up to three payloads simultaneously – and it is fully compatible with existing system components such as INEXA Control and ICOMC2, as well as Insitu’s family of launch and recovery equipment.
“Our engineers have been very successful at reducing ScanEagle3 lifecycle costs and increasing operating efficiency – a huge win for both our customers and Insitu,” comments Matt Bartow, Insitu’s chief technology officer.
The drone features a ground-adjustable aero-package, enabling a large center of gravity range for even more payload integration options. Other enhancements include avionics designed for increased performance across multiple levels of criticality, a new purpose-built propulsion system that increases reliability while reducing lifecycle costs, and the same autopilot as in the RQ-21A Blackjack.
Insitu says the new UAS is compatible with existing ScanEagle payloads, resulting in easy upgrading capabilities. Applications include infrastructure, oil and gas, and mining inspections; disaster response; day/night full-motion video; maritime surface search; escort and perimeter security; communications relay; electronic detection; maritime vessel tracking; and wildfire monitoring.
“ScanEagle3 provides our customers with a key capability that completes the use case and operational profiles for our UAS portfolio,” says Jon Damush, Insitu’s chief growth officer. “Filling a critical gap between ScanEagle and Integrator, our intent from the start was to build a system that preserved all the best parts of the ScanEagle system but gave customers additional payload capability to satisfy multiple payload missions. Simply put, by being able to simultaneously collect multiple data types during a flight improves efficiency and affordability.”
