AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma AE Mini UAS

AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma AE Mini UAS

AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma is a small American Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) manufactured by AeroVironment based in California. Primary mission is surveillance and intelligence gathering using an electro-optical and infrared video camera. The Puma AE is capable of conducting intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition (ISRT), battle damage assessment, maritime patrol, search and rescue and drug interdiction missions over water or land.

AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma AE Mini UAS

AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma is slightly larger than RQ-11 Raven as is Aerovironment’s largest mini-UAV offering, but it’s still man-portable and hand-launched. The original Puma was almost 6 feet long, with a wingspan of 8.5 feet. Aerovironment pursued the typical young industry profile of build-field test-build as it developed the AE variant, issuing modified UAVs to units in the field for evaluation and feedback.

Previously selected for the United States Special Operations Command in 2008, in March 2012 the United States Army ordered the Puma All Environment (AE) and designated it the RQ-20A. In April, the United States Marine Corps and United States Air Force placed a similar order for the RQ-20A. Each military RQ-20A system has three air vehicles and two ground stations.

AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma AE Mini UAS

The Puma system flew for more than seven continuous hours on a PTX.L fuel cell system in October 2007 and it accomplished an endurance of more than nine hours using a fuel cell battery hybrid system in March 2008. The AeroVironment RQ-20 was assigned the Mission Design Series designation of RQ-20A by the US Air Force in April 2012. The production and delivery of the 1,000th Puma AE UAS was achieved in the same month of that year.

AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma AE Mini UAS

AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma is operated by a battle-proven Ground Control System (GCS). The UAS's GCS serves as a common control unit for operating the Raven and Wasp unmanned vehicles. The real-time data provided by the UAS is processed at the GCS. The station displays real-time videos and images captured by the payload cameras. It can also replay videos for target evaluation and transfer videos as well as information to the operations network.

Specification:

• Role: Remote controlled UAS
• Manufacturer: AeroVironment
• First flight: 2007
• Length: 4 ft 7 in (1.4 m)
• Wingspan: 9 ft 2 in (2.8 m)
• Max takeoff weight: 13 lb (5.9 kg)
• Maximum speed: 52 mph; 45 kn (83 km/h)
• Minimum control speed: 23 mph; 20 kn (37 km/h)
• Range: 9 mi; 8 nmi (15 km)
• Endurance: 2 hours