The US Army has posted images of a Textron Aerosonde HQ unmanned system undergoing testing in the northwest US.
The Aerosonde HQ is one of four contenders currently being trialled for the US Army’s Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) requirement, the other three being Martin UAV and Northrop Grumman with the V-Bat ‘tail-sitter’ system, the Arcturus UAV Jump-20 system, and L3Harris’s FVL-90 quadrotor hybrid system.
In these images posted on Twitter by the US Army’s Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team (FVLCFT), the Aerosonde HQ trials are being conducted by the US Army’s 1-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, an element of the 7th Infantry Division.
The Aerosonde HQ is a hybrid system that features four vertical lift rotors on extended tail booms and a pusher propeller. It and the conventional Australian-developed Aerosonde V4 are one of the shortlisted systems for the Australian Army’s LAND 129 Phase 3 (page 16) TUAS requirement, a down select for which is scheduled to occur later this year or in early 2021.