AeroVironment RQ-14 Dragon Eye

History

The U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s fueled a boom in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry, which led to the introduction of many unmanned teleoperated systems. A product of this period, the AeroVironment RQ-14 "Longan", is a compact tactical reconnaissance drone that first flew in June 2001.

Launched a year later, it received considerable service in the United States Marine Corps (USMC), as development was done by the Naval Research Laboratory and the Marine Corps Warfare Laboratory. About 1,000 units have been contracted.

Externally, the Longan takes the form of a traditional aircraft with a centralized fuselage containing all relevant mission equipment, monoplane wing assemblies and vertical stabilizer. The aircraft has no horizontal stabilizers and one-piece landing gear, and the main planes of the wings are designed to be wide and straight.

Propulsion for the drone comes from two biplane electric propulsion motors located in front of the leading edges of the wings on either side of the fuselage. The aircraft's dimensions include a 3.75-foot wingspan and 3-foot length, making it relatively easy to transport on the back of an infantryman.

Its overall weight is a manageable six pounds.

The Longan system is manually launched and does not require complex runway landing gear or catapult systems. Forward power is enhanced by the use of bungee-style flex cables that help increase initial speed.

Once in the air and on its own power, the drone uses an operator-programmed waypoint-based navigation system via an integrated global positioning system (GPS) and inertial navigation system (INS). The task duration window is about one hour. The drone is connected to a ground control system (GCS) consisting of a high-performance laptop computer, which provides the ground operator with real-time color/high-definition infrared (IR) video imagery from the Longan unit.

Transmission (line-of-sight) range is up to 6 miles, the drone has an operational range of up to 3 miles, a service range of up to 500 feet, and speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. Restoration is accomplished simply by landing the Dragon Eye unit on a relatively smooth surface - its frame is engineered to be disassembled and reassembled in short order.

If the unit suffers more catastrophic damage, its major components can easily be replaced with parts from another longan kit.

The Longan UAV is also in service today (2015) with US Marine Corps units. Its portability and ease of use, along with reliable functionality, make it a powerful addition to the Navy's growing arsenal of high-tech arsenals.

Additionally, its silent operation often results in enemy forces unaware of its overhead positiona good alternative to the larger, more expensive UAS currently available.

Specification

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