Northrop Grumman Corporation and Martin UAV have completed flight testing of the V-BAT unmanned aircraft system with new features including GPS-denied navigation and target designation capabilities.

The V-BAT UAS is compact, lightweight, simple to operate and can be set up, launched and recovered by a two soldier team in confined environments. It is designed with sufficient capacity to carry a range of interchangeable payloads including electro-optical/infrared, synthetic aperture radar and electronic warfare payloads depending on mission specific requirements.

For the Future Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (FTUAS) programme the U.S. Army is looking for a rapidly deployable, GPS-denied navigation capable VTOL system capable of persistent aerial reconnaissance for U.S. Army Brigade Combat Teams, Special Forces and Ranger battalions.

"The enhanced V-BAT offers a near zero footprint and flexible VTOL capability that is based on a platform deployed operationally today to address the U.S. Army's FTUAS mission," says Kenn Todorov, sector vice president and general manager, Northrop Grumman. "The team brings more than 30 years' experience in the production, delivery and sustainment of unmanned aircraft systems to support this critical mission today and into the future."