Puma 3 AE UAS to be delivered to U.S. ally under AeroVironment contract
NewsOctober 20, 2020
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. AeroVironment, Inc., company specializing in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), announced it secured a $8.3 million firm-fixed-price U.S. Department of Defense FMS contract award for Puma 3 AE tactical UAS, training, and support to an allied nation.
According to the company, the AeroVironment Puma 3 AE is a fully man-portable unmanned aircraft system designed for land and maritime operations. The hand-launched Puma 3 AE has a line-of-sight range of 20 kilometers with a standard antenna, and up to 60 kilometers with AeroVironment’s Long-Range Tracking Antenna (LRTA). The Puma is designed with a Mantis i45 sensor suite, intended to equip the operator with extended flight time and imaging capability.
To expand operational range, AeroVironment’s LRTA can be used with Puma 3 AE and all other Digital Data Link (DDL) equipped UAS, aiming to increase line-of-sight command and control up to 60 kilometers.
The company claims that the LRTA features a directional antenna mounted on a tracking positioner intended to allow for automatic or manual tracking of an aircraft at an extended stand-off range. The LRTA is now offered in two versions – M1/2/5 and M3/4/6 – to support all DDL frequency bands.
