Arlington, Virginia- The program manager of the A160T Hummingbird UAV vehicle recently spoke at a Army 2008 Aviation Association of America Unmanned Aircraft Symposium, and detailed possible plans for the addition of Hellfire missiles on board the Hummingbird UAV system.
?Boeing is working to finish a plan to mount Hellfire missiles by January 2009 or so on the UAV Hummingbird airframe,? said Army Major Scott Beal.
Major Beal is the US Special Operations Command program manager on the UAV Hummingbird, and a spokesman for the US Army on the overall Hummingbird UAV System.
Special Operations Command are working to test seven different prototypes of the Hummingbird UAV system that is part of testing that is expected to continue through March 2009.
The Hummingbird is a 5,500 pound Unmanned Aerial Vehicle that is 35 feet long, and it has a lot of both offensive capability as well as aerial survelliance and reconnaissance. It can fly up to 142 knots and stay in the air for as long as 18 hours complete with a payload of up to 347 pounds.
DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency has give Boeing Aircraft Manufacturing a contract to continue to develop different new deployment and capability for the Hummingbird UAV aircraft. The contract is worth $6.3 million and gives Boeing the motivation to continue to develop and test the Hummingbird UAV in a variety of new offensive ways.