The U.S. Defense department has just approved a project that will bring a 1950s drone-style weapon to life. U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced via Twitter that the Northrop Grumman company will be developing a tailsitter drone.
The device will be able to land on any ship, essentially making every U.S. Navy ship an aircraft carrier, the Daily Mail reports.
"Small-deck ships such as destroyers and frigates could greatly increase their effectiveness if they had their own unmanned air systems (UASs) to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other capabilities at long range around the clock," DARPA and the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research said.
The machine lands on the ship's tail, that design was first tested in the 1950s but was dropped six years later after a failure to solve the pilot problem, according to Defense News. The project was proposed by Northrop for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Tern program, according to the Daily Mail.
The model will have a four-point landing wheel configuration and is powered by twin propellers on its nose, Defense News reports. It will be able to take off and land vertically but will transition to horizontal mode while in air. The tern drone will have a wing span of about nine meters and will be able to carry about 500 lbs of weight, according to Defense Update. The device will look a little like the XFY-1 Pogo, DARPA said in a news release.
Ships currently being built have been including into their design plans for such a machine, according to Popular Science . That includes the new high-tech Zumwalt destroyer as well as the T2050 - a British concept.
Northrop has been offered $93-million for the project, Defense Update reports. The company will also be contributing $39 million for the project. The project is a collaborative effort between DARPA and the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research and will be lead by a team from Northrop Grumman Corporation.
