Aerosonde Mk. 4.7 UAS Maritime-Launch

The Aerosonde drone is being used in operations in the US Navy’s 2nd and 7th Fleet. (Photo courtesy of Textron Systems)

WASHINGTON: Textron Systems recently began flying its unmanned aerial surveillance drone off a destroyer in US 7th Fleet and is on contract to deploy another drone to a second ship later this year.

Textron received a contract in October to begin operating its Aerosonde drone on the first of two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. Following installation and integration, the UAS took its first flight from the warship in March, Wayne Prender, a Textron aviation executive, told Breaking Defense during an interview in the run up to the Sea Air Space exposition. (Prender added that he could not disclose the specific ship on which the UAS is onboard.)

With a 12-foot wingspan, the Aerosonde is a group three drone, meaning it is medium-sized, and is capable of operating in sea state four, or weather conditions with waves between four and eight feet high. Its capabilities mostly focus on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance as well wide-area search.

Prior to deploying a drone to the US 7th Fleet destroyer, Prender said Textron had another Aerosonde operating in US 2nd Fleet off the expeditionary sea base Hershel “Woody” Williams, meaning the company will have a total of three drones actively deployed by the end of the year.

Textron’s new contract is partly a reflection of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday’s mandate to get unmanned systems out to the fleet faster. One way both the Navy and Marine Corps seem to be doing that is the use of “company-owned, company-operated” agreements.

That type of contractual arrangement limits the missions and environments in which the service can use the aircraft compared to service-owned and operated systems, but offers other benefits such as saving time and money on having to train sailors. The Marine Corps has used a similar agreement in past years for the MQ-9 Reaper, but recently began transitioning toward owning and operating the drone themselves.

RELATED: From lease to own: Marines get two MQ-9 Reapers of their own

One advantage the Aerosonde drone has is its ability to operate without the use of a hangar, which has allowed the service to deploy it onboard older destroyers that usually lack the ability to store their own air assets.

“We can come in and we do not require a hangar. We have a very small footprint… We are able to store [the drone] in the small nooks and crannies of variety of vessels. And then when the ship needs us, we can go out, we can launch or recover as needed,” said Prender.

Outside of the Navy, Aerosonde has amassed 575,00 flight hours for US Special Operations Command and the US Air Force, often present in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve as well as Afghanistan.