The Shadow UAV

The Shadow UAV TEXTRON

Drone-Helicopter Teams Performing ‘Very Well’ Against ISIS

Future unmanned-human teaming looks a lot like the Predator’s little cousin.

Over the smoking sands of Iraq, the military is coming to rely on formations of 20-foot drones, working with Apache attack helicopters against the Islamic State. Such operations have just pushed the Textron Shadow UAV past 1 million flight hours, becoming the first of the Army’s mid-range, or Group III drones, to hit that milestone.

The Army is now talking publicly about the first heavy attack reconnaissance squadron to deploy and return with the Apache-Shadow combination, the service’s Shadow product manager told reporters in a conference call on Monday. That would be 3-6 Cavalry out of Fort Bliss, Texas, which returned from Iraq two weeks ago.

“We are starting our after-action reviews with them, from an Apache standpoint and a Shadow standpoint, going and talking to the unit, how did the mission go," said. Lt. Col. Tory Burgess. “The information that we’re getting back is that the Shadows performed very well.”  

The Shadow that actually took the type past the 1-million-hour mark belongs to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany, Burgess said.

“It took us a day or two, but we dove down and determined that that was the crew,” he said.

Compared to the more famous MQ-1 Predator or the larger MQ-9 Reaper, the Shadow, introduced in 1999, is smaller — small enough to launch from a catapult. It is also far less costly; Textron doesn’t disclose the price, but it’s a good deal less than the $5 million Predator or a $13 million Reaper. As a Group III drone, it lacks the range of the Group IV aircraft. It’s not a bird you pilot from the other side of the world, but that matters less to some of the potential government buyers of today’s ISR and armed drones.

Every service “would like the Group IV capability inside a Group III that’s runway-independent,” said Burgess. Read that to mean a drone that works like a Predator, but that you don’t need a runway to launch, and that’s what a smaller drone gives you.

They aren’t alone.

“There has been a lot of interest in this system or variance of this system in the Middle East region as well as several countries in Europe,” Textron senior vice president William Irby told reporters on a call on Monday. One of the Ukraine government’s enduring wish list requests is drones that can withstand jamming from top-of-the-line Russian electromagnetic warfare equipment and techniques.

The Shadow can be armed; Textron has spent a lot of its own money to demonstrate with a light Hellfire-esque missile called the Fury, modified from a Thales design. But the Army currently has no plans to missile-up the Shadow for combat and current arms trade restrictions prohibit Textron from selling armed variants of the drone to other militaries.

But the appetite is present in the Middle East. And rival weapons-making nations are anxious to meet new demand. Consider the burgeoning market for small, armed Chinese drones in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.

Regardless of whether the Pentagon ever puts missiles on the Shadow, or allows it to sell armed variants abroad, the U.S. military sees the drone as a key part of the Army’s arsenal until 2030. They will look to improve the drone with more laser designators to help targeting.

“Currently, a platoon of four air vehicles only has two laser designators and two non-laser designators associated with it,” said Burgess.

They’re also looking to toughen the Shadow against bad weather, two inches of rain per hour, mostly so the drones, operated on the ground, can keep up with helicopters.

“While you can’t see much in two inches of rain per hour," he said. "You can be a better teammate with your Apache partner. So as we look at manned-unmanned teaming, we need to be able to fly in the same sorts of environments that the Apache does.”

The last big area of improvement for the Army is making the Shadow easier for service people to operate, to “make it easier on the soldier operator… It’s very important to us to take the load off the soldier.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.