Tools of War: RQ-7B Shadow UAV

It flies and it has cutting-edge avionics and sensor packages, but similarities with last week's feature (AC-130) end there.

The RQ-7B (aka Shadow 200) UAV is designed and produced by AAI, the same folks that brought the successful but more basic RQ-2 Pioneer to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Pioneer drones are perhaps most remembered for their role in the 1991 Gulf War, when a Pioneer launched by the battleship USS Wisconsin observed Iraqi troops surrendering shortly after USS Missouri’s attack on their trenchlines. Had an audio feed been available, we would likely have learned colloquial Arabic for "We don't want none o' that!"

Unlike its predecessors, the Shadow does not require an "external pilot" operating traditional RC-style control sticks to take-off and land. The Shadow is launched using a pneumatic launcher that flings the bird into the air. Landing is accomplished with a highly-sophisticated auto-land feature (using differential GPS) that has to be seen to be believed. When the AAI guy said, "the wheels will hit right here," and then marked the spot on the dirt runway with his toe, those gathered around him collectively thought, "Uh, yeah...riiiiight." And then the Shadow backed up his words, again and again and again.

The Shadow boasts a range of 110km, endurance of six hours, and a payload capacity of 100 pounds. Half the size of the short-lived RQ-5A Hunter Short-Range UAV, the Shadow is designated a Tactical UAV, and it provides all of the intel goodness (and more) of the SR-UAV system, while having much smaller visual and radar signatures. The logistical footprint is also much smaller, as is the tactical footprint: In a rare burst of genius, the Army requirements dictated that the TUAV be able to land on a soccer field. As we all know, outside of the US, you can't play shot-putt with a dead 'possum without it landing on a soccer field (and bonus points to those of you who recognized that you'll rarely find a dead opossum outside of North America). The trade-off is that the endurance, payload, and range capabilities are about half of the SR-UAV, but operationally, that gap is able to be filled by coverage from the Air Force's Predator UAV.

The Army is fielding the RQ-7B to every combat brigade, and the Marines have two Shadow units (VMU-2 and VMU-3) at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twenty-nine Palms and one unit (VMU-1) at MCAS Cherry Point (I plead ignorance to how the Navy is fielding it....anyone want to help?), thus providing answers to every battle commander's biggest question: "What the hell am I getting into?"





By: Steve