Nigel Pittaway | Le Bourget

Textron Systems Unmanned Systems used the opening day of the 52nd Paris International Air Show to formally launch its Night Warden tactical unmanned aircraft system (TUAS).

Night Warden is a Group 3 UAS with a Maximum Take Off Weight (MTOW) of 340 kg and an endurance of up to 15 hours at a maximum altitude of 16,000 feet. It is the production version of the Shadow M2 which Textron has had under development for some years.

The Night Warden has a capability which is common to much larger platforms

“The Night Warden is our new Group3, next generation TUAS, which looks similar to the Shadow M2. However, since we launched Shadow M2 in 2011 we had developed a concept, but had not settled on our detailed plan for avionics, the engine, data links or payloads,” Unmanned Systems senior vice president and general manager, Bill Irby said.

“Since then we’ve used our own money to develop these features, while keeping in mind our customers’ future requirements.”

He said the system offers several advantages over other Group 3 TUAS systems, including an optional Satellite Communications (SATCOM) package which provides beyond line of sight (BLOS) communications.

“The Night Warden has a capability which is common to much larger platforms, such as Group 4 Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) systems,” Irby explains.

“It also features an open architecture and dual payload bay with a capacity of up to 59 kg. This allows for initial packages such as communications relay, sense and avoid or additional payloads such as electronic attack, signals intelligence and communications intelligence.”

Irby said that over 400 hours of demonstration flights have already been undertaken for customers in the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions.

“We are working with multiple (potential) customers right now,” he said.

The Australian Army is an operator of the earlier RQ-7 Shadow 200 TUAS system, acquired under JP129 Phase 2.