Lockheed Martin's Fury unmanned aerial vehicle just received an engine upgrade.
The aerospace and defense giant last week announced that integrating the 1803 engine into the aircraft boosts its continuous flight capabilities from 12 hours to 15 hours -- making it one of the highest-endurance crafts of its kind.
“We’ve engineered Fury to bring the flight endurance and other advantages of much larger unmanned aircraft into a compact, effective, category three system,” Kevin Westfall, the company's director of unmanned systems, said in a statement. “Lockheed Martin has invested heavily to mature the incredible capabilities Fury can deliver, and we’re excited to bring this system to customers around the world.”
In addition to heightened endurance, Fury offers Class 3 UAV capabilities with its power generation, low-signature design and advanced fuel-propulsion system. The open architecture platform can carry more than 200 pounds of payload and fuel, boasts an adaptable and reconfigurable structure and has a blended 17-foot wingspan for minimal visual signature.
With no landing gear, Fury is a true runway-independent UAV. The catapult launch and expeditionary recovery system can be assembled on unimproved ground, in an area spanning only 200 square feet.
Lockheed officials said more updates are forthcoming to allow Fury to serve in cyber-electronic warfare as well as conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
