Pictured above: Pipistrel MALE Surveillance platform
Technology Service Corporation’s (TSC) operation and sustainment of the Group 4 unmanned long endurance aircraft (LEA) fleet recently completed its 2,100th mission sortie milestone with more than 28,000 combat flight hours in support of high-priority intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations for the Department of Defense. Deployed since 2016, the LEA system provides cost-effective and enduring continuous full motion video and electronic surveillance for beyond line of sight ISR operations.
Developed and advanced under several DoD Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts, the medium altitude, long endurance unmanned aerial system (UAS) utilizes a high lift to drag ratio commercial composite Pipistrel Sinus airframe. The UAS conversion provides fully automated takeoff to landing flight operations utilizing hardened GPS navigation and an encrypted satellite-based command and data relay for true global operational access. The LEA system can also provide a rapid expeditionary ISR capability for deployment to austere locations with operations initiated in less than 24 hours with both an all forward or split forward launch and recovery and remote mission control configuration.