The Dragon Eye is five-pound, easily carried in a back-pack, UAV providing aerial patrolling and surveillance for branches of the military such as the US Marine Corps at low tactical units levels. Dragon Eye’s have twin electric engines that run on battery power with little to no noise. It is flown independently at an altitude of 150m’. The Dragon Eye weighs in at 2.5 kg, the camera and equipment weighs 1 pound. It is reported that The US Marines Corps are planning to obtain a more enhanced version of The Dragon-Eye, better known as model X-63.
The system its self can be conveniently carried in your average backpack, and can be disassembled into five sections and carried with the 5 kg control station. It has the ability to be assembled in the field within ten minutes. Dragon Eye’s is constructed using lightweight Styrofoam-like materials. It has a wingspan of 18 cm once full assembled and weighs about five pounds. The intended missions is then programmed on the control station and transmitted, via wireless modem, to the UAV. The UAV can be launched either by a bungee cords or by hand. After launch it reaches a cruise altitude and navigates via GPS. The camera is mounted on the fuselage side and is capable of transmitting live video to a ground station 10 km away, utilizing line-of-sight video data link. Less than a week’s training is required for a solider to be able to operate the system.
(Photo by defense-update)
Above is the Dragon Eye system consisting of two air vehicles, four cameras, two replacement noses and one ground control station. The estimated cost of the entire system at full rate production is approximately $60,000-70,000.Further development and testing still awaits the Dragon Eye such as the addition of a high-resolution 640 x 480 infrared camera, development of a communications relay payload, a communications system, and experimentation with alternate power supplies and air vehicle design to improve endurance. A prototype zinc-air battery has already been tested on the unmanned drone.
• Air vehicle: 2.5 kg
• Wing span: 18 cm
• GCS – 6 kg
• Endurance: 60 minutes
• Cruise speed: 65 km/h
Aerovironment is currently developing an enhanced version based on requirements and operational feedback from combat units operating the drone. The Dragon Eye UAV Upgrade, also known as X-63, will receive air frame changes as well as improved power sources increasing its capability’s. It will also receive an autopilot for improved landing accuracy and in-flight navigation, and a new sensor payload with an IR and zoom camera that will providing true day/night capability. The system will have a new Level-4 compliant communications control board with 16 software selectable channels for uplink and downlink.