Lockheed Martin Has Revealed a New Stealthy UAV

Aviation Week & Space Technology
09/22/2003, page 32

David A. Fulghum
Washington

New Stealth

The tightlipped crew at the Skunk Works has parted its veil of secrecy enough to show images of a stealthy, cruise missile-like unmanned aircraft that will go where even the F/A-22 won’t so that it can grab intelligence or slam sensitive electronics with a small bomb or a destructive stream of microwave energy.

Lockheed Martin’s Minion UAV is being designed with an even stealthier radar cross section than the F/A-22 Raptor (return smaller than a marble) and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (smaller than a golf ball). The low-observable, 7,500-lb. unmanned aircraft will be physically small enough that one can be carried under each wing.

The initial concept of operations is that a two-ship formation would launch and control four UAVs. Since F/A-22s have only one crewman, it’s likely that one pilot would monitor the UAVs while the other maintained situational awareness of threats on the airborne battlefield. Nonetheless, the pilot workload is expected to be less than that required for an AIM-120 air-to-air missile launch.