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| Shadow UAS. Photo: U.S. Army. |
[Avionics Magazine 06-08-2016] Textron Systems has announced that its Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (TUAS) has surpassed 1 million total flight hours, becoming the only unmanned aircraft system of its size to accomplish this significant milestone. More than 85 percent of these flight hours occurred during combat operations.
Since its introduction in 1999, the Shadow TUAS has received various upgrades, including all digital encrypted communications, increased bandwidth and onboard power supporting multiple payloads in a single sortie, extended wings and engine improvements improving performance, as well as a network based architecture compliant with STANAG requirements for interoperability. The Shadow TUAS actively supports the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), as well as armed forces in Italy, Sweden and Australia.