the United States has developed a new attack drone (photo)

The UAV will become the most lifting vehicle among all American drones. The developers have found a way out how to neutralize its low autonomy in the air.

–

The American defense company General Atomics has built and launched a prototype UAV with weapons that surpass any US drone. About it informs Breaking Defense.

The new drone, currently unnamed and unannounced, made its maiden flight at the Desert Horizon Proving Ground in the Mojave Desert. The publication was confirmed by the fact of a test flight at once by two different sources associated with the program.

The UAV will be more adaptable to work in harsh conditions, and it will take less than 250 meters to take off and land. This will allow it to be launched not only from airfields, but probably also from ships.

Its maximum payload will be 16 Hellfire missiles, double the MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAV and four times the MQ-9 Reaper. The company admits that such a load will negatively affect the flight time of the UAV and will require more electricity and cooling. This disadvantage will be leveled by launching from places closer to the place of conflict in order to quickly launch missiles, reducing weight and increasing autonomy.

Note that the weight of one Hellfire missile ranges from 45 to 49 kilograms. It turns out that the carrying capacity of the UAV is at least 720 kg.

The design of the new drone will be very similar to the MQ-1C Gray Eagle. In general, the development borrows a lot of General Atomics developments from other projects.

At the moment, the characteristics of the device and its appearance remain unknown, but by the end of the year, the developers plan to disclose this information.

Recall in a 15-second video in the United States, new military developments have been teased: UAV, fighter and bomber.

Previously, the US Army ordered quiet and supersonic UAV to simulate hostile targets.

– .