In a major new business strategy for the company, L-3 Communications is developing a family of unmanned aerial vehicles for which it will build and support the platforms as well as provide the onboard sensors. THE VIKING 400 is featured at the L-3 booth at the AUSA 2009 convention in Washington, D.C. ( SHEILA VEMMER / STAFF)

The company is a major defense systems integrator and provider of weapons subsystems. But this push into the UAV market marks a strategic change for L-3.

The company is leveraging its recent win on a U.S. Special Operations Command competition to launch a "whole system" UAV effort. SOCom selected L-3's Viking 400 UAV earlier this year, and under an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract it will take delivery of six Viking 400s and two ground control systems in January.

The Viking 400 is featured on L-3's booth at the AUSA 2009 convention in Washington, D.C.

David "Roy" Rogers, L-3 director, UAS programs, said: "This is the first unmanned aerial systems program of record that L-3 is leading. We've always been known as a component provider, and we are on just about every UAV program in existence in some form.

"But we made the decision to go after more than just being the component provider and the message is that L-3 is coming in, in a big way, as a full system provider for UASs."

The Viking 400s being produced under SOCom's Expeditionary Unmanned Aerial System (EUAS) program are being built in Maryland at L-3 subsidiary BAI Aerosystems' facility. Geneva Aerospace, another L-3 subsidiary, is lead on the program, which involves a total of 12 L-3 companies.

Rogers said the Viking 400 fits a UAV niche between the smaller Shadow, built by AAI Corp., and the larger General Atomics-built Predator. It weighs about 530 pounds with fuel and maximum payload, has a wing span of 20 feet and an endurance of eight to 12 hours. L-3 has also produced two smaller Viking UAVs – the 100-pound Viking 100 and the 300-pound Viking 300.

"The Viking 400 is more of a 'truck' that has a lot of space for a 100-pound payload," Rogers said.

The system "pulls apart" so that it can be packed in a small container for deployment and reassembled on site. Six UAVs and two ground control systems fit into a C-130 transport aircraft.

SOCom's requirements were stringent, Rogers said. Special stipulations for the UAV included that it must be quiet, so the Viking 400 is equipped with mufflers and specially shaped propellers to dampen noise signature.

BY karen walker, ARMED FORCES JOURNAL Published: 5 Oct 15:36 EDT (19:36 GMT)