The Pentagon is testing prototypes of a helicopter UAV that can automatically look for enemy bomb-layers or follow their vehicles on the ground.

Called the Yellow Jacket, the aircraft is among three counter-IED UAVs slated to enter service next year. The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO, has spent $9.8 million on the Yellow Jacket as part of its larger Attack the Network counter-IED effort. Another UAV set to deploy next year is Copperhead, JIEDDO’s name for a miniaturized, 1-foot Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) married to Micro UAV’s fixed-wing, 17-foot Tiger Shark aircraft. JIEDDO has spent $23.1 million on Copperhead, working with the Sandia National Laboratories, N.M. Operational assessments are slated for early next year.

JIEDDO is also working with the Air Force Research Lab in New Mexico to build and test-fly the Sentinel Hawk, an infrared-sensing UAV built to keep tabs on a specific road or path. The office has spent $12 million on the Sentinel Hawk, which is slated to enter service next year. JIEDDO officials expect these UAV programs to be taken over by the Army, Air Force, or Special Operations Command. The office’s earlier airborne counter-IED efforts include $161 million in initial funding to develop the Army’s Warrior Alpha UAV, which is flown by Task Force ODIN in Iraq.

(Source: Navy Times, Kris Osborn — Photos: top right, Copperhead UAV; bottom left, Sentinel Hawk UAV)