Satnews Daily
December 11th, 2008

This Hummingbird Will Gain The Power Of Hellfire


Hummingbird UAV The A160T Hummingbird UAV is going to be going through a metamorphous that will position redundant flight controls, strengthen the UAV's skin, and be able to fire mounted Hellfire missiles on the prototype craft for the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCom).

Work is being finished by Boeing via a $6.3 million DARPA award on new craft designs that will enable these upgrades, with the missiles to be mounted on the stub wings of the rotocraft. SOCom's tech demos are going to continue through next March, with seven prototypes being examined. Last August, data exchange between the UAV and One System Remote Terminal, Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, and Enhanced Position Location Reporting System</b>, was also tested. The Hummingbird has flown, unrefueled, for more than 18 hours complete with its electro-optical/infrared sensors that weigh 347 pounds. Should the Hummingbird become the official SOCom selection, the UAV would enter operations during 2012.