Defence Business: Stalker debuts in Australia | ADM Apr 2011

Katherine Ziesing | Avalon

The Stalker is a mini UAV that was developed by Lockheed Martin at the Advanced Development Programs sector, best known as Skunk Works. This light, noiseless UAV was designed specifically to be of use to the US forces’ Special Operations Command (SOCOM), which is rumoured to have replaced its RQ-11 Raven systems with the Stalker.

The miniature plane, which weighs a little over six kilograms and has a wing span of three meters, can be launched by-hand by a single soldier and fly for as long as to two hours at up to 4,600 meters above the ground. The UAV is literally carried in pieces in a standard issue backpack and clipped together in moments. Control is via a Rover-type panel which is either man portable or vehicle mounted.

The craft is so quiet that developers have been able to incorporate an acoustic system developed with US company ShotSpotter, able to identify the range and direction of ballistic fire. And while the modular payload is basic with an EO/IR suite in place, the Stalker has been in operations for the past six years with not only the US but other unnamed customers, confirmed Thomas Koonce, program director for special projects at the notoriously secret Skunk Works.

The system also has autonomous launch and recovery, with basic training to troops provided in three days and after five days of training, soldiers are virtually ‘Stalker gods’, Koonce said at the Avalon air show. Stalker also utilises a number of off the shelf components for payloads, control (the controller looks like the ubiquitous Xbox controller ADM notes) and components to keep the cost down. Indeed, a Stalker package which includes two IR payloads, two EO payloads, two low light payloads, four aircraft and two ground control stations is between US$450,000 and US$500,000.

Koonce confirmed there are about 20 different payload modules flying at the moment with many more that have been identified by the user community in development.