Killer Bee drone unveiled

Popular Mechanics:

And you thought the Air Force's bidding war on tankers was ugly. As the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps look to increase their fleets of small, unmanned aircraft that can serve as communication relays and sensor platforms, they're seeing contenders in the fight over which company gets to build them.

Boeing, which is protesting its $35 billion loss to Airbus parent EADS on a refueling plane contract, currently has a lock on small, portable Marine and Navy UAVs used for recon missions. The company's ScanEagle first placed into Marine hands four years ago, when the Pentagon decided that they were vital for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. A year later the Navy purchased more to provide over-the-horizon monitoring of oil platforms and suspicious ships. (A nearly identical ScanEagle model is making its way into U.S. police departments.) To cover these purchases, the Pentagon crafted a non-competitive order—permitted when an item is designated as an “urgent operational requirement"—with Boeing and aerospace design firm Insitu, in July 2004.

But now a full-scale military auction is on, and Raytheon has revealed its own battle-ready contender, the Killer Bee, exclusively to PopularMechanics.com nearly a week before its unveiling at the Navy League's 2008 Sea-Air-Space Exposition. We've seen test footage of the blended-wing aircraft before Swift Engineering teamed up with Raytheon, but these detailed new images—5-ft. curved wings and all—show an updated model ready for sale, and hoping to knock ScanEagle out of the Navy and Marine inventory.

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The Killer Bee has a way cool stealth look to it. On style points alone it is a winner. It also has a 100 mile range and day and night video capability. For what it may be worth in such a small craft, it claims to have a higher payload capability. You have to assume that is not ordnance.