The Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Center for Rapid Innovation (CRI) recently successfully completed initial flight tests for the Ultra Long Endurance Aircraft Platform (Ultra LEAP). The UAS has a customizable suite of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) tools that supports extended missions.

After a series of flight tests that began in Feb. 2019 at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, a two and a half-day continuous flight demonstration was performed from Dec. 9 to Dec 11. Future flight tests will demonstrate increased levels of flight endurance, AFRL says.

Made up of a high-performance, cost-effective, sport-class commercial airframe converted to a fully automated system with autonomous takeoff and landing capabilities, Ultra LEAP also features secure, easy to use navigation that uses anti-jam GPS and full global operational access via a satellite-based command and control and high-rate ISR data relay link.

“As the Air Force balances current readiness with long-term modernization, Ultra LEAP represents an affordable approach that supports both existing and future force needs,” says Maj. Gen. William Cooley, AFRL commander.

“Enhanced UAS capabilities along with the cost savings offers the military a winning solution.”

According to Paul Litke, the AFRL project engineer leading this effort, the UAS is made up of many commercial off-the-shelf components, which will “dramatically shift the ISR cost-performance curve for the U.S. military.”

It took less than 10 months to develop Ultra LEAP from concept to first flight. AFRL says that the UAS could be ready for operational fielding as soon as next year. Thanks to its high level of autonomation, Ultra LEAP is expected to significantly reduce the operator training requirements for the U.S. Air Force, AFRL notes. Smaller support crews will also lead to lower operating costs.

“Accomplished after only 10 months of development by our AFRL/industry team, today’s 2.5-day Ultra LEAP mission is a significant milestone in solving the tyranny of distance problem for ISR systems,” says Dr. Alok Das, AFRL senior scientist and the CRI director.

“It will provide immediate benefit to our warfighters while at the same time paving the path for future low-cost, multi-day endurance ISR systems.”

Many of the subsystems and lessons that make up Ultra LEAP come from AFRL’s prior LEAP program, which is a UAS that supports missions up to 40 hours. Having completed more than 18,000 combat flight hours thus far, LEAP has also demonstrated one of the lowest mishap rates and smallest mission crew size of any operational UAS in its class, AFRL says.

For both efforts, CRI used the same strategy of converting existing aircraft into ISR platforms. According to Litke, leveraging the commercial aircraft market allows AFRL to greatly reduce the cost to manufacture and provide logistical spares relative to UAS.

“This way, the U.S. military will save money without sacrificing reliability and maintainability,” Litke says.

Below: The Ultra Long Endurance Aircraft Platform (Ultra LEAP) consists of a high-performance, cost-effective, sport-class commercial airframe converted to a fully automated system with autonomous takeoff and landing capabilities. The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Center for Rapid Innovation (CRI) has successfully completed initial flight tests for the revolutionary Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) with a customizable suite of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) tools that supports extended missions. This series of flight tests began in Feb. 2019 at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, culminating with a two and a half-day continuous flight demonstration from Dec. 9 to Dec 11. Subsequent flight tests will demonstrate increased levels of flight endurance. (Courtesy artwork/Air Force Research Laboratory)