Aircraft Proposed For U.S. Marine Corps

Military officials have unveiled a full-scale model of the Bell V-247 Vigilant UAV that has been offered for the Marine Air Ground Task Force Unmanned Expeditionary drone, or MUX.

The model was show for the first time at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia last week. The aircraft is an unmanned armed escort aircraft that can be both an offensive weapons system and a command and control aircraft.

According to Bell, the V-247 can carry an internal load of 2,000 pounds, and a sling load of 9.000 pounds. The range of the aircraft is reported to be 1,300 nautical miles, and can operate for eight hours on-station with a 600 pound mission payload. The maximum time on station is listed as 12 hours. The combat range is listed at 500-800 nm.

The Vigilant is a tilt-rotor aircraft. The Military Times reports that the Marines have requested an aircraft that can perform a variety of missions, but will initially use the drone for airborne early warning, command and control communications, data relay, and ISR functions.

The Vigilant is currently in its advanced research and design phase, according to the report. Bell is using many of the lessons learned from development of the V-280 Valor aircraft to incorporate the capabilities requested by the USMC.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original report, V-247 design specs