A startup aviation company is proposing an optionally manned surveillance and light attack platform that it says can replace such complicated aircraft as the P-3 and P-8. Icarus Aerospace’s TAV (tactical air vehicle) is a clean-sheet design that looks a lot like a cleaned-up OV-10. Although it comes with two seats, it can also be operated as a drone and as such has swarming capability. “We’ve developed TAV™ to be in alignment with latest international military armed overwatch and persistent presence requirements and challenges,” said spokesman Marko Ivankovic. “The aircraft platform defines a niche of its own and excels in addressing all existing and future daily threats facing our troops, security forces and our world.”
As a manned aircraft, it offers the crew state-of-the-art avionics with “sensor fusion network centric capabilities” and can carry 8,000 pounds of bombs, missiles or torpedoes. It can be used for battlefield management, communication relay, air-to-air refueling and medevac duties as either a manned or remotely piloted platform. It’s powered by two 1,700-horsepower turboprops and has an endurance of 6.5 hours.
Let us hope the military uses parallel streams of descriptive buzzterminology so they’re in alignment with just exactly what it is they’re expected to buy.
Skynet precursor?
Cleansheet? Couldn’t look more like the OV-10 Bronco if it tried