RQ-12A Wasp III
A miniature UAV designed for special operations requirements to provide a small, light-weight vehicle to provide beyond-line-of-sight situation awareness. The aircraft is equipped with two on-board cameras to provide real-time intelligence to its operators. It is also equipped with GPS and an Inertial Navigation System enabling it to operate autonomously from takeoff to recovery. There are two Wasp variants: the traditional version that lands on land ("Terra Wasp"), and a version that lands into the sea or fresh water ("Aqua Wasp").
The Wasp is designed for it to be small, portable, reliable, and rugged unmanned aerial platform designed for front-line day or night reconnaissance and surveillance. The Wasp weighs only 430gm, is 38 cm long, and has a wingspan of 72 cm; it can be broken down and re-assembled to fit in a backpack. It can be controlled manually or programmed for GPS-based autonomous navigation and can carry interchangeable targeting payload modules, including forward and side-looking infrared and color cameras that transmit streaming video directly to the hand-held ground controller, the same controller used for the larger RQ-11B Raven.
The UAV can fly for 45 minutes out to 5 km at an altitude of 300 m with a top speed of 40–65km/h.
The Wasp AE, an improved version of the Wasp air vehicle that can land on ground or water. Although it is heavier at 1.3kg, it has 20 percent greater endurance and incorporates a miniature gimbal that gives operators both color and infrared video imagery from a single sensor package.
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