Boeing Awarded UAS Study Contract

Boeing received a $275,000 contract from the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division for a study of the magnetic noise associated with the heavy-fuel propulsion system on Boeing's MagEagle Compressed Carriage (MECC) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). The MECC is a special-mission variant of the company's ScanEagle Compressed Carriage UAS. "MECC's mission is to help locate, track and attack submarines," said Ron Perkins, director of Advanced Unmanned Airborne Systems for Boeing Phantom Works. "This contract is a crucial first step to identify risks associated with a UAS equipped with a magnetic anomaly detector system." Boeing will begin testing the MECC sensor system, vehicle integration and magnetic noise reduction in 2010.