ScanEagle, the lightweight, long-endurance UAV deployed from U.S. Navy ships and by allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, now can be upgraded to the heavier NightEagle configuration with improved infrared sensor for night operations.

Boeing subsidiary Insitu, of Bingen, Wash., described the NightEagle in a teleconference with reporters Tuesday. The upgrade changes out the current DRS Technologies E6000 uncooled, long-wave infrared (LWIR) camera with a cooled, mid-wave infrared (MWIR) sensor provided by FLIR Systems. This “MWIR 1” capability will be replaced by next April with a next-generation “MWIR 2” sensor from DRS Technologies.

“The current long-wave IR capability that we employ does not provide the quality in terms of the resolution of the imagery that we provide the customers and we’ve had a continual request by our customer base to improve the night capability. That’s the genesis of the NightEagle,” said Eric Edsall, Insitu’s International Unmanned Aircraft Systems expert. “It’s a pretty impressive increase in capability,” he added. “To get a cooled, mid-wave IR capability onto an air vehicle the size of ScanEagle is an engineering accomplishment we’re pretty proud of.”

The conversion from the 44-pound (maximum takeoff weight) ScanEagle to NightEagle can be accomplished in the field in about two hours. The NightEagle is distinguished by a third tail fin and larger nose containing the IR imager. The larger air vehicle has about eight to 10 hours of endurance, roughly a third that of ScanEagle, depending on density altitude, Insitu said.

The NightEagle variant entered production in July and is expected to be operated by U.S., Canadian and Australian forces initially. As of November, there were 25 fielded systems, with more than 2,000 hours and 260 sorties, Insitu said.