DARPA’s Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) concept tested at sea

Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) Prototype Demonstration

DARPA’s Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) research effort recently demonstrated a prototype of a low-cost, fully automated parafoil system designed to extend maritime vessels’ long-distance communications and improve their domain awareness.

Towed behind boats or ships, TALONS could carry intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and communications payloads of up to 150 pounds between 500 and 1,500 feet in altitude—many times higher than current ships’ masts—and greatly extend the equipment’s range and effectiveness. 

From Navy Recognition

DARPA’s Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) research effort recently demonstrated a prototype of a low-cost, fully automated parafoil system designed to extend maritime vessels’ long-distance communications and improve their domain awareness.

Towed behind boats or ships, TALONS could carry intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communications payloads of up to 150 pounds between 500 and 1,500 feet in altitude—many times higher than current ships’ masts—and greatly extend the equipment’s range and effectiveness. 

DARPA has successfully tested a TALONS prototype that can be deployed by hand from smaller boats, or by mast from larger ships.
Before open-water testing, TALONS’ rapid development began with land-based testing near Tucson, Arizona, in June 2014, followed by mock-up testing and measurement near Assateague Island National Seashore in Virginia in December of that year.

 The DARPA TALONS project recently underwent sea trials
(Credit: DARPA)

TALONS R&D began bench-testing the system in March 2015.
Field testing on the water started in early May, and ran through June near Baltimore, Maryland, and Virginia Beach, Virginia.
More than 20 TALONS flights were launched over that period, testing the system under various wind conditions and developing TALONS for different platforms.

In the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore, the TALONS team improved hand-deployment techniques for smaller boats and sent the system up to 500 feet in altitude, tuning and programming automatic launch-and-recovery and autopilot systems.
The Virginia Beach demonstration occurred several miles offshore and used a mast-deployment technique that extended TALONS’ reach to 1,000 feet in altitude to display the system’s utility for larger ships.

TALONS is part of DARPA’s Phase 1 research for Tern, a joint program between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research.
Following successful testing, DARPA may transition TALONS technology to the U.S. Navy.

TALONS is a tethered airborne platform

designed to deliver dramatic line-of- sight expansion to maritime assets.

 

• Continuous power delivery provided by tow tether for long-endurance missions
• High-speed fiber optic, bidirectional data transfer provided by tow tether
• Minimal manning enabled by automatic controls and bridge feedback
• Large soft wing provides lift at low wind speeds, compact stowage
• No flight deck required (small footprint)— scales to support large ships to small boats
• Deploy/recovery time <20 minutes
• 50-to 200-lb payloads
• Up to 500 W electric power
• Optical Horizon at 1,000-ft altitude: 33.5 nm (62 km)
• Hand- or mast-assisted wing launch

Program History:

• 2011: Jetski-powered concept demonstration
• 2014: Hands-off launch, flight, recovery
• June 2015: Fully integrated at-sea demonstration

“Through SideArm, TALONS and other projects, DARPA aims to make it much easier, quicker and less expensive for the Defense Department to deploy persistent ISR and strike capabilities almost anywhere in the world,” said Dan Patt, DARPA program manager.

 

Links :

• Navy Recognition : ECA Group and French DGA Working on a Tethered UAV Project Similar to DARPA's TALONS