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Raytheon Coyote

Small, Expendable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) (2014)

The Raytheon Coyote has been designed with low-cost and expendability in mind, having achieved operational service in 2014.

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 10/30/2020 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

As the proliferation of drones over the modern battlefield continues, so do efforts to counter threats of "swarms" being made up of dozens or more of such air vehicles (particularly the more agile quad-rotors). The Raytheon "Coyote" has been developed for that very purpose as an expendable, portable anti-drone system and the series is being acquired by the United States Army for service entry before the end of 2018. Beyond its stated over-battlefield value, the Coyote system is touted with traditional UAS qualities such as threat assessment, damage assessment, targeting, and surveillance - all offered in real-time.

The swarm concept is dubbed "LOCUST" standing for "LOw-Cost Uav Swarm Technology".

Tests conducted in 2016 revealed the Coyote's ability to reach a target area, in formation, through autonomous networking after being launched as a swarm (from MLRS-style launcher packs). In 2017, six vehicles were successfully used to collect data on Hurricane Maria by the National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA). This "mini-swarm" entered the hurricane and faced wind speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. So beyond its military value, the Coyote certainly has scientific and humanitarian capabilities for those interested customers.

Much like an Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM), the Coyote is tube-launched and carries an integral seeker and warhead. It has a mission endurance window of about one hour and its mission payload is variable to meet the threat and battlefield need. The fuselage is slab-sided with a rounded frontal section. The wing mainplanes are straight appendages mounted over the frontal section while the horizontal tailplanes are fitted low and well-aft along the fuselage. A pair of vertical tail fins are used for the needed control. All of the wing planes are spring-loaded and come into action post-launch - allowing the air vehicle to remain in a compact form during transport. At the extreme rear of the vehicle is a two-bladed propeller unit offering the needed propulsion.

The Coyote makes up just one portion of the anti-drone defense system. It is coupled with the KFRS Ku-band Electronically-Scanned Array (ESA) radar which handles the acquisition and tracking focus of the complete system - this radar has already been uses in conjunction with artillery, rocket, and mortar teams.

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