The U.S. Navy is working with U.K.-based QinetiQ to adapt a gangly, hand-launched solar-powered UAV for the rigors of ISR flights in Afghanistan. If they succeed, they will have placed long-endurance UAVs on a similar developmental path to that of today's Predators, advocates of the new technology said. The U.S. military rushed the Predators into flight over Bosnia in 1995, and its larger cousin, the Reaper, to the skies over Afghanistan in 2003. If the Navy and QinetiQ can strengthen Zephyr's sensors and structure, the craft could be in the hands of U.S. forces in Afghanistan within 12 to 18 months. QinetiQ, a private company formed from Britain's former Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, designed Zephyr to fly not for hours, like the Predators, but for weeks or months at a time. Among today's unmanned aircraft, the longest-flying operational UAVs is the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk, which claims a 36-hour endurance capability and serves a similar strategic intelligence role to that of the piloted U-2s the U.S. government eventually plans to retire.
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