Singapore Airshow 2024: Steadicopter positioning RUAVs for APAC region

Steadicopter's Black Eagle 50E electric-powered unmanned aerial vehicle is designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations from land and naval locations. (Steadicopter)

Israeli-based Steadicopter Ltd is improving its Black Eagle and Golden Eagle series of rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (RUAVs) and positioning them for the larger Asia-Pacific (APAC) market.

Itai Toren, CEO of Steadicopter, told Janes during Singapore Airshow 2024 that the company is improving its Black Eagle 50 and 25 series of RUAVs and increasing the range of weapons that can be used with its Golden Eagle tactical (light strike) armed RUAV.

Toren said that while the Black Eagle was matured as a platform by 2019–20 and exports began at that time, the RUAV remains subject to enhancements. “We are in a constant spiral development process – driven by customer requirements and emerging technologies,” he said.

“Most [of the changes include] adding new capabilities, integrating new payloads, and improving the performance,” he added.

The electric-powered Black Eagle is spread across four variants: the 25E, the 35E, the 50E, and the newer 50H. The designations are based on the maximum take-off weight of the RUAVs. According to the latest specifications information provided by Steadicopter, the 25E has an endurance of under one hour and a communications range of less than 50 km. At the other end of the spectrum, the larger 50H has an endurance of under four hours and a communications range of under 150 km.

Key payloads include an electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) pod, communications intelligence/electronic intelligence (COMINT/ELINT) systems, a synthetic aperture radar/maritime patrol radar (SAR/MPR), wide area persistent surveillance systems, light detection and ranging/visual detection and ranging (LIDAR/VIDAR), and multispectral sensors.