The Persistent Munition Technology Demonstrator or PMTD is an

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

(UAV) developed and produced by the Advanced Weapons and Missile Systems division of

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

as a test bed in order to further develop and flight test various UAV technologies. It has also been referred to as the Dominator. The PMTD weighs , has a wingspan and is powered by a single piston engine driving a

pusher propeller In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

. It was first flown in April, 2006, at Vandalia Municipal Airport,

Vandalia, Illinois Vandalia is a city in and the county seat of Fayette County, Illinois, United States. At the 2020 Census, the population was 7,458. Vandalia is northeast of St. Louis, on the Kaskaskia River. It served as the state capital of Illinois from 1 ...

. Designed for either air or ground launch and high loiter times, the PMTD has the ability to operate completely autonomously. During its maiden flight, the UAV autonomously flew to 14 programmed locations, changed altitude four times, and met all programmed speeds. The initial set of flight tests focused solely on validation of the autonomous flight mode, while future tests will include sensor integration, weapon guidance systems, munitions dispensing systems and in-flight refueling.

EDO Corporation EDO Corporation was an American company which was acquired by ITT Corporation in 2007. EDO designed and manufactured products for defense, intelligence, and commercial markets, and provided related engineering and professional services. It emp ...

funded the development of the aircraft's composite airframe, while Boeing funded all the flight tests. Just-in-Time Strike Augmentation (JITSA) is a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

program proposal for

network-centric operations Network-centric warfare, also called network-centric operations or net-centric warfare, is a military doctrine or theory of war that aims to translate an information advantage, enabled partly by information technology, into a competitive advanta ...

to command the

battlefield A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troops ...

from the

air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

using the

C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two ...

to launch large numbers of PMTD into the

battlespace Battlespace or battle-space is a term used to signify a unified military strategy to integrate and combine armed forces for the military theatre of operations, including air, information, land, sea, cyber and outer space to achieve military ...

.USAF eyes large airlifter strike role
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References

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External links

Boeing military aircraft, Persistent Munition Technology Demonstrator 2000s United States experimental aircraft Unmanned military aircraft of the United States Single-engined pusher aircraft Canard aircraft Edo aircraft

See also

References

External links