THE SIKORSKY CYPHER® UAV: A MULTI-PURPOSE PLATFORM WITH DEMONSTRATED MISSION FLEXIBILITY

The Sikorsky Cypher®* Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was originally developed as a aerial reconnaissance asset designed to provide the tactical commander real-time targeting and tracking information in a high threat battlefield environment. As the Cypher system matured it evolved into a multipurpose mission platform capable of performing a wide variety of missions such as remote sentry, underground structures detection, or payload delivery system. This presentation will discuss recent accomplishments of the Cypher vehicle in a variety of different configurations and missions. In the remote sentry configuration the Cypher UAV incorporates a top mounted sensor pod and flies to a destination, then lands remotely, to perform surveillance and reconnaissance from the ground. As a payload delivery system Cypher UAV is configured with external stores that can carry sensors to be dropped or strategically placed at desired locations. With the incorporation of detection sensors, the Cypher UAV can map the location of underground structures by flying slowly over them in a regular grid pattern. The paper starts with a discussion of the Cypher vehicle and its autonomous flight capabilities and concludes with a summary of Cypher UAV demonstrations and accomplishments.