TUKU UAV

The TUKU (Owl) class UAV is a multi-role drone developed by the Yucatec Armed Forces.



A typical system consists of multiple aircraft, ground control station, communications equipment, maintenance spares, and personnel. A military crew includes a pilot, sensor operator, and Mission Intelligence Coordinator. The aircraft is powered by a 950 horsepower (710 kW) turboprop, with a maximum speed of about 260 knots and a cruising speed of 150–170 knots. With a 66 ft (20 m) wingspan, and a maximum payload of 3,800 lb (1,700 kg), the Tuku can be armed with a variety of weaponry, including (Hellfire) missiles and 260kg laser-guided bomb units. Endurance is 30 hours when conducting ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) missions, or 23 hours if it is carrying a full weapons load. The Tuku has a range of 1,850 km and an operational altitude of 15,000 m, which makes it especially useful for long-term loitering operations, both for surveillance and support of ground troops.



An Tuku can adopt various mission kits and combinations of weapons and sensors payloads to meet combat requirements. Its multi-spectral targeting sensor suite includes a color/monochrome daylight TV, infrared, and image-intensified TV with laser rangefinder/laser designator to designate targets for laser guided munitions. The aircraft is also equipped with multi-mode radar that contains synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can operate in both spotlight and strip modes, and ground moving target indication (GMTI) with Dismount Moving Target Indicator (DMTI) and Maritime Wide-Area Search (MWAS) capabilities. The system has 368 cameras capable of capturing five million pixels each to create an image of about 1.8 billion pixels; video is collected at 12 frames per second, producing several terabytes of data per minute.

[This UAV is basically a MQ-9 Reaper, developed IRL by General Atomics.]