DARPA Demos Parasailing ISR Payload For Ships

An intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) payload suspended 500 ft-1500 ft from a parasail behind a ship has been demonstrated by the US Defence Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA).

The low-cost, fully automated parafoil system’s prototype is designed to extend maritime vessels’ long-distance communications and improve their domain awareness.

The Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) could carry intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communications payloads of up to 150 pounds between 500 and 1,500 feet in altitude and greatly extends the equipment’s range and effectiveness.

DARPA has successfully tested a TALONS prototype that can be deployed by hand from smaller boats, or by mast from larger ships.

Before open-water testing, TALONS’ rapid development began with land-based testing near Tucson, Arizona, in June 2014, followed by mock-up testing and measurement near Assateague Island National Seashore in Virginia in December of that year.

TALONS R&D began bench-testing the system in March 2015. Field testing on the water started in early May, and ran through June near Baltimore, Maryland, and Virginia Beach, Virginia. More than 20 TALONS flights were launched over that period, testing the system under various wind conditions and developing TALONS for different platforms.

In the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore, the TALONS team improved hand-deployment techniques for smaller boats and sent the system up to 500 feet in altitude, tuning and programming automatic launch-and-recovery and autopilot systems.

The Virginia Beach demonstration occurred several miles offshore and used a mast-deployment technique that extended TALONS’ reach to 1,000 feet in altitude to display the system’s utility for larger ships.

TALONS is part of DARPA’s Phase 1 research for Tern, a joint program between DARPA and the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research. DARPA may transition TALONS technology to the U.S. Navy after successful testing.