World Surveillance Group Inc (fka WSGI)

[Renaissance]

I don't know how I missed this one when it happened.

A nearly $200 million U.S. Navy unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed during a test flight Monday in an unpopulated marshy area of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

The BAMS-D is a testing version of a jet-powered high altitude aircraft, the Navy’s version of the Air Force’s RQ-4 Global Hawk, which is designed to provide long-term surveillance and reconnaissance. In a recent report, the Government Accountability Office estimated that the Navy’s batch of 70 BAMS cost $13 billion, more than $186 million each.

The aircraft was one of five aircraft acquired from the Air Force Global Hawk program. The Navy statement said the UAV has been “developing tactics and doctrine for the employment of high-altitude unmanned patrol aircraft since November 2006. ”

The unmanned craft have been flown in the Middle East region to provide maritime surveillance. The Navy said the BAMS-D provides more than 50 percent of overhead maritime surveillance in the region and “has flown more than 5,500 combat hours in support of combat operations since 2008.”


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/06/navy-unmanned-drone-crashes-on-marylands-eastern-shore-186-million-burns/