Good thinking RWH! I agree with and will augment your numbered observations.
#1. Cost: a Predator is about $10 million. I don't think that includes the ground station but I am not sure. At $6 million, the Argus is a big savings. Operationally, once you master engine shut down and restart, you can theoretically loiter a very long time with minimal fuel, depending on meteorology. The ISR will have a current draw that will limit time aloft. With an engine running all the time, Predators burn a lot of fuel but don't have power management problems—just fuel management. Start and restart is not novel—the Procerus flight control software already does this with fixed wing LiPo MAV's to conserve battery life. Same concept.
#2. Infrastructure: other than a runway, I would make this a wash. Fuel, ISR, recip engine, etc. will probably require the same personnel. My suspicion is less fuel consumption per hour of operation which does matter at the end of the supply train.
#3. VTOL. Think about it—land anywhere, drop off a small payload and take off again with no personnel at risk. Ammo, batteries, food, medicine, mines, etc. Suddenly you can place any lightweight object anywhere on the Shogi board. Yes, you can drop them from fixed wing UAV's, but this is different. Rotary wing LALE UAV's don't have much range. Anything, anywhere on the Shogi board—think about it! This is my favorite thing about the Argus.
#4. Crash resistant: As long as the envelope is intact a LTA crash is like getting hit with a pillow. It probably weighs a tenth what a Predator weighs. Stop the engine and it floats away—push the deflation valve and it coasts down so slow you could catch it. Low mass and low speed means low energy impact. 10X on the mass and 100X on the speed and a Predator is 1,000 times more destructive when it falls out of the sky. If I were training Nigerian pilots to fly a multi-million dollar UAV, I would pick an LTA platform any day. The training curve and safety margins just don't compare.
RWH you already were thinking clearly about the unique tactical advantages of the Argus. I don't know if I added anything really. But going high with ISR just means more gyro and stronger optics. Max altitude is overrated. Just get high enough to avoid small arms fire and you are OK. With FLIR at night you don't even need that. This is why all the bluster about performance misses the point. It is not about what it can do but what YOU can do with it. That is the difference between performance and tactical capabilities and I believe that you get it. WSGI is in front on this one. I hope we get some sales while we are. Good thinking, friend! At your service, Indy.
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