With an eye on a UAV market that may be worth $250 million, Raytheon is beating the drum for its heavy-lifting, flying-wedge, unmanned aerial vehicle, the KillerBee.

The KillerBee UAV is a flying wing. Its wing spans 10 feet and the tips of its wings droop straight down, giving it the appearance of a bat or a stingray, but providing greater stability in flight. Unlike a standard "tube-and-wing" aircraft, this UAV is all wing. Thus every square inch of the surface of the KillerBee has a lift benefit. Therefore, it has a very efficient lift-over-drag ratio. That means that for its size, it can lift a lot of weight: 66 pounds.

Raytheon hopes to convince the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps that the "blended wing" KillerBee is the best bet for a small, long-endurance battlefield and maritime surveillance UAV.

In a draft request for proposals, the Navy set 10 hours as the minimum flight time, but said 24 hours would be preferable. The UAVs must be able to cruise at 60 knots and dash about at 80 knots. The Navy also wants them to run on heavy fuels, such as the JP5 or JP8, typically found aboard ships. The company has also developed a "moving net" to snag KillerBees when they return to wave-tossed ships.

The Navy is expected to select its small tactical unmanned aircraft systems and Tier II UAV next spring, which is why Raytheon is touting the KillerBee's ability to provide intelligence on demand to Marines on the ground, or to ships at sea.

The whole program is said to be about putting sensors in the battlespace and exploiting the sensors throughout the C4ISR system.

Raytheon's system establishes a battlefield network that links KillerBee UAVs to a variety of Navy and Marine Corps weapon, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems. The system relies on tactical radios such as the mini-common data link and Raytheon's microlight netted radio.

For Marines, having a KillerBee overhead would mean that Javelin or TOW anti-tank missile operators, for example, could "cross-cue" to combat operations centers and UAV operators to share information about specific targets.