L-3 rolls out first production Viking 400
By Evan Sweetman
February 19, 2010
L-3 Communications unveiled the first production model Viking 400 unmanned air vehicle (UAV) at its Easton, Md. facility, Feb. 19.
This is the first clean-sheet UAV design for L-3 and was built for U.S. Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) Expeditionary Unmanned Aerial System (EUAS) program.
The intelligence-gathering UAV was built as part of a five-year, $250 million contract to deliver up to six Viking 400s and two ground stations to SOCOM. The contract was awarded to L-3 in October.
While the Viking 400 can be equipped with a variety of sensor payloads including, EO/IR, LIDAR, SIGINT, and ELINT, SOCOM's aircraft are fitted with a camera pod built by FLIR, although the company could not go into more detail about which model.
The aircraft is capable of carrying a 75-100 pound payload for eight to12 hours while cruising at 60 knots. It is a fully autonomous aircraft, including take off and landing, and is guided by GPS waypoints that can be changed mid-flight by controllers at the ground stations.
The aircraft's design allows it to be packed into a container so that six Viking 400s and two ground stations can fit into a C-130 for transportation.

This is L-3's first UAV designed and built completely in-house. The company's Geneva Aerospace subsidiary led 12 other branches of L-3 to develop the aircraft.