Merlin is a lightweight electrically powered unmanned bi-plane
miniature UAV,
developed to support light ground forces with surveillance
capability. The 1 meter long vehicle uses 1.6 meter span bi-plane
wing. Its Gross takeoff Weight is 6 kg, and two-axis stabilized
payload weight is 0.8kg. The operator can assemble and prepare the
Merlin for a mission in five minutes. The MAV is launched by hand or
sling, to a mission of over one hour, at cruising speed of 55 – 75
km/h. At the completion of the mission Merlin automatically returns
to a pre-designated landing point sized 30x30 meters, where it is
retrieved by a parachute. Merlin is capable of operating with three
types of payloads – daylight TV with an x10 zoom, day/night payload
operating an uncooled IR camera, derived from the Felin PROGRAM, and
a ECCMOS-IL day/night camera which was also selected for FELIN. The
datalink used by Merlin operates at a range of 7 km, at a frequency
of 5 GHz.
