Not trying to be a dick, but it would be nice to have something that flew higher and wasn't as loud. I'm just some random dude on the internet, but it doesn't fit into the two main niches of either a)man packable or b) quiet/high.
The RQ-7 is pretty loud (really loud)- the -21 is much much quieter. From 3k feet it doesn't have a very noticable audible signature from the ground.
16 hour endurance and 50nm range? Surely one of those is wrong right?
ah, well... It depends. We recently flew one longer than 16 hours on less than a full bag of gas. The big issue is that we don't have a fuel level indicator. We tell it how much fuel is loaded and it has a fairly conservative fuel algorithm based on engine RPMs. Honestly the algorithm is way too conservative, but you still honor the low fuel indication when you get it, just like any other airplane.
And the 50 miles is accurate, if a little conservative- though not by too much.
I get it guys, so does the rest of the Marine Corps- but we've got what we've got, and we don't have $ for anything else- unless we start to cut F-35s (which ain't happening). At least we did not turn a low observable autonomous, carrier cable strike platform into a tanker...
If we can find a niche for this platform we're in a good place. The nice thing about this one is that the J/CFACC doesn't own this one.
These guys are on the ground, very close to the FLOT, doing face to face briefs with the guys they are supporting, and the supported units can't get enough of it. They are 1/2 way through their deployment and already over their flight hour allotment for the entire deployment.
