By BRADLEY PENISTON – Sweden intends to deploy its first set of AAI Shadow 200 UAVs to Afghanistan in September, according to AAI and Saab officials.

AAI Shadow 200 UAV flies in Iraq in 2008. (U.S. Marine Corps photo)

Under a contract signed in May, AAI is to deliver the first of two Shadow systems in March, and the second soon afterward.

The Swedish military plans to send one system abroad, the other kept home for training, said Alan Colegrove, AAI’s division vice-president for international UAS programs.

Each system consists of four of the 400-plus-pound UAVs, a launch catapult and arresting wire, two ground control stations, one portable control station, two remote video terminals, and one maintenance shelter packed with parts.

Sweden has ordered the B model of the Shadow 200, equipped with IAI’s POP300 turret, Colegrove said. The POP300 carries a 640-by-480 thermal imager, color CCD with near-infrared capabilty and a laser pointer.

Saab is the lead contractor on the Swedish military’s effort project to find a surveillance UAV; AAI, a division of Textron Systems, beat out four rivals for the job, Colegrove said.

The Shadow 200 passed its U.S. military tests in May 2002 and entered full-rate production in 2003; the B variant was introduced in 2004, he said.