Secret Green Dart Drone

Aviation reporters are scratching their heads over what a $22 million dollar contract for the "Hunter Green Dart" could be. Apparently, the Pentagon this week issued a contract announcement on Green Dart, but Northrop Grumman, which is perfoming the work, reportedly can't talk about it. As Steve Trimble at the DEW Line writes:

* Whatever the "Hunter Green Dart" is, Northrop Grumman is building one for the US Army for $22.5 million. (See yesterday's contract announcement below.) There's already a handful of RQ and MQ variants of the venerable Hunter UAS, so perhaps this is another one. *

While we attempt to responsibly answser that question, does anyone want to try to speculate/guess/make-up an explanation?

*Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Sierra Vista, Ariz., was awarded on Sept. 28, 2007, a $22,499,406 modification cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the Hunter Green Dart. Work will be performed in Sierra Vista, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2008. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This was a sole source contract initiated on Aug. 31, 2007. The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-04-C-0082). *

Writing at Aviation Week's Ares blog, Bill Sweetman questions the Pentagon's choice of two-word codes:

What it does is a mystery, so I doubt that anything vital has been compromised. Also a mystery is the Pentagon's addiction to two-word codes that are are like a homing beacon for search engines.

*Memo to Pentagon: If you want to keep something secret today, call it "Britney". *

Bill surmises it's a missile, but I actually believe it's more likely a UAV, since the Pentagon's two-word code system has a pattern of attaching "dart" to UAV demontrations (like the little talked about Black Dart demonstrations).