The U.S. military, including the U.S. Coast Guard, has a long history of operating high-flying surveillance aircraft based on or otherwise derived from powered gliders. Recent pictures show U.S. special operators are at least training with one particularly rare type, the Grob G 520. On July 12, 2017, Indiana’s North Vernon Municipal Airport posted a series of pictures on its official Facebook page of U.S. Air Force and Army special operations aircraft on their way to an exercise. The photographs showed what appeared to be C-130H Hercules and an MH-47G Chinook, as well as what looked like stock photos of a CV-22B Osprey, an AH-6M Little Bird, and multiple MH-60M Black Hawks. There was also a picture of an odd looking white-and-gray aircraft and someone had blacked out its only apparent marking.

We have been unable to confirm the exact model or owner conclusively. However, this plane is most likely the Grob G 520 EGRETT II, which Bear Defense currently owns. The defense contractor, based in Tampa, Florida, home of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), refers to the plane as the “NYX ISR” on their website. At the time of writing, the company had not responded to a request to confirm they had participated in any recent U.S. military exercise in Indiana or provide additional information about their aircraft, which carries the registration N520DM and has subdued shark mouth art on the nose. SOCOM had similarly not returned a request for more information on the drill, which was called Total Force Exercise (TFX) 17-3. From the image on their website, Bear Defense's NYX ISR has a large sensor turret, which almost certainly contains a full-motion video and a forward-looking infrared system. For some reason, this appears to be missing on the aircraft at North Vernon Municipal Airport. It could be that the crew planned to install it once they arrived or had otherwise removed it for servicing. It is also possible that the U.S. military opted for another particular sensor package for the exercise that would be fitted once the aircraft arrived or that is mounted internally, such as a radar system.

North Vernon Municipal Airport The aircraft spotted at North Vernon Municipal Airport in July 2017.

Bear Defense aircraft appears to have a satellite communications antenna on the dorsal spine, which would allow for sharing video footage or other data in near real time with troops on the ground. In 2015, Bear Defense reportedly installed the SCOTTY Communication Platform-Air on the aircraft, allowing for fast, encrypted streaming of the video feed to internet-enabled terminals. The rear portion of the aircraft's ventral gondola would be perfect for a side-looking airborne radar with synthetic aperture and/or ground moving target indicator modes, or some combination of those capabilities. The history of the slim-winged aircraft is somewhat nebulous itself. The design reportedly originated from a late Cold War joint U.S.-German requirement for a relatively low-cost, high-altitude surveillance plane. In response, in the 1980s, Germany’s Grob Aircraft, which still builds powered and unpowered gliders, as well as other aircraft, teamed up with E-Systems and Garrett AiResearch, both in the United States. The name EGRETT comes from a combination of the three companies’ names.

Bear Defense Bear Defense's NYX ISR aircraft, a Grob G 520 EGRETT II.