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Tube Launched-Unmanned Air Vehicles (TL-UAV) are munitions that alter their trajectories during flight to enhance the capabilities by possibly extending range, increasing loiter time through gliding, and/or having guided targeting capabilities. Traditional munition systems, specifically the tube-launched mortar rounds, are not guided. Performance of these "dumb" munitions could be enhanced by updating to TL-UAV and still utilize existing launch platforms with standard propellant detonation firing methods. The ability to actively control the flight path and extend range of a TL-UAV requires multiple onboard systems which need to be identified, integrated, assembled, and tested to meet cooperative function requirements. The main systems, for a mortar-based TL-UAV being developed at West Virginia University (WVU), are considered to be a central hub to process information, aerodynamic control devices, flight sensors, a video camera system, power management, and a wireless transceiver.

In order to prepare for flight on-board a military aircraft with an experimental prototype system, a crash scenario analysis was performed to ensure safety of the aircraft and its crew. The following describes the crash analysis of the Oculus sensor pallet system in preparation for a flight test on a C-130 aircraft. In this particular case, the two units were analyzed individually in accordance with the loading standards outlined in MIL-HDBK-1791. The unit that deploys outside of the rear cargo ramp of the aircraft (sensor platform) was analyzed more closely than the system that remains locked (operator station) into the rail system of the aircraft. As the results show, both systems are capable of being subjected to crash loading forces.