Launch-Rail and Mobile Ground Deployment Systems for Rapid Field Employment of Long-Range Delta-Wing Loitering Munitions

Runway-independent deployment of endurance-class unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is critical for persistent surveillance across infrastructure-limited environments such as the Sahel corridor, Lake Chad Basin, and North-East Nigeria. This paper presents the design, modelling, and experimental validation of a portable elastic-energy rail-launcher architecture for expeditionary deployment of delta-wing UAV platforms using tripod-mounted and pickup-mounted configurations. A kinematic sizing framework was developed to determine required rail length, exit velocity, and structural deflection limits for stable transition to autonomous flight. Experimental validation conducted using the HATSABIBI-26A Long Range Endurance UAV demonstrated close agreement between predicted and measured launcher performance, achieving a normalised launch-performance ratio of 0.984 with exit-velocity deviation below 2%. Deployment readiness trials confirmed setup times of 6.5 minutes (tripod) and 9.2 minutes (vehicle-mounted), supporting reduced Time-to-Surveillance (TTS) in forward operational scenarios. Results further show that launcher geometries within the 2.2–3.5 m rail-length envelope provide sufficient acceleration while maintaining alignment stability and low trajectory dispersion. The elastic-energy launch mechanism also reduces thermal and acoustic signatures relative to powered alternatives, enabling concealed deployment in semi-arid operational theatres. Overall, the validated architecture provides a scalable solution for persistent, distributed, runway-independent ISR operations in infrastructure-constrained environments.