The Royal Navy, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, intends to award a Single Source Non-Qualifying Defence Contract valued at up to £1,500,000 (ex VAT) with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Limited for a period of [7] months for the delivery of work to undertake trials/experiments in
Aerial refuelling is an increasingly vital capability for military force projection, and Airbus-developed technology to automate the in-flight “topping off” of aircraft will revolutionise this process – with wider applications for both the defence and civil aviation sectors. Disruptive technology for fully autonomous in-flight refuelling – designated Auto’Mate – is being evolved
Tethered
Hoverfly Technologies Inc., a worldwide supplier of tethered drone technology, has released Spectre 2.0, the newest tethered system for mission critical situations. The new platform offers various performance improvements to its predecessor and has expanded carrying capacity with open architecture to accommodate many different payloads. Early adopters of Hoverfly
Business
XTEND – the developer of XOS, a human-guided autonomous operating system, has acquired Performance Rotors, the Singapore-based drone inspection specialists, in a move that will boost XTEND's ability to offer human-guided, remote interactive operations in a range of inspection scenarios, and grow its global business. Financial terms of the
Targets
QinetiQ is to provide the US Army’s Threat Systems Management Office (TSMO) with a uniquely developed version of its Banshee Jet 80+. Known as the MQM-185B, the target will help the US Army train for real-world scenarios by flying the hyper realistic threat targets. The MQM-185B aerial target combines
Military
In support of the U.S. Navy’s (USN) Integrated Battle Problem 2023 (IBP-23) exercise in May, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) conducted a series of Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) exercises cooperatively with the USN Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadrons (HSM) 38, 49, 71, and 75. GA-ASI flew a company-owned MQ-9B
Russia is reportedly using wooden drones to distract Ukraine’s air defense radars, analysts have said. According to BLITZ Aircraft Unmanned, the decoy versions of drones are partly made of wood, extruded polystyrene foam and held together with masking tape. The drones are equipped with modern engines and electronics made
Data Links & Communications
Honeywell has unveiled VersaWave, a new small satcom system with 5G, for the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) industry. VersaWave combines satcom, cellular (i.e., 5G, 4G, 3G), Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity in an extremely small, lightweight package. These new connectivity features enable beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) communication
Military
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) released performance specifications for the Shahed-136 one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) when it displayed one publicly for the first time in an exhibition in Qom from 13 May. The poster behind the UAV said it has a range of 2,500
Military
Airbus Spain is ready to start work on the high-endurance drone SiRTAP for the Spanish and Colombian air forces, saying the first units could be delivered to Spain by 2026 if the government approves a contract soon. Launched in 2015, following an initial request from Spain and later on joined
Nokia announced a first-of-its-kind contract with Belgian telecom operator Citymesh to supply its Nokia Drone Networks platform with 70 Drone-in-a-Box (DiaB) units. This is enough to blanket Belgium with a 5G automated drone grid that informs and speeds resource mobilization in emergency events. Branded SENSE by Citymesh, the 70 drones
Transport
DroneUp, a Walmart - backed startup competing alongside Amazon and others in the nascent drone delivery market, is cutting jobs across the company, CNBC has learned. The Virginia-based company began informing staffers of the layoffs on the morning of May15th, according to two people who lost their jobs and asked