With all the wet weather the Bay Area has had this winter, the mosquito population is expected to explode. Thankfully, Santa Clara County has a new weapon in its arsenal against the pesky insects -- industrial-sized drones. "This drone is capable of carrying a max payload of 40 pounds,
VTOL
AeroVironment, Inc. has been awarded a $10 million contract by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to co-design and co-develop conceptual designs and engineering development units of Mars Sample Recovery Helicopter flight systems. Future efforts could include detailed design, build, and test of qualification and flight hardware. The
C-UAS
DroneShield Limited has announced that after placing a follow-on order, the Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (MCOHSEM) deployed DroneShield's DroneSentry System for the IRONMAN Triathlon Championships 2023 in Woodlands, Texas for the second year in a row. The event was held earlier this
Business
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $217,615,343 undefinitized contract action for Taiwan MQ-9B SkyGuardian procurement. This contract provides for four MQ-9B unmanned air vehicles, two Certifiable Ground Control Stations, spares and support equipment. Work will be performed in
Weapons Systems / Lasers
The Republic of Estonia has signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to procure advanced long-range loitering munitions, making it the one of the most expensive defense procurement Estonia has ever made. The procurement of long-range loitering munitions aims to strengthen Estonia's defenCe capability by
Military
Ukraine says it is rapidly increasing its production of drones as demand grows on the front line.The government has relaxed import laws and scrapped taxes for drone parts and equipment. The expansion is being funded by a successful fundraising campaign called the Army of Drones. More than $108m (£87m)
Military
A Chinese TB-001 Scorpion medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) drone has flown an apparently unprecedented mission around Taiwan, according to authorities on the island. The drone sortie came as part of the latest spike in Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) air and naval activity in the Taiwan Strait,
Business
On Thursday April 27th, Russia's President Putin visited the Rudnevo Industrial Park, where drones are being manufactured, to hold a meeting on the development of unmanned aviation. During the visit, Putin called the Rudnevo park "the new industrial face of Moscow." "A very important field
Agriculture
For the past three years, Terry Aberhart has watched the spindly, fixed-wing drones zip across the big skies above his farm in Canada’s Saskatchewan province, testing a technology that could be the future of weeding. Fitted with an artificial intelligence system, the drones are designed by local startup
Business
On 29 April, Ukraine signed three new contracts with Baykar, a Turkish drone manufacturer, at the Teknofest 2023 international aviation technology exhibition in Istanbul, according to Ukrainian Minister of Strategic Industries Oleh Kamyshev. “This is an important result – three new agreements with the Turkish manufacturer Baykar for Ukrainian producers. Of
Research
A team of marine biologists affiliated with several institutions in the U.S., working with a colleague from Mexico, has found that it is possible to use drones to affix suction cup tags to whales as an alternative to doing it manually. In their study, reported in the journal Royal
Agriculture
Guardian Agriculture, a respected developer of Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) systems for commercial-scale sustainable farming, announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate its aircraft nationwide. FAA approval makes Guardian Agriculture the first commercially authorized eVTOL in the