At this year's Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting, Lockheed Martin unveiled a new capability that will allow users to detect and counter emerging threats from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The solution, ICARUS, was designed to operate defensively in various threat environments. "The U.S.
Commercial
Earlier this month, Google filed paperwork with the Federal Aviation Administration for two new unmanned aerial vehicles, registering the craft to the company’s Boulder, Colorado., office, rather than its main campus in Mountain View, California. The FAA documents show that two Google-built UAVs, codenamed the M2 and the
Commercial
A project aiming to deliver medical supplies to remote areas of Africa using unmanned air vehicles is gathering pace, as it prepares to select the systems that will be used for a pilot test programme in 2016. The “Droneport” project is a British-Swiss effort to introduce UAVs to medical
Business
AeroVironment, Inc. announced that it has been awarded a firm-fixed-price contract from the United States Army totalling $18,485,495 to supply initial RQ-11B Raven unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), spare parts and contractor logistics services to seven allied nations through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme. The
Commercial
A team led by the Doñana Biological Station, Spanish National Research Council (DBS, CSIC) has used Unmanned Aircraft Systems to model the spatial distribution of free-ranging cattle in Doñana National Park, Spain.The coexistence of domestic cattle with wildlife species in protected areas has ecological consequences (pressure over the
Commercial
At a South Texas ranch, a drone mounted with cameras flew above and around a flare stack that burned natural gas. Live, high-definition images were transmitted back to the ground, where company officials watched video of the flare stack as it was operating, asking that the drone move this
It sounds like an engineering fantasy, or maybe an episode from Mission Impossible: A flock of small, single-use, unpowered delivery vehicles dropped from an aircraft, each of which literally vanishes after landing and delivering food or medical supplies to an isolated village during an epidemic or disaster. And it
Weapons Systems / Lasers
Lockheed Martin begins production of a new generation of modular high power lasers this month. The first laser built using the modular technique will be a 60-kilowatt system for a U.S. Army vehicle. Production of the fiber modules laser will take place at Lockheed Martin’s Bothell, Washington
Commercial
The Danish Environment and Food Ministry is contributing 1.7 million kroner to a project in which water and airborne drones will be used to find shoals of fish with the aim of improving business for fishermen and reducing the environmental impact of the industry. Eva Kjer Hansen, the environment
Regulations
Finland has introduced one of the most liberal aviation regulations in the world as regards the use of unmanned aircraft and flying models. The level of regulation depends on how the device is used. The requirements for model aircraft used for recreational purposes are significantly lighter than those for remotely
Business
The UK Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the unmanned air vehicle that it plans to acquire under its recently-announced Protector effort will be a derivative of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Reaper that the Royal Air Force operates. While the specific configuration that it will acquire
Military
Photos have emerged on social media showing a visit by Iraqi Defence Minister Mr. Khaled al-Obeidi to Kut Air Base to supervise the inaugural flight of the Chinese-made CH-4B, a medium-altitude long-endurance drone. The Minister of Defense visited the Kut base Air, which saw the