Business
The Boeing Company and Elbit Systems signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Farnborough Airshow to collaborate on the marketing and sales of Elbit Systems' Hermes 450 and 900 product lines in the United States and select international countries. "This partnership further expands and enhances Boeing's
Business
AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems announced that it has received a $358 million award from the U.S. Army’s Program Manager – Unmanned Aircraft Systems for engineering support and system upgrades that will create a fleet of 45 upgraded RQ-7B Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (TUAS).Deliveries of 43 systems
Military
The Pentagon is considering awarding a Distinguished Warfare Medal to UAS pilots who work on military bases often far removed from the battlefield. Pentagon officials have been briefed on the medal’s “unique concept,” Charles V. Mugno, head of the Army Institute of Heraldry, told a recent meeting of the
Testing
BAE Systems has announced its intention to re-fly the Mantis UAS Concept Demonstrator – this time in UK airspace. This will be the first flight of a UAS of this class in UK airspace. Flying Mantis will enable the Company to continue to mature a number of UAS capabilities and
Business
Software engineers at the Raytheon Co. Intelligence and Information Systems segment in Garland, Texas, will continue a project to convert application code in the U.S. Navy Tactical Control System (TCS) for unmanned aircraft from the proprietary Solaris operating system to the open-systems Linux operating system under terms of
MBDA is unveiling an innovative concept weapon system for 2030, the CVS301 VIGILUS, at the 2012 Farnborough International Airshow. Vigilus is a suite of future strike weapons for UAS that provides a revolutionary close air support capability to battlefield UAS. Allowing the UAS to remain at a safe stand-off
Testing
The UAV Factory team expanded the boundaries of the unmanned aircraft capability by performing a nonstop 54 hour and 27 minute flight of the Penguin B - the longest recorded flight for a mini-class unmanned aircraft. The previous longest endurance mini UAS flight was achieved by AAI’s Aerosonde in
Testing
Raytheon’s new small tactical munition (STM), which the U.S. group claims is the first purpose-built weapon for tactical unmanned aircraft systems, could be in active service within a few months. The U.S. group told AIN it is currently integrating the STM on “a couple of platforms
Business
Insitu Pacific, the Australia-based subsidiary of Insitu Inc., announced that it was awarded a contract to provide its ScanEagle to the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN). The delivery of these systems will be accompanied by training, logistics and ship installation, as well as specialist in-country maintenance support. The
Testing
The Boeing Phantom Eye, a high-altitude, long endurance test bed, will require a nose gear redesign after the component snapped during the aircraft's first landing at Edwards AFB, California. "Hardware-wise, there will be changes based on what we learned," says Programme Manager Drew Mallow.
Business
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. announced that it's newly acquired subsidiary, Composite Engineering, Inc. (CEI), has received an $11.9 million single award baseline contract from Swedish FMV for the supply of unmanned aerial targets and associated hardware to the Vidsel Test Range.Specialized hardware and equipment
Military
More interesting screenshots, taken from a documentary about the Great Prophet 7 exercise held in Iran recently reveal several new types of UAS currently being developed by Tehran. The first one (above) shows the somehow famous “Pahpad” drone, used by Syria to spy on the clashes in Homs. The second