Business
Elbit Systems Ltd. announced that it was awarded an approximately $160 million contract by a European customer, to supply Unmanned Aircraft Systems over the next two years. Joseph Ackerman, President and CEO of Elbit Systems, noted: "More and more customers worldwide have come to the conclusion that Elbit Systems&
Military
Talks between Turkish President Abdullah Gul and his US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Chicago failed to make any progress on the sale of armed UAS to Turkey. Turkey seeks to buy armed unmanned aircraft from the United States, but the request has turned
The United States continues to pay "very careful attention" to China's growing cyberspace capabilities, said Dave Helvey, acting Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for East Asia. "There is the potential for these types of operations to be very disruptive" to the United States and its
Testing
Lian Pin Koh, an ecologist at the ETH Zürich, and Serge Wich, a biologist at the University of Zürich and PanEco, have built their own unmanned aircraft equipped with cameras, sensors and GPS for $2,000. They have already used the remote-controlled aircraft to map deforestation, count orang-utans
Business
AeroVironment has introduced the Wasp small unmanned aircraft system and announced that it has been accepted by the U.S. Air Force for inclusion in its Battlefield Air Targeting Micro Air Vehicle (BATMAV) programme. Inclusion into the BATMAV programme enabled the Air Force to place an order for Wasp AE
Military
The United States has agreed to sell unarmed unmanned surveillance aircraft to Iraq's navy as part of an effort to help protect that nation's oil exports amid growing tensions in the Persian Gulf and to strengthen U.S.-Iraqi ties. "They understand the importance of
Business
Northrop Grumman Corporation has announced it has signed a $1.7 billion (€1.2 billion) contract for NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system. Operating under NATO command, AGS is expected to be the major data source for NATO's system for Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR)
The Raytheon Co. Missile Systems segment in Tucson, Arizona was awarded a $85 million U.S. Air Force contract to build 22 all-up Griffin missiles and 43 telemetry rounds for Griffin tests. Raytheon developed the 45-pound Griffin missile internally in response to needs for missiles smaller and producing
Events
How unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are used for both peaceful and military purposes will be the focus of the Sixth UAS Action Summit May 22-23 at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. The conference theme – “From Battle Field to Farm Field” – examines measures that the nation and the UAS
ASTM International Committee F38 on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has elected Ted Wierzbanowski, Director of UAS Airspace Integration at AeroVironment Inc. in Monrovia, California, as its new chairman.The committee, with a membership of more than 130, develops standards and guidance materials for UAS, covering topics such as airworthiness, flight
Accidents
A mystery object, thought to be a military or law enforcement drone, flying in controlled airspace over Denver had a near miss with a commercial jet last week. The pilot of the Cessna jet radioed air traffic controllers to warn them that “A remote controlled aircraft” had flown past his
Commercial
The Federal Aviation Administration authorized the Polk County Sheriff's Office to fly an unmanned aircraft armed with a camera from August 2009 to August 2010. The modified Easy Star ready-to-fly, radio-controlled plane was flown more than 400 feet above a portion of the Green Swamp,