AeroVironment, Inc. announced yesterday that it recently received an order from the United States Air Force for Switchblade loitering munition systems and services. The $4,167,777 extension to an existing contract includes engineering services, operational Switchblade systems and operator training. AeroVironment will work with ATK its munition subcontractor, to
Military
Officials of the US Department of Defense (DoD) plan to spend at least $5.78 billion to buy and develop unmanned vehicles and unmanned vehicle payloads next year, according to data in the Pentagon's budget documents released this week. This figure is down 13.14 percent from the
The European Defence Agency and the European Commission co-organised a workshop on Research and Development on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, on Friday 9 February, in the Royal Military Academy (Brussels). The workshop was the fifth and latest in a series of five workshops run by the European Commission (DG Enterprise
Military
DARPA is looking to develop an advanced communications backbone to support dismounted warfighters in austere locations. Providing high-bandwidth communications for troops in remote forward operating locations is not only critical but also challenging because a reliable infrastructure optimized for remote geographic areas does not exist. When you introduce additional
Business
A member of the famous McDonnell aerospace family is suing Boeing, the company that acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997, alleging that the aircraft maker infringed on his patents related to an unmanned aircraft landing system. William "Randy" McDonnell is seeking $160 million in damages from Boeing Co. and
The ESA and the EDA have given notice of a tender for the demonstration of the use of satellites complementing UAS integrated in non-segregated airspace. The demonstration project is part of the IAP programme (ARTES element 20) dedicated to the development and promotion of applications and services that use
Training
Israel Aerospace Industries announced that it has established the IAI UAS Academy - a unique solution for training and certification of UAS operators and technicians - at the IAI facilities near Ben Gurion Airport, Israel.The UAS Academy is based on IAI's vast knowledge and experience of four decades in
Business
AeroVironment, Inc. and Australia-based Sentient have announced the signing of an exclusive global license agreement that allows AeroVironment to distribute Sentient’s automatic target detection software for full motion video for use with small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Sentient’s Kestrel Land MTI Tier I is specifically designed to
The Subcommittee on Aviation, chaired by U.S. Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI) held a hearing to review the Global Positioning System (GPS) as a critical part of transportation infrastructure. GPS is the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) that provides position and timing information at any place on the globe
Data Links & Communications
The US Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $47.2 million contract for the purchase and integration of two more Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) payloads on two existing Block 20 Global Hawk aircraft. BACN is a high-altitude, airborne communications and information gateway system that maintains constant
Events
ICAUV 2012, the International Conference On Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles being held on 24 & 25 February 2011 at Eagleton The Golf Resort Bangalore, India is now totally sold out. The event has a capacity of 500 delegates, which has been rapidly attained, and the organisers regret that they are now
Commercial
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute and Korean Air have signed an agreement to develop the world’s first small-scale unmanned tilt-rotor aircraft by 2013. The envisioned aircraft, called “TR-6X,” will be about 60 percent the size of the first unmanned aircraft unveiled in November by the state-