Military
The Pentagon has approved the requirement for an “endurance upgrade” to the U.S. Navy’s Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout, with a larger aircraft to provide increased payload and range to support special operations forces. After also evaluating the Boeing A160T Hummingbird and Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max
Propulsion
Indian Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) officials say that the Kaveri aero-engine, which incidentally is over 22 years in the making by now with a sanctioned cost of Rs 2,893 crore ($388M), can power unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) because they "do not require the kind
Accidents
Security officials in Somalia say that a UAS crashed into a house near the Libyan Embassy in the capital, Mogadishu, on Friday, but they did not provide details about who was operating the unmanned aircraft. The site is located in the city's south-western Hodan district. Authorities, who
The hacker group AntiSec has released a 1GB cache of stolen documents from two organizations with ties to US law-enforcement agencies. Vanguard Defense Industries manufactures the ShadowHawk for law enforcement and security in the private sector, while InfraGard is a partnership between the FBI, businesses, academic institutions, and law-
Testing
Rockwell Collins has just made this video available of the October 2010 test flight of an AAI RQ-7B Shadow equipped with its damage-tolerant flight control system. Under the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Damage Tolerance programme, 20 inches of the Shadow's wing was blown off
Events
This year's US National Aerospace Week, an event established by Congress, will focus on informing the debate over choices the US government will make in the coming months. Ongoing and emerging security threats, aging civil and space infrastructure, fiscal challenges and keeping and creating jobs all present the
Control Stations
Raytheon Company recently demonstrated its Common Ground Control System (CGCS) technology to representatives from the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. The demonstration showed a UAS control station in a scenario representative of a Scavenger UAS mission, including simultaneous control of multiple dissimilar vehicles, sensor command and control, and
Research
Middle Tennessee State University signed a MoU with the US Army’s UAS Program Office. The Army is partnering with MTSU to turn university-level research and development into technology applicable to UAS. As part of the exchange, the Army pledged to support MTSU’s UAS educational and research efforts;
Robota LLC demonstrated a 10 hour and 4 minute flight of its unmanned aircraft platform named Robosoar. The UAS is designed to be man-portable, operated by a single person and is capable of autonomous takeoff and landing. The flight marked a very successful initial integration test flight combining the
Testing
Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems sector in San Diego is using the company's Bat unmanned aircraft in the U.S. Air Force Sand Dragon B programme to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other roadside bombs. The Northrop Grumman Bat UAS is a rail-launched, net-recovered, runway-
Propulsion
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is evaluating aerial refuelling for the upgraded version of its Heron unmanned aircraft system, which is better equipped to perform maritime missions. The Israeli navy is in the process of phasing out its manned Westwind 1124 Seascan maritime reconnaissance aircraft, which have been operated since 1978,
Testing
Boeing has ended the scheduled flight test programme for the self-funded Phantom Ray unmanned combat air systems (UCAS) demonstrator after two sorties, although it had originally planned 10. Boeing is not retiring the stealthy, tailless aircraft, but intends to resume flying at an undetermined date, said Craig Brown, Phantom