Military
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have signed a Memorandum of Understandings (MOU) for collaboration in which the companies will offer the Republic of Korea (ROK) military forces with unmanned Loitering Munitions systems. As part of the MOU, KAI and IAI are aiming to expand their long
Military
A Chinese company has unveiled a copy of the Black Hornet Nano. The tiny surveillance drone – named Fengniao, or Hummingbird – is just 17cm long and weighs 35 grams. Its developer, privately owned Huaqing Innovation based in Shenzhen, said it could transmit high-definition images or real-time footage over a distance of
Launchers
International design and innovation studio CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati is collaborating with the drone company Flyfire to prototype a new system for connecting and managing large swarms of drones. The new system revolves around a mesh – a “Flying Drone Blanket” that fits inside a suitcase – that allows fleets of quadcopters to
C-UAS
The Federal Aviation Administration has selected five host airports to evaluate technologies and systems that could detect and mitigate potential safety risks posed by unmanned aircraft. The effort is part of the agency’s Airport Unmanned Aircraft Systems Detection and Mitigation Research Program. The FAA selected the following airports: * Atlantic
Military
Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) have successfully completed the first test flight of the Loyal Wingman uncrewed aircraft. The flight of the first military aircraft to be designed and manufactured in Australia in more than 50 years flew under the supervision of a Boeing test pilot
Commercial
US drone manufacturer Skydio announced that it has raised $170 million in Series D funding led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Growth Fund. This brings total funding raised to over $340 million with a current valuation of over $1 billion. Andreessen Horowitz, which also led the Series A, is joined in
Business
Elbit Systems Ltd. announced that it was awarded an approximately $300 million contract by a country in Asia to provide Hermes 900 Unmanned Aircraft Systems . The contract will be performed over a period of five years. Under the contract, the Company will provide its Hermes 900 UAS and associated sub-systems,
Research
Insects can be remarkably acrobatic and resilient in flight. Those traits help them navigate the aerial world, with all of its wind gusts, obstacles, and general uncertainty. Such traits are also hard to build into flying robots, but MIT Assistant Professor Kevin Yufeng Chen has built a system that approaches
Military
Textron Systems is preparing to show off its vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial system in an Army drone rodeo at Fort Benning, Georgia, for companies competing to replace the service's RQ-7B Shadow. The Future Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems, or FTUAS, Rodeo will run through the first week
Testing
State tests of the KYB combat unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by ZALA Aero (part of the Kalashnikov group of companies of the Rostec state corporation) will be completed in 2021. This was reported to TASS during the international arms exhibition IDEX - 2021. KYB was shown in the UAE
Military
Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works advanced projects bureau has officially revealed the design of its Speed Racer air vehicle. A computer-generated segment appeared in a video promoting Lockheed Martin's StarDrive digital environment released ahead of the Air Force Associations' 2021 Virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium. The missile-shaped
Testing
Linebird’s team announced that they performed a successful test of their patent-pending UAS payload system with the Sensorlink Ohmstik on a live 115kV transmission structure in Virginia.