Commercial
Parrot, a European drone group, announced its collaboration with Textron Systems - a global provider of unmanned air, surface and land products, services and support for aerospace and defense customers. Combining Parrot’s durable ANAFI USA and ANAFI platform drones with Textron Systems’ Optice software, professionals can now enhance their aerial
BVLOS
Kongsberg Geospatial, developer of the TerraLens Geospatial SDK, and Skyports, an enabler of advanced air mobility (AAM), announced that the Kongsberg Geospatial IRIS airspace situational awareness application has been adopted by Skyports. The technology will be used by Skyports to enhance their BVLOS operations. The Kongsberg Geospatial IRIS airspace visualization
C-UAS
WhiteFox, a global supplier of airspace security, has launched STRATUS, the world's first cloud-based system to detect and track drones. WhiteFox has adapted its core technology that stops drones from operating unsafely or illegally, such as smuggling drugs into prisons and surveilling nuclear power plants. STRATUS is
Accidents
Air force soldiers responsible for operating the Iron Dome shot down an IDF drone during the recent fighting in Gaza because they mistakenly identified it as a hostile aircraft, causing great concern among IDF officials. This unusual incident sent shockwaves through the Air Force, which operates the Iron Dome air
Commercial
The FBI has announced the start of an investigation into a strange near-miss incident that occurred on February 9, 2021 in the skies over Tucson. At around 10:30 p.m. on that date, a helicopter operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, was reportedly buzzed
Electronic Sub-Systems
A nanophotonics-based LiDAR technology developed by a POSTECH research team was presented as an invited paper in Nature Nanotechnology, the leading academic journal in the field of nanoscience and nanoengineering. In this paper, a POSTECH research team (led by Professor Junsuk Rho of the departments of mechanical engineering and
C-UAS
DroneShield Ltd announced its expansion into counterdrone capabilities through tethered aerial vehicles via a partnership with Zenith AeroTech. Zenith AeroTech is a US-based developer of highly customisable, heavy-lift tethered aerial vehicles (“TAVs”). As part of the integration partnership, Zenith AeroTech deploys DroneShield’s DroneSentry-C2 command-and-control
Business
WISeKey, a global cybersecurity, AI and IoT company, announced that it is strengthening its partnership with Parrot, the European drone group. WISeKey will not only be securing Parrot’s drones, it is also entering into a new collaboration with Parrot and with a leading cybersecurity certification and audit company. Together
Military
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is teasing a new air-launched effect, a part of a growing portfolio of in-development drones that it plans to launch from its MQ-9A Reaper and MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). The company released a digital rendering of two UAVs flying
Business
Senator John Hoeven announced a $6 million award from the Space Development Agency (SDA) to General Atomics to demonstrate satellite to MQ-9 Reaper laser communications. Currently, satellite communications rely on radio frequencies, which require significant amounts of power and are vulnerable to interception and jamming. By utilizing laser communications,
Military
Poland will buy 24 armed drones from Turkey, the Polish defence minister said on May 22nd., becoming the first NATO member to buy Turkish-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The Bayraktar TB2 drones, the first of which are due to be delivered next year, will be armed with anti-tank
Commercial
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) on May 21st. issued its first ‘light UAS operator certificate’ (LUC) to Manna Aero, the Irish drone delivery operator. Manna Aero was the first company to apply for a LUC, following their recent trials of drone delivery services in rural Ireland. Their successful application follows