Weapons Systems / Lasers
Raytheon Company will deploy two prototype high energy laser weapon systems to troops overseas under a U.S. Air Force contract. The Air Force experimentation includes 12 months of in-field operation against unmanned aerial systems and operator training. Raytheon's HELWS uses pure energy to detect, identify and
Weapons Systems / Lasers
The U.S. Army issued a contract award to accelerate the rapid prototyping and fielding of its first combat-capable laser weapon system. This prototype will deliver 50 kilowatt (kW)-class lasers on a platoon of four Stryker vehicles in Fiscal Year 2022, supporting the Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense
Testing
The China-developed solar-powered unmanned aircraft "MOZI 2" has completed a successful maiden flight, its producer OXAI Aircraft Co., Ltd. announced last week. The flight was conducted on July 27 at Moganshan airport in Deqing County in east China's Zhejiang Province, according to the Shanghai-
Testing
An unmanned helicopter unveiled by Korean Air has made its first test flight as part of efforts to develop a fully unmanned platform that could be used for high-risk civilian and military missions. Korean Air said the Korean Air Unmanned System - Vertical Helicopter (KUS-VH) performed its maiden flight
Commercial
Echodyne, a manufacturer of innovative, high-performance radars for government and commercial markets, announced that its EchoGuard airspace management radars were the ground-based sensor for the first-ever UAS mission to operate beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flight without ground observers. The ground-based sensors worked in coordination
The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit is working with the medical-supply-dropping drone manufacturer Zipline to prototype unmanned aerial systems (UAS) as a way to broaden the distribution network of battlefield emergency supply delivery. Zipline, a drone delivery company that markets itself as a “lifesaving” Silicon Valley startup, builds
Business
Ascent Vision Technologies (AVT) was recently awarded a contract to deliver a full suite of counter drone vehicles to the U.S. Air Force. This unique capability, known as the eXpeditionary Mobile Air Defense Integrated System or X-MADIS, was selected by the Air Force after 18 months of testing,
A pair of University of Texas at Arlington researchers are teaming with Lockheed Martin Corp. to optimize how unmanned vehicles use sensors to gather information. Frank Lewis, the Moncrief-O'Donnell Chair and professor of electrical engineering, and Yan Wan, an associate professor of electrical engineering, are helping the
The Foreign Trade Austria, Internationalization and Innovation Agency of the Austrian Economic Chamber named the parachute safety solution manufacturer Drone Rescue Systems "Born Global Champion" 2019. The award is presented every year to young Austrian companies with innovative products and success internationally. The award highlights Drone Rescue Systems&
A University of Kansas aerospace engineer has earned the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for young faculty to design, build and fly a radar suite and integrate it on a helicopter-based unmanned aerial system (UAS) to gather data on some of the world’s most critical glaciers.
Schiebel Group has announced the expansion of its U.S. subsidiary, Schiebel Aircraft, Inc., with the appointment of Gretchen West as President and CEO to facilitate the growth of its unrivaled CAMCOPTER S-100 UAS in the United States with a focus on the tremendous opportunities in the U.S.
Accidents
For about a year, Swiss Post and Matternet have been collaborating on a drone delivery service in three different cities in Switzerland, with drones ferrying lab samples between hospitals far faster and more efficiently than is possible with conventional ground transportation. The service had made about 3,000 successful flights