Military
The asphalt runway stretches for a mile on Yucca Flat, deep in the Nevada National Security Site about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Built in 2005, the runway covers a dirt landing strip from the 1950s, when the wide, flat valley was used for atomic bomb test shots. A
Weapons Systems / Lasers
High over Alaska last summer, the Pentagon experimented with new, secret prototypes: Micro-drones that can be launched from the flare dispensers of moving F-16s and F/A-18 fighter jets. Canisters containing the tiny aircraft descended from the jets on parachutes before breaking open, allowing wings on each drone to swing
Military
The Israeli air force (IAF) and Israel Aerospace Industries are working to “significantly” increase the endurance of the Heron TP unmanned air vehicle from its current 36 hours. Work is ongoing to introduce additional sensor capability, the reason the IAF requires additional endurance. By 2020 the IAF's "
Military
By Dan Gettinger, Center for the Study of the Drone The Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman have, for several years, been a nexus for Iranian military drone activity. At no time was this more evident than on January 29, the day Iran claimed that it had flown a drone
Research
Aurora Flight Sciences announced that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded the company the prime contract for Phase 2 of the Agency’s Vertical Takeoff and Landing Experimental Plane (VTOL X-Plane) program. For decades, aircraft designers seeking to improve vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities have endured
VTOL
Northrop Grumman Corp., Aerospace Systems, San Diego, California, is being awarded $7,280,560 for cost-plus-fixed-fee task order 1269 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0026) in support of the MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned aircraft systems. This test support effort for the MQ-8C includes software verification; software regression; cybersecurity;
Military
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande will unveil a 1.5 billion-pound ($2.1 billion) cooperative drone project when the two leaders meet in Amiens today. Britain and France will commit 750 million pounds each to build a prototype unmanned aircraft that will be the
Military
The US Air Force will add two new locations for remotely piloted aircraft operations within the continental United States, and look to build new overseas locations as it builds its RPA force. General Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said ACC will add the two locations "as rapidly
Military
Working with our German partners, we are returning our full-scale demonstrator to flight status and we continue to negotiate with the German Air Force to prove out that [Airbus] payload that we’re currently under contract with”
Weapons Systems / Lasers
The US Army recently issued a request for information for small guided munitions that can be outfitted to rotary wing and unmanned aerial systems. Potential weapons systems (including launcher) must be precision capable and demonstrated at a minimum System Technology Readiness Level of 5: prototype demonstration in a relevant environment.
Military
The US Air Force has offered an artist’s impression of the Pentagon’s “arsenal plane” concept in a video presented by service secretary Deborah Lee James at the Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida. As first seen in DARPA "system of systems" promotion released last year, the
Military
Iran has developed an ‘improved’ variant of its Shahed-129 unmanned aerial vehicle, which was displayed by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) for the first time during a rally in mid-February to mark the anniversary of the Islamic revolution in 1979. According to Janes, the new version of the Shahed-129