Military
The US Navy issued a $42 million contract last week to convert eight Army Fire Scouts to “Navy configuration,” with the goal that the aircraft will be ready for service by 2013. Jamie Cosgrove, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Systems Command, says “The Army aircraft are just bare airframes without
Military
Pentagon weapons buyer Ashton Carter met with Northrop, Boeing and Lockheed executives at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale last week to discuss the military's plans to build a fleet of radar-evading, long-range bombers that the military hopes to have ready for action by the mid-2020s. The plane
Military
Arcturus is displaying its new T-20 at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Florida. The T-20 has a 17-foot wingspan, putting it in the so-called Tier II class of unmanned aircraft. The company claims the device can carry up to 65 pounds of payload, 'in excess of
Military
U.S. Special Operations Command will be turning over its unmanned helicopters to the Army. SOCOM will be seeking other options that better suit special operators' needs, officials said. Army Col. Douglas Rombough, programme executive officer for rotary wing at SOCOM, said that the A160 Hummingbird, built by Boeing
Military
AAI has built a new unmanned aircraft, a substantial upgrade of the standard RQ-7 Shadow. The new aircraft, reportedly in the blended-wing configuration, is designed with two payload bays. Two internally-funded prototypes have been built, but neither has yet flown. First flight is expected in the summer of 2011, according
Military
Alenia Aeronautica, has announced that it has recently delivered the Weapon Bay Doors & Mechanism for nEUROn (the new-generation technology demonstrator for a European Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle - UCAV) to Dassault Aviation. This complex system was designed, built and integrated entirely by Alenia Aeronautica to include the weapon housing
Military
The CIA employed unmanned aircraft to fly dozens of secret missions deep into Pakistani airspace and monitor the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, current and former U.S. officials said. Using unmanned planes designed to evade radar detection and operate at high altitudes, the agency conducted clandestine flights
Military
Elbit Systems has been selected to supply its Hermes 900 unmanned aircraft system to the Chilean defence forces. The choice was made after the nation's air force and army evaluated the type and Israel Aerospace Industries rival Heron. Elbit declined to confirm the report, saying it "does
Military
Skyblade IV, an unmanned aircraft developed by home-grown firm ST Aerospace and DSO National Laboratories, the national defence research body, was on show at the region's largest naval exhibition, Imdex Asia, which opened in Singapore on Wednesday. Some army troops have started using the Skyblade III, which has
Military
The Israeli air force has issued a tender to select an unmanned aircraft system for training purposes. Until now, the air force's UAS school has used operational vehicles drawn from the service's different squadrons, which has caused problems as the units operate around the clock. To
Military
ScanEagle production aircraft #687 flew 2,000 flight hours supporting the missions of Canadian and allied forces before it was retired in April, 2010.
Military
“We are embarking on a VTOL unmanned aircraft programme,” Tim Owings, Army deputy project manager for unmanned aircraft systems, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. Just last month, officials at the Army’s annual aviation convention in Nashville had indicated that it was almost a certainty that the Army