The US Navy has awarded a contract modification of $78 million—actually, officially 78 million and one dollar—to Insitu for a half-dozen more RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned aircraft systems, small aircraft the Navy and Marines use for tactical reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition at sea and on land.
Author Archives: The Editor
ALPA’s Flight Plan for Safe and Fair Skies
The US Air Line Pilots Association’s (ALPA) white paper published last week, A Flight Plan for Safe and Fair Skies, looks at, among other issues, the safe integration of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS). Continue reading
FAA Says Wildfires and Drones Don’t Mix
Responding to recent incidents in which unmanned aircraft systems interfered with manned aircraft involved in wildland firefighting operations, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is supporting the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Forest Service in their simple message to drone operators: If you fly; we can’t.
Northrop Signs Global Hawk Payload Deal with USAF
Northrop Grumman expects to start demonstrating a universal payload adaptor for the RQ-4B Global Hawk with various sensors carried by the Lockheed Martin U-2 after signing a cooperative research and development agreement on 14 July with the US Air Force.
More Sophisticated, Autonomous UAS on the Horizon
Drones have become one of the most ubiquitous weapons to come out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have given battlefield commanders unprecedented situational awareness and struck key targets all while keeping soldiers out of harm’s way. Continue reading
Successful Drone Measuring Campaign for Meteorological Soundings
During the first two weeks of July, Meteomatics performed a drone measurement campaign for meteorological soundings in the eastern part of Switzerland. Over 450 sounding flights were conducted with drones flying on five locations simultaneously: Altenrhein, Amlikon, Bad Ragaz, Oberriet and Schänis. During the campaign, the self-developed Meteodrone covered a flight distance of more than 700km.
Amazon Details Plans for Drone Superhighway in the Sky
Yesterday at NASA’s UTM Convention, Amazon laid out its vision for a multi-tiered superhighway in the sky, one in which all drones flying above 200 feet would have the ability to communicate with — and ideally sense and avoid — other aircraft.
Black Dart 2015
The Defense Intelligence Agency conducted the first Black Dart exercise in 2002 under a veil of secrecy, and the annual event stayed veiled through 2013. Now run by the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization (abbreviated JIAMDO and pronounced “jye-AM-doe), Black Dart’s existence was revealed in 2014, and select media were invited for a day last year “just to let everybody know that the Department of Defense is aware of this problem, we’re concerned about it and that we’re working on it”. Continue reading