The Pentagon has approved the requirement for an “endurance upgrade” to the U.S. Navy’s Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout, with a larger aircraft to provide increased payload and range to support special operations forces.
Author Archives: The Editor
India Develops Own Gas Turbine Engine for its UCAV
Indian Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) officials say that the Kaveri aero-engine, which incidentally is over 22 years in the making by now with a sanctioned cost of Rs 2,893 crore ($388M), can power unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) because they “do not require the kind of higher thrust” needed for the indigenous Tejas LCA (light combat aircraft).
Raven Crashes in Mogadishu
Security officials in Somalia say that a UAS crashed into a house near the Libyan Embassy in the capital, Mogadishu, on Friday, but they did not provide details about who was operating the unmanned aircraft.
Hackers Target Vanguard and InfraGard
The hacker group AntiSec has released a 1GB cache of stolen documents from two organizations with ties to US law-enforcement agencies. Vanguard Defense Industries manufactures the ShadowHawk for law enforcement and security in the private sector, while InfraGard is a partnership between the FBI, businesses, academic institutions, and law-enforcement agencies.
DARPA, US Army and Rockwell Collins Video of Damage Tolerance Control Testing on Shadow
Rockwell Collins has just made this video available of the October 2010 test flight of an AAI RQ-7B Shadow equipped with its damage-tolerant flight control system. Under the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Damage Tolerance programme, 20 inches of the Shadow’s wing was blown off in flight. The autonomous control system automatically recovered the aircraft to controlled flight, adjusted the autopilot gains to compensate for the loss of an aileron, and landed the aircraft safely.
US National Aerospace Week Launched
This year’s US National Aerospace Week, an event established by Congress, will focus on informing the debate over choices the US government will make in the coming months. Ongoing and emerging security threats, aging civil and space infrastructure, fiscal challenges and keeping and creating jobs all present the United States with enormous challenges.
Raytheon Demonstrates Ground Control System to UK MoD for Scavenger UAS
Raytheon Company recently demonstrated its Common Ground Control System (CGCS) technology to representatives from the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence. The demonstration showed a UAS control station in a scenario representative of a Scavenger UAS mission, including simultaneous control of multiple dissimilar vehicles, sensor command and control, and connectivity to external systems, among other capabilities. Continue reading
Middle Tennessee State University Partners with US Army to Develop UAS Technology
Sidney A. McPhee (left), President of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, and Army Colonel Timothy Baxter, Project Manager for the Army's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office
Middle Tennessee State University signed a MoU with the US Army’s UAS Program Office. The Army is partnering with MTSU to turn university-level research and development into technology applicable to UAS.