Insitu has announced the successful 24-hour flight of its Integrator unmanned aircraft. The flight demonstrated Integrator’s expanded endurance at an increased gross take-off weight with payload on board. The event is the first of several planned milestones for the platform aimed toward continuously increasing payload capacity and endurance for future missions.
Category Archives: Applications & Testing & Experience
Russian UAS Searching for ‘Sunken Ship’ During Far East Military Drills
The Russian Army is using UAS in its military exercises in the eastern regions of the country, a spokesman for the Eastern Military District said on Tuesday. “A special-purpose training, involving an Eastern Military District unmanned air vehicle team, has started on Sakhalin Island under the supervision of specialists from the unmanned aircraft division of the Defence Ministry of the Russian Federation,” Colonel Alexander Gordeev said.
UAS Finds Trapped People Using Phone Signal
A Swiss masters student has created a system to help UAS home in on the location of people trapped underneath rubble, land or snow – by detecting signals given off by their mobile phones and so giving rescuers a clue as to where to focus their search efforts.
AgustaWestland Demonstrates Unmanned/Optionally Piloted Helicopter To Italian MoD
AgustaWestland has announced the completion of a demonstration of its Rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial System / Optionally Piloted Helicopter (RUAS/OPH) to the Italian Ministry of Defence. The trials were conducted to evaluate modern remote controlled rotorcraft technology and its potential to provide enhanced capabilities for the Italian armed forces in the future.
US Army Tests NERO Electronic Warfare Jammer on UAS
Last month within the mountainous terrain of The Great Salt Lake Desert at Dugway Proving Ground Utah, the U.S. Army conducted flight testing of an unmanned airborne electronic attack capability known as NERO, or the Networked Electronic Warfare Remotely Operated. Continue reading
Thales and Finmeccanica Selex ES Team Up to Address UK-French Unmanned Combat Air Systems Sensor Requirements
Within the UK-French framework, Thales and Finmeccanica Selex ES will cooperate for the development of the multifunction sensor suite and the communication sub-system of the future Anglo-French Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS). Continue reading
MIT Researches UAS for Automated Lighting
Lighting is crucial to the art of photography. But lights are cumbersome and time-consuming to set up, and outside the studio, it can be prohibitively difficult to position them where, ideally, they ought to go. Researchers at MIT and Cornell University hope to change that by providing photographers with squadrons of small, light-equipped autonomous robots that automatically assume the positions necessary to produce lighting effects specified through a simple, intuitive, camera-mounted interface. Continue reading
First Flight of Predator XP
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. announced the successful first flight of Predator XP, an updated version of the company’s flagship Predator RPA that has been licensed by the U.S. Government for sale to a broader customer base, including countries in the Middle East, North Africa, South America, and Asia. The flight occurred June 27 at Castle Dome Airfield, located at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground Range Complex in Arizona.