UAS VISION
an independent online news service for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems world
Harris Falcon III AN/PRC-117G
Harris Corporation and Cubic Corporation have conducted technology demonstrations that significantly enhance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) situational awareness by distributing UAS video and targeting data across wideband ground tactical communication networks.
As unmanned aircraft play an increasingly important role in defence strategies and tactics, the demands on the electronic control systems in these vehicles include extreme portability, ruggedness and safety. Every component in these systems carries with it the weight of mission success or failure – all the way down to the switches.
Plans by the U.S. military to consolidate its numbers of ground control stations for unmanned aircraft systems may be moving forward with the announcement Tuesday of a contract to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. to integrate a Universal Ground Control Station.
At the Navy League’s annual Sea Air Space convention outside Washington, Northrop and the Navy unveiled new details about the X-47B and their schedule to get it flying off a carrier. Rule number one: it’s not “remotely piloted.”
The U.S. Army is testing prototypes of a new high-tech synchronization engine at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., which can combine video feeds and sensor data from multiple Unmanned Aircraft Systems on a single Ground Control Station.
A recent breakthrough in precise aircraft control with implications for both manned and unmanned flight is highlighted in a brief video which can be viewed below. The full paper describing this Apprenticeship Learning control method and its integration into a comprehensive design and analysis suite is available here.
Abstract of Paper:
BAE Systems Unmanned Aircraft Programs Inc. filed an application (with supporting exhibit) for an experimental license to develop radio link equipment used in UAS operated by military branches for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) applications. Stark Aerospace filed an application (with supporting exhibits) for an experimental license to test a UAS for public safety and military applications.
U.S. Navy UAS experts are asking engineers at the Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems segment in Bethpage, N.Y., to develop common UAS ground control stations to fly the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk and the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) high-altitude, high-endurance surveillance UAS. BAMS and Global Hawk are based on the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 airframe.