The U.S. Air Force plans to deploy five RQ-4 Global Hawks and approximately 105 personnel, currently based at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to Yokota Air Base, Japan, from May to October 2017. Continue reading
Category Archives: Military UAS
Predator B Demonstrates Threat Radar Detection
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has announced the successful airborne demonstration of a Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) on a GA-ASI Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper Block 5 aircraft. The company-owned Predator B operated from GA-ASI’s Gray Butte Flight Operations Facility near Palmdale, California, against various ground-based radars. Continue reading
US Air Force, Lockheed Martin Demonstrate Manned/Unmanned Teaming
Photo: US Air Force
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and Calspan Corporation successfully demonstrated manned/unmanned teaming to improve combat efficiency and effectiveness for the warfighter. Continue reading
LightningStrike XV-24A Demonstrator Successfully Completes Subscale Flight Test Program
Aurora’s XV-24A LightningStrike Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) XPlane subscale vehicle demonstrator (SVD) aircraft completed its planned flight test program in early March at Webster Outlying Field in Southern Maryland. Continue reading
MQ-4C Triton Improves Mission Capability with Software Upgrade Test
The U.S. Navy’s MQ-4C Triton, built by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC), completed formal lab testing and a successful first flight of an improved software suite that enhances the autonomous unmanned system’s operational capabilities and enables Early Operational Capability (EOC) deployment in early 2018. Continue reading
New Chinese Drone for Export
BZK 005
China is the largest exporter of military drones today, and it is ready to place a new model on the international market. The TYW-1, developed by Beihang University in Beijing, one of China’s top institutes for science and technology, is an unmanned aircraft for reconnaissance and combat based on the BZK-005 high-altitude, long-range reconnaissance drone, which the university also developed. Continue reading
As the Predator Retires, its Inventor Remembers its Birth
As the Air Force works to retire its fleet of MQ-1 Predators, Air Force Magazine spoke with the man whose engineering feats of the 1970s and 1980s first made unmanned systems reliable. Continue reading
Global Hawk – 1,000 Sorties Without Maintenance
A 380th Air Expeditionary Wing EQ-4 Global Hawk, carrying a communications enhancing payload, completed 1,000 continuous sorties without occurring a single maintenance cancellation while supporting Operation Inherent Resolve here. Continue reading