Category Archives: Military UAS

Enlightenment Capital Invests in Aurora Flight Sciences

Aurora Logo

Enlightenment Capital, an aerospace, defense, and government-focused investment firm, announced that it has made a strategic investment in Aurora Flight Sciences, a manufacturer of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and autonomous flight technologies for military and commercial customers.  The investment will support Aurora’s strategy for expanding the company’s development and manufacturing scale as demand continues to increase.  Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Continue reading

Non-GPS Autonomous Aerial Delivery

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The U.S. Army’s Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) has developed a new capability with a navigation alternative to GPS. In recent tests, JPADS were dropped from planes, and immediately determined their location using optical sensors to compare local terrain with commercial satellite imagery. The new system demonstrated navigation to its intended point, using nothing but imagery to guide it. Continue reading

Area 6: America’s Secret Drone Testing Ground?

Area-6-runway_2The asphalt runway stretches for a mile on Yucca Flat, deep in the Nevada National Security Site about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Built in 2005, the runway covers a dirt landing strip from the 1950s, when the wide, flat valley was used for atomic bomb test shots. A small complex of buildings dominated by a large hangar with unusual clamshell doors dominates the southern end of the asphalt strip.

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