Unmanned aircraft, valued for their ability to hunt down the enemy without putting pilots in harm’s way, are being considered for a new mission: marking airdrop zones for resupplying troops in the war zone. Continue reading
Category Archives: Military UAS
Insitu Gets $7.8M US Navy Contract for ScanEagle Support Services
Insitu Inc., Bingen, Wash., is being awarded a $7,826,247 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-11-C-0061) to exercise an option for operational and maintenance services in support of the ScanEagle unmanned aircraft systems. Continue reading
Northrop Grumman Markets MQ-8C as ‘Rotary Wing UAS of the Future’
A full scale mock-up of Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C, the unmanned platform that is to succeed the MQ-8B, was on show earlier this month at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space exposition at National Harbor, Md. Continue reading
Israel Plans to Replace all Piloted Fighter Jets with UAS
Israel’s Air Force is on track to developing UAS that within four to five decades would carry out nearly every battlefield operation executed today by piloted aircraft, a high-ranking Israeli officer told The Associated Press on Sunday. Continue reading
Jordan Opens Airspace for Israeli UAS flying to Syria
Jordan has opened two corridors of its airspace to Israeli Air Force UAS seeking to monitor the ongoing conflict in Syria, French daily Le Figaro reported on Sunday, citing a Western military source in the Middle East. Continue reading
USAF Plans to Wind Down Block 30 Global Hawk Use
The US Air Force does not intend to keep the Block 30 Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk in service past the end of the calendar year 2014 because the Lockheed Martin U-2 and other “classified platforms” can take over its mission, senior service leaders told Congress on 17 April. However, USAF officials acknowledge that it will be hard to convince Congress to go along with their plans. Continue reading
The UN Security Council Should Deploy UAS in Ivory Coast
The U.N. Security Council should consider deploying unmanned surveillance aircraft in Ivory Coast to aid the world body’s peacekeeping mission in the west African country, Ivory Coast’s U.N. envoy said on Tuesday, echoing a recommendation by the U.N. chief. Continue reading
US Army $683M UAS Shopping List for Fiscal 2014
The U.S. Army announced April 10 that it is seeking $5 billion in fiscal 2014 to buy or upgrade its helicopter fleet and acquire more large and small unmanned aircraft to provide ground troops with better intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Continue reading