An MQ-1 Predator crashed in south Yemen on Tuesday. It came down in Jahayn village near Loder, in Yemen’s Abyan province where Al-Qaeda has a strong presence. It was found by local residents who called in police, who then collected the wreckage. But as they headed to a police station about 30 kilometers (18 miles) away, Al-Qaeda gunmen in cars intercepted the police and hijacked the wreckage.
Category Archives: Military UAS
Elbit – Hermes 450 and Hermes 900 Fly on Joint Flight Missions
Elbit Systems announced that it has successfully performed a series of joint flight missions of its Hermes® 450 and Hermes® 900 Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The two different UAS were controlled and operated from the same universal ground control station (UGCS), transmitting the gathered imagery, ELINT and COMINT to their station operators, while using different communications systems. To view video, click here.
Pratt & Whitney Powers the X-47B
Pratt & Whitney’s F100-PW-220U engine and exhaust system powered the first flight of the Navy / Northrop Grumman X-47B flight test aircraft for the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) programme.
Northrop Grumman Gets $3M UAS Common Architecture Working Group Contract
The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $3.3 million contract to participate in the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Control Segment (UCS) Architecture Working Group (UCSWG). Sponsored by the Unmanned Warfare Office of the Office Secretary of Defense (OSD), the UCSWG will provide increased UAS command and control capability to the war-fighter at lower cost by using an open system architecture approach across the UAS enterprise.
Indian Navy Wants MQ-4C BAMS
MQ-4C
First news from Aero India 2011 is that Northrop Grumman revealed that it has responded to the Request for Information (RFI) from the Ministry of Defence for MQ-4C Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft Systems (BAMS UAS) for the Indian Navy. The MQ-4C is the naval version of RQ-4 Global Hawk.
US Army Awards 5 Year Contract to Griffon Aerospace
The US Army Aviation and Missile Command awarded Griffon Aerospace a five year contract for the production, maintenance, engineering and flight services for the Remotely Piloted Vehicle Target (RPVT) programme. The contract also provides for aerial target scoring systems and services at Department of Defense (DOD) ranges worldwide.
India’s Nishant Finally Flies
The Nishant, India’s domestically-built unmanned aircraft, has successfully completed its series of confirmatory trials carried out at the Chandan ranges in Pokhran, Rajasthan, ahead of its induction. The Army conducted the successful flight trials before taking delivery of a set of four Nishants, together with ground systems.
US Air Force Orders 24 Reapers for $148 Million
The US Air Force Aeronautical Systems Centre at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, has awarded a $148.3 million contract to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to provide 24 MQ-9 Reaper hunter-killer Unmanned Aircraft. Continue reading