Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Hunter in use with the U.S. Army since 1996, recently surpassed 100,000 flight hours in service, more than 72,000 of which were flown in combat.
Category Archives: Military UAS
£600M Anglo-French Attack UAS Programme
Britain and France have launched a proposal to design and build the next generation of unmanned military attack aircraft worth £600 million (€710 million, $952 million). British and French forces want a more advanced aircraft than the General Atomics Reaper currently in service with the Royal Air Force.
Grey Eagle – Apache Command System Being Tested
Apache helicopter pilots will soon be able to control Grey Eagle UAS directly from the cockpit. The Grey Eagle-Apache command system is undergoing testing and is expected to be ready for demonstration at the Dugway Proving Ground test centre in Utah by September.
TAI’s “Anka” MALE First Test Flight
TAI's "Anka" MALE
Turkey’s first locally developed Medium-Altitude, Long-Endurance (MALE) UAS, the TAI ‘Anka’, first unveiled in July 2010, made its first test flight at the end of the year.
Global Observer Test Flight at Edwards Air Force Base
An experimental UAS with a wingspan almost the size of a Boeing 747 took to the skies over the Mojave Desert last week in a test flight from Edwards Air Force Base, reports the LA Times. On Thursday, the Global Observer performed its first test demonstrating its ability to use liquid hydrogen as fuel. It circled above Edwards at about 3,000 feet above ground level in a four-hour test, according to AeroVironment executives.
New President for Unmanned Systems, VT Group
The VT Group has announced that Daniel Bertram has joined the organization as president of the Unmanned Systems line of business and member of the Senior Leadership Team. In this role, he will have responsibility for the vertical and horizontal expansion of the group’s US services offering worldwide. Continue reading
X-47 Programme Boosted by Pentagon Cuts
Northrop Grumman X-47
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ plan to trim around $100 billion from Pentagon accounts over the next five years — the details of which he announced today — is being billed as a budget cut. Actually, Gates’ latest budget exercise represents a net boost for some projects.
The Navy will now get extra funding for the X-47, the first unmanned aircraft designed as a carrier-based strike jet. Northrop Grumman’s X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration drone has been performing taxi tests for several weeks at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Two X-47Bs have been built by Northrop’s Aerospace Systems sector under a 2007 development contract. The stealthy aircraft, which resembles a miniature B-2 bomber — also built by Northrop — is intended to test the concept of operating a small, unmanned, combat jet from aircraft carriers.
Orbit Wins $3M Sea Borne Contract
ORBIT Communication Systems, Ltd., has won a contract valued at $3.1 Million for the supply of multiple ship borne Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) tracking and communications systems to an undisclosed customer.
The advanced tracking and communications systems are designed to be operated on platforms at sea. Compensating for the constant motion of the marine platforms, the stabilised systems deliver precise tracking of the UAS and will be utilised for communications, command, control and intelligence provided by the UAS in maritime environments.
The systems are part of ORBIT’s family of tracking antenna solutions, which enable reliable and high speed telemetry, data and video communication links with platforms in motion – for a broad range of applications, from flight tests to satellite imaging. The company provides comprehensive, fully customised tracking solutions, tailored to meet exact customer requirements. This is the second major contract ORBIT has been awarded recently for its tracking and telemetry systems following the $6.25 Million contract announced in October 2010.
“Our vast experience in developing tough, all-weather-proven communication systems allows us to offer our customers reliable systems that enable continuous UAS communication, even at sea,” says Avi Cohen, President and CEO of ORBIT CS. “We are proud to have been awarded this contract and foresee additional agreements in the near future.”