On August 7, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) completed the first-ever automated landing of an MQ-9 Block 5 Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), followed by the first auto-takeoff on August 9. The new Automatic Takeoff and Landing Capability (ATLC) was developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) to enhance mission capability. Continue reading
Category Archives: News
AeroVironment Gets $6M Raven Contract from NATO for Portuguese Army
AeroVironment, Inc. has announced the receipt of a fixed-price contract award valued at $5,962,494 from NSPA on August 20, 2018.The contract award encompasses the procurement of Raven® unmanned aircraft systems equipped with Mantis i23 sensors and pocket Remote Video Terminals (p/RVT) for the Portuguese Army, with delivery scheduled over a three-year period. Continue reading
Greek Army Sagem Sperwer Crashes Near Komotini
A Hellenic Army unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) fell near Komotini, northern Greece, last Thursday morning.The SAGEM Sperwer type aircraft fell some four kilometers west of Komotini, according to local reports. Continue reading
ICAO Lawyers to Tackle Emerging Challenges
The ICAO Legal Committee, chaired by Mr. Terry Olson from France, concluded its 37th Session last week at ICAO’s Headquarters, addressing a range of challenging emerging issues for international air transport. Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, ICAO Council President and Dr. Fang Liu, ICAO Secretary General were present to open the Session. Continue reading
MQ-4C Triton Damaged in California Mishap
A MQ-4C Triton landed on its belly after a test flight last Wednesday went wrong at Naval Base Ventura County in California. The incident occurred at 2:45 pm Wednesday at Point Mugu when the aircraft from Florida-based Naval Air Station Jacksonville’s Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19 experienced an unspecified mechanical glitch during the flight.
Russian REX-1 Counter-UAV System Revealed
Images from Russia’s major ‘Vostok 2018’ exercise on 13 September appear to show a production version of the REX-1 counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) weapon in use by Russian Federation airborne troops. Continue reading
EPE, Thales and D13 to Integrate C-UAS capability into Bushmasters

L-R: Warwick Penrose – Managing Director at EPE, Robi Sen – Chief Technology Officer at Department 13, Sam Keayes – VP Transport and Security at Thales Australia
At the Land Forces Exhibition in Adelaide, EPE, Thales and Department 13 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) following successful integration of the MESMER Counter Drone solution into the Bushmaster. The MOU outlines the intent for this solution to provide an interim cyber capability for the vehicle platform. Continue reading
Intel Capital Invests in Delair
Delair, a supplier of commercial drone solutions, announced that it has recently closed its expansion round with an investment from Intel Capital. For the past year, Delair and Intel have been collaborating on the Intel Insight Platform, a cloud-based digital asset management solution that leverages Delair’s extensive suite of industry-optimized software analytics to speed Intel’s efforts to transform how businesses in key verticals work using data captured from UAVs for actionable analytics. Continue reading






