an independent online news service for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems world
Agricultural efficiency is poised to take a big leap with drone technology now that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is streamlining regulations for unmanned aerial vehicles. A recent report from PwC pegs the addressable market for agricultural drones to be worth a whopping $32.4 billion, second only to infrastructure. Continue reading
What began in 2003 as the “deep black program” under the project name “Barracuda” was completed in December 2015 as the Agile UAV in NCE. The unmanned air vehicle platform was initially designed to test new technological developments with just a small number of flight trials. Following an 18-year utilisation and development phase, the Agile UAV is now one of Europe’s leading technology Demonstrator Systems. Continue reading
India quietly signed two contracts worth $1.4bn with Israel Aerospace Industries for the purchase of two additional Phalcon/IL-76 Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) valued at $1 billion and 10 Heron TP unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) during the recent visit of Israeli President Reuven Rivil to India. Continue reading
Small drones are already effective weapons for urban warfare—when armed with miniature warheads, these stealthy spies can turn into lethal assassins. So far their biggest limitation is battery life, but Boeing’s patent for a drone battle station sets out to overcome that. Continue reading
The Russian Army will be getting Advanced Stealth Drone Hunter which is capable of detecting unmanned aerial vehicles over 20 km range with radar accuracy of 10 meters. Continue reading
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a combination of software and hardware that will allow them to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and insect cyborgs, or bio-bots, to map large, unfamiliar areas – such as collapsed buildings after a disaster. Continue reading
Defense systems company MBDA Deutschland has reported successful testing of a new high-energy laser effector – a key element in a laser-based weapons system – at a military training facility on Germany’s North Sea coast. Continue reading
To support its research on airborne multi-sensor technologies, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has acquired two TigerShark unmanned aerial vehicles. The UAVs have been flown and tested with a four-channel multimode radar that can be operated in both monostatic and bistatic configurations. Continue reading