The first Italian Predator has completed a 12-hour surveillance flight over Libya after taking off from an air base in Foggia, southern Italy.
Northrop Grumman Joins Sand Dragon Unmanned Aircraft Programme Against Improvised Explosive Devices (IED)
Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems sector in San Diego is joining the U.S. Air Force Sand Dragon UAV programme to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other roadside bombs. Northrop Grumman won a $26.2 million contract Friday for the Air Force Sand Dragon B programme to develop and deploy a UAV with counter-IED capability.
Apparently Northrop Grumman is joining the Chandler May Inc. AME Unmanned Air Systems segment in San Luis Obispo, Calif., which since early 2010 has been working on the Air Force’s Sand Dragon medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for route surveillance on missions as long as 24 hours.
Awarding the contract Friday to Northrop Grumman were officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio — the same organization providing funding to Chandler May’s AME Unmanned Air Systems of $16.4 million in 2010 and $2.14 million this year for the Sand Dragon UAV programme.
Friday’s Air Force contract announcement does not make clear the extent of the work that Northrop Grumman will do on the Sand Dragon B development effort.
Chandler May AME is providing the company’s Fury B catapult-launched UAV for the Sand Dragon programme, which can operate independently of prepared runways on missions lasting as long as 24 hours. The Chandler May AME San Dragon UAV will be fitted with a dual-band radar and electro-optical sensor to help detect and locate IED threats.
US Navy to Replace Lockheed P-3 with UAS by 2020
The US Navy has confirmed plans to retire the special mission versions of the Lockheed P-3 by 2020, and replace them with an all-unmanned fleet.
Falcon Hypersonic Aircraft Test Flight Fails
Engineers and scientists monitoring the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, which was designed to fly at 20 times the speed of sound, lost contact with the vehicle midway through a scheduled 30-minute flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Lockheed Martin Unveils Maple Seed UAS
Lockheed Martin’s Intelligent Robotics Laboratories has spent the last five years developing an unmanned craft to replicate the motion of maple tree seeds, whirring softly to the ground like silent one-winged helicopters. The device, called the Samarai, is scheduled to make its public debut next week at the AUVSI conference in Washington.
New Russian Strike UAS has Rotax Engine
Russia’s leading unmanned aircraft developer, Vega, will unveil its latest model at the MAKS-2011 air show. Company spokesman Alexei Nedelin said that the new aircraft, named Luch* after the design bureau that developed the bulk of the technology, can be armed with up to 170 kg of weapons systems along with control systems.
Divert Tow Kit Makes Global Hawk Truly Global
Divert Kit fits snugly in an otherwise empty space in a Global Hawk wing without affecting the aircraft performance…….(U.S. Air Force photo)
A simple solution to a difficult problem resulted in dramatically enhancing the ability of the RQ-4B Global Hawk to deploy anywhere in the world.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION UAS PANEL – Announcement of the Second Workshop
The official announcement of the creation of the EC UAS Panel and its objectives was made by Daniel Calleja in the GIFAS International chalet at the Paris Air Show on 23 June 2011. During this event, Peter van Blyenburgh (UVS International) gave a short overview of the objectives of the EC UAS Panel’s first workshop that was to take place at EUROCONTROL headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on 12 July 2011.