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.
IDGA Announces UAS Summit in April
The Institute for Defense and Government Advancement (IDGA) has announced the UAV Summit scheduled for April 11 – 14, 2011 in the Washington DC area. Members from all services, coast guard/border patrol, and acquisition will convene in the Washington DC Metro Area this April to discuss and evaluate the current and future state of UAV technology and development throughout the US Military.
£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.
Rotomotion Announces World’s Smallest VTOL UAS
Rotomotion has announced what it claims to be “the smallest, most affordable professional short endurance electric Vertical Take Off and Land Unmanned Aerial System (VTOL UAS) in the industry” – the SR5 Parvus. The company describes the SR5 as “the most advanced professional VTOL UAS in its weight and payload class providing military-grade autonomous flight with features such as stable hoover, event-driven automatic craft return and pre-loaded map and flight path tracking that allows in-flight switching between manual and autonomous modes”.
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.
UVS International Appoints New Board Members
Yesterday, 12 January 2011, the UVS International General Assembly, which was held in Paris, France, unanimously voted 2 new members and 2 new observers onto its Board of Directors:
Gilles Fartek , Integra, Denmark (formerly an observer, now a full member) Claus Frey , EADS Deutschland, Cassidian, Germany (observer) Abdoulaye N’Diaye , Thales Avionics, France (formerly an observer, now a full member) George Papageorgiou , Honeywell Aerospace, France (observer)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.