Tag Archives: Unmanned Aircraft Systems

AeroVironment has received a $20.9 million contract option to provide data link and avionics technology packages to update radio frequency elements of the U.S. Army's Raven unmanned aerial systems. AeroVironment said Thursday the contract action serves as the second option year of the potential $55 million flight control systems area of the Army's five-year Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems award.

Northrop Grumman used a surrogate unmanned aircraft system fitted with technology from U.K.-based Ultra to demonstrate anti-submarine warfare capability in October. The company said Tuesday it tested Ultra's ASW sonobuoys, processor and receiver on a crewed Bell 407 vertical lift aircraft modified to serve as a surrogate to the MQ-8C Fire Scout UAS.

AeroVironment has unveiled a new lightweight antenna add-on kit designed to expand the command-and-control range of unmanned aircraft systems to provide operators with increased operational capabilities. The company said Thursday its new Extended Range Antenna comes in a small scale in terms of size, weight and power and produces a narrowed beam width that extends C2 coverage by a maximum of 24.9 miles.

Cubic has received a $7.5M contract to build and demonstrate a prototype software-defined radio intended to support coordination of unmanned aircraft systems in flight.

Woolpert has secured a contract to assess possible challenges that may arise from the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into airport operations and craft a set of guidelines to help industry plan airfield infrastructure to accommodate large UAS platforms.

D-Fend Solutions is working with a Department of Defense office to develop technologies that will protect warfighters and civilians from enemy unmanned aircraft systems.

AeroVironment has secured a $5.3M contract to deliver units of a small unmanned aircraft system and support tools to a branch within U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Dedrone will continue to license its drone detection platform to F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming under a program with the Defense Innovation Unit.

ThayerMahan has received a four-year, $19.4M contract with the Office of Naval Research for the development and enhancement of autonomous, acoustic and electronic search technologies.

Black River Systems will provide open systems architecture software and hardware for U.S. Air Force counter-small unmanned aircraft systems under a three-year, $88.7M contract from the Small Business Innovation Research III program. 

Moog Aircraft Group has been selected to provide wing flight control and wingfold actuation systems for a carrier-based unmanned refueling aircraft Boeing is building for the U.S. Navy.

Training firm Icarus Aerospace exhibited its work on a Boeing-made unmanned helicopter geared for public safety operations during the National Sheriffs' Association Winter Technology Conference, Commercial UAV News reported Saturday. The newly unveiled version of the S-100 Camcopter is designed to support search and rescue, resupply, disaster response and surveillance operations, the report noted.

The Department of Transportation has commenced a market research effort to identify companies and universities that can develop artificial intelligence tools to facilitate autonomous operation of unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Department of Homeland Security has issued a request for information from potential providers of counter-unmanned aircraft systems in a move to address security concerns over hostile drones. DHS said Monday in a FedBizOpps notice its science and technology directorate will use the collected data to assess and identify commercial-off-the-shelf counter-UAS platforms …

Textron's Bell subsidiary has signed a cooperative agreement with NASA to design, build and integrate an unmanned aircraft system for the agency’s planned 2020 flight demonstration effort in national airspace. Bell will lead a team composed of Textron Systems, Xwing and the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere …