The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has certified the airworthiness of Cobra, an experimental unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) being developed by Raytheon.
The FAA ticket allows the new UAV to begin test flights in airspace over southeastern Arizona.
Thursday’s announcement cast some new light on the Cobra project, which is being undertaken by Raytheon units in Arizona, Texas and California.
Cobra is being created as a test bed for the development of new sensors, communications networking and airframe designs for integration into other UAVs. It allows new technology to be checked out without removing operational UAVs from the field.
“The Cobra will significantly decrease costs and compress schedules for bringing new technologies to market,” said Raytheon Vice President Ken Pederson. “Our customers will benefit from our ability to support both internal Raytheon development efforts and their programs with Cobra, without increasing the pressure on tactical systems and valuable range resources.”
The 9-foot-long aircraft has a wingspan of 10 feet and is the first UAV of such a relatively small size to receive an Experimental Airworthiness Certificate from the FAA.
Source and more info: upi
While it has no onboard pilot, its small frame carries a high-performance camera that provides instant tactical information to ground troops in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle flown by Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1, Marine Air Control Group 38 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), requires the same support as other Marine aircraft to successfully carry out their mission of supporting Coalition Forces.
Marines in different work sections throughout the unit are specifically tailored to perform a multitude of tasks that ensure the intelligence-gathering UAV gets airborne daily.
“We’re set up pretty much like any other aviation squadron,” said Master Sgt. Darryl L. Shaw, the Watchdogs maintenance chief and Quincey, Fla., native. “We have maintenance, administration and quality assurance sections. Their responsibilities are pretty much the same as any other aviation squadron. The sections are just smaller than a normal squadron that might have 30 or 40 Marines in a section. We have a dozen.”
The Watchdogs exceed their fellow squadrons in personnel in its operations and intelligence sections, where dozens of Marines are responsible for the flying and the analysis of the information recorded by the UAV’s camera.
Source and more info: military
AeroVironment’s handheld and hand thrown unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has won Popular Science’s award for the Best of What’s New in Aviation and Space. The Wasp UAV is the smallest aerial vehicle in used by the United States military, weighing less than one pound and has a wingspan of 1.3 feet.
Source and more info: tgdaily
Northrop Grumman has revealed it is studying concepts for what it calls an ultra high-altitude, long-endurance (U-HALE) unmanned air vehicle at the request of a classified US government customer.
The aircraft would provide persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance from near space, and the concept represents the next generation of HALE technology, says Rick Ludwig, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems’ director of unmanned systems business development.
A vehicle of the proposed U-HALE type could “hover for a month over the Mediterranean and just stare”, says Ludwig. A conceptual image of the UAV reveals a straight flying wing structure with twin inverted tails and two puller propellers projecting ahead of the centre wing section, with drive shafts reaching back into fairings just above the leading edge.
No powerplant details have been released, but the company says neither solar nor hydrogen fuel cells are being examined - despite the latter’s use in the Aerovironment Global Observer and Aurora Flight Sciences Orion HALE aircraft.
Source and more info: flightglobal
Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ Global Select Market: ESLT) announced that its Skylark II UAV received POPULAR SCIENCE’s “2006 Best of What’s New” Award in the Aviation and Space category.
The Skylark II is a newer and larger model and came following the achievements of the Skylark I, successfully operated by customers worldwide. The Skylark II expands on its predecessor with a wider range of 50 Kilometres, longer stay in the air and is operated by a crew of two people only.
Joseph Ackerman, President and CEO of Elbit Systems said: “We are proud to be awarded the prestigious Popular Science “Best of What’s New” award. The selection of our Skylark II UAV system by a leading technological magazine, attests to Elbit Systems’ positioning as a ground breaking and innovative company in the field of UAV systems.
“Best of What’s New is the ultimate Popular Science accolade, representing a year’s worth of work evaluating thousands of products,” says Mark Jannot, editor of Popular Science. “These awards honor innovations that not only influence the way we live today, but that change the way we think about the future.”
Source and more info: shephard
Elbit Systems Ltd. Skylark unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), deployed by the Canadian Army in Afghanistan, were grounded following an operational malfunction. Elbit has confirmed the grounding of the UAVs.
British weekly, “Flight International” reported that Canada, one of the allied forces in Afghanistan would halt use of the Skylark 1 model UAVs after a series of operational malfunctions “which disrupted operations”.
The deployment of Elbit’s Skylark by the Canadian Army in Afghanistan is relatively new. The deal with the Canadian Army for the sale of 15 UAV’s was concluded in June.
Elbit notes that it was not the client who decided to ground the planes. “The recommendation came from Elbit. “The Canadians (another unit which deploys the planes H.M.) continue to use the Skylark in the same region and in others.”
The British weekly quotes a technical director in the Canadian Army interim small UAV programme, Captain Rob Sanders as saying, “Most of them aren’t flying in Afghanistan. For some reason, in some parts of the country it will fly great, or today it will fly. The same one, at a separate time tonight, won’t fly. So they have grounded them all trying to figure out what is going on. We are sending a couple of specialists over there to sort that out.”
Source and more info: globes
For the first time, Iran has released video footage of U.S. warships in the Gulf taken by indigenous unmanned aerial vehicles.
Iranian television broadcast footage from an unidentified indigenous UAV. The one-minute footage was that of a U.S. aircraft carrier.
The UAV video broadcast by Iran’s Al Alam television showed an aircraft carrier stacked with war planes. The vessel was said to have been part of the U.S. Navy fleet in the Gulf.
“A source in the Revolutionary Guard said the UAV carried out its mission without U.S. fighter pilots reaching it,” the television said.
Source and more info: menewsline
The Australian Army has signed a $12.718 million contract with Boeing Australia to supply Boeing-Insitu Scan Eagle unmanned air vehicle services for a six month period.
Newly released Australian government purchasing records show the lease runs until 30 June 2007. The Australian Department of Defence is planning to announce the deal later this month with this expected to detail the number of systems involved and usage plans.
The sole source contract was awarded 8 November by the Australian Defence Materiel Organisations Army Aviation System Programme Office. The deal follows unsolicited proposals to the Australian Army headquarters by Boeing proposing a service lease ahead of the proposed acquisition of Israeli Aircraft Industries I-View 250 tactical UAVs.
Source and more info: flightglobal
The International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Air Navigation Commission is to consider a draft strategy early in 2007 setting out minimum requirements for a common international approach to airspace integration for UAVs.
The strategy will propose adoption of a performance based regulatory environment, recommending that future ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) be based on existing work by organisations such as EUROCAE, EUROCONTROL, and the aviation standards body RTCA.
It will also stress the urgent need for international agreement on allocation of appropriate bandwidth to allow for safe control of UAVs.
If endorsed for further development by ICAO, the strategy “will serve as the framework for our regulatory evolution” says Vince Galotti, chief of ICAO’s air traffic management section. “We will use that document as our bible so to speak”.
Speaking 8 November at the Unmanned Vehicle Systems Canada conference in Montebello, Quebec, Galotti said the draft strategy follows some twelve months of behind the scenes activity by the Air Navigation Commission.
That body approved launch of an international consultation process in April 2005. In June 2005 it approved sending a state letter to 43 nations and 9 international organisations inviting their comments and proposals, with 21 countries and three organisations responding.
Source and more info: flightglobal
