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12 Jan 17. Liteye and Tribalco Team to Deliver AUDS Counter Drone Systems to US Military Customers.
Liteye Systems, Inc., provider of the AUDS counter unmanned defense system, and Tribalco, LLC, a global integrated technology services and solutions company, have teamed up in order to deliver multiple AUDS systems to the U.S. Military.
“Our team is very proud to become part of the effort to detect, track, identify, and defeat rogue UAVs threatening our Forces,” stated Thomas Scott, President of Liteye Systems. He added, “As the legitimate use of unmanned vehicles becomes more prevalent in many industries, they become readily available for illicit use by our enemies. With the right technologies, we can provide coverage to our warfighters, while they conduct their mission of protecting against those who wish them harm.”
Over the last 18 months, the AUDS system has been heavily evaluated and tested by US military and government organizations. Through this process, AUDS consistently exceeded the mission requirements, simultaneously providing ground and air surveillance against possible threats.
AUDS is a second-generation system that detects, tracks, identifies, and defeats unmanned aerial systems (“UAS”), commonly called drones or UAV. The AUDS system utilizes state-of-the-art radar, precision thermal and daylight cameras, advanced video tracking, and multiple non-kinetic defeat capabilities. All creating a powerful combination for defense against hostile UAV’s. AUDS is a TRL-9 level system, and is in full production.
“Tribalco has been working with Liteye since the inception of AUDS, and through our partnership, we have worked diligently to provide certified AUDS installers and trainers to meet the immediate mission requirements of U.S. Forces,” stated Zac Neumayr, Vice President, Tribalco. “As a global system integrator with extensive experience working with the U.S Military, we understand the importance of enhancing perimeter protection to stay ahead of threats to life or property.” (Source: UAS VISION)
12 Jan 17. UK Sentries return to operational status after grounding. The United Kingdom has returned to service its Boeing E-3D Sentry Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) aircraft following a grounding order that was issued late last year, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told IHS Jane’s on 12 January. The MoD confirmed that “the Sentry force has returned to operational tasking”, though it did not say if this included all six platforms that were grounded in November 2016 following the discovery of electrical problems. As reported at the time, the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) E-3D fleet was found to have an unspecified issue with some electrical wiring and cabin conditioning systems during a recent routine technical inspection, leading the MoD to temporarily suspend flight operations while it looked to get to the root of the problem. While the MoD has not commented on the nature of the problems, media reports have pointed to a potential fire risk from underfloor wiring being susceptible to arcing. IHS Jane’s understands that a fix was found relatively quickly and that test flights began not long after.
The RAF’s E-3D fleet is operated by 8 Squadron out of RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire (although it has temporarily relocated to nearby RAF Coningsby while runway resurfacing takes place). Despite being a small fleet, the E-3Ds have seen a heavy tasking load of late, with missions over eastern Europe and the Middle East in support of NATO’s efforts to counter Russia and the Islamic State respectively. While the grounding order certainly limited the United Kingdom’s contributions to those missions in the short term, NATO had enough slack in the system with its own 16 aircraft, the four fielded by France, and the 31 operated by the US Air Force to more than cover this temporary