13 Feb 24. Indra Completes the Purchase of Global Training Aviation and Enhances its Standing As One of the World’s Leading Simulation Companies.
- Indra now covers the business’s entire value chain, from the manufacture of state-of-the-art simulators to the provision of training services for civilian and military pilots
- It acquires GTA, a leading aeronautical training company with clients in over 40 countries, and establishes a plan to speed up its growth with the supply of new simulators
- Indra will provide comprehensive coverage for the needs of airlines and military clients and bolster its position in high-growth markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America where GTA is already well-established
Indra, one of the leading global consulting and technology companies, has completed the purchase of 65% of GTA, thus securing 100% of its capital and becoming one of the few companies in the world capable of covering the business’s entire value chain, from the development of cutting-edge simulators and training systems to the provision of training services for civilian and military pilots.
According to Rafael Junco, Indra’s Head of Simulation, the operation “will increase our ability to define a much more solid and stable long-term growth strategy for the simulation business and allow us to forge closer ties with end clients, the airlines and defence ministries to whom we will provide first-rate service through GTA, a company specializing in pilot and cabin crew training and certified by the world’s major aviation authorities.”
Indra will also drive GTA’s growth in order to increase its business share in strategic markets and capture the high-growth potential of the civil aviation training services market in Asia, Europe and Latin America. To do so, it has defined a growth plan that includes the supply of new training devices, the consolidation of the existing offices and the company’s international expansion, maintaining the brand, identity and structure which are so highly renowned in the market.
This acquisition will also bring sufficient visibility in terms of demand to enable Indra to speed up the development of the next-generation technologies set to shape the future of the industry that will prove critical to guaranteeing its leadership in the coming years, delivering the best possible solutions to its clients.
Indra has maintained a close relationship with GTA since 2009, when the latter company acquired the first civil aircraft flight simulators manufactured by Indra for the ATR 72-500 and, later, Airbus A320 models.
In mid-2017, following the opening of GTA’s Indonesian office, Indra took a further step with the acquisition of 35.07% of the company’s capital, thus establishing a relationship that is now being consolidated with the purchase of the remaining 65%. Since then, GTA has completed its fleet of simulators with the incorporation of three state-of-the-art simulators and a new international office in Colombia, thus expanding its range of services in the Latin American market.
Indra has a major domestic and international presence in the simulation equipment manufacturing business, having delivered more than 250 civil and military simulators around the world. The company is one of the most prestigious manufacturers of rotary-wing platforms and it has significant influence in the fixed-wing platform market, an area with enormous potential for growth. (Source: ASD Network)
13 Feb 24. British troops and hundreds of vehicles depart for Nato’s largest exercise since Cold War.
Army vehicles are making their way to Poland for Exercise Steadfast Defender, the largest Nato exercise since the Cold War.
Vehicles belonging to 7 Light Mechanised Brigade, also known as “The Desert Rats” were loaded onto a 23,000-tonne cargo vessel, MV Anvil Point, near Southampton on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, more than 1,500 service personnel will fly out to join the Nato exercise in a demonstration of the alliance’s unity and capability.
Among the various vehicles being ferried to Germany are Foxhound patrol vehicles which were designed and built in Britain to protect against threats faced by troops in Afghanistan.
Also embarked are Jackal 2 reconnaissance vehicles, a range of different trucks, Land Rovers, engineers’ tractors and support vehicles.
Major Simon Robertson of 17 Port and Maritime Regiment, told the PA news agency: “It’s very much down to us to ensure that we get the vehicles where they need to be and the people in order (so) they can move on to conduct the exercise.
“It’s a busy one, it’s got a number of moving parts and it’s over a four, five-month period for us, but actually for the regiment itself we do this day in day out.
“Yes it’s got a bit more focus and attention on it but it’s something we do on a regular basis, so for us it’s very much business as usual.”
HMS Prince of Wales, replacing her sister ship, is leading the military maritime mission, and set sail for Norway on Monday.
The £3.3bn aircraft carrier will be at the centre of Nato exercises involving more than 20,000 UK military personnel across Scandinavia and northern Europe.
Exercise Steadfast Defender sees 31 Nato nations and Sweden taking part in a series of exercises across Europe to simulate repelling an invasion by Russian forces.
Commodore James Blackmore, commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group leading HMS Prince of Wales, said on Monday: “The UK has an unwavering commitment to Nato and collective deterrence and defence of the Euro-Atlantic region.
“There is no better demonstration of that than HMS Prince of Wales being at the heart of the upcoming Nato maritime exercises, the largest in over 40 years.” (Source: forces.net)
12 Feb 24. Azerbaijan opens facilities for new Akinci drone. Azerbaijan has opened a training facility and hanger for a new Akinci drone, confirming the country bought the Turkish-made combat system.
The Feb. 9 ceremony also involved a flight of the Akinci, according to the Azeri government. The chief technology officer of Akinci manufacturer Baykar, Selcuk Bayraktar, posted images of the event on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Attendees included Bayraktar, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and his son Heydar Aliyev, as well as other high-ranking officers.
The training facility is for UAV operators, while the hanger will serve as a maintenance headquarters.
Azerbaijan had quietly purchased the Akinci. In March 2022, Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar said during a news conference that three nations were interested in buying drone type. According to the company, the first group of Azeri pilots for the Akinci completed training in October 2022.
In April 2023, Baykar and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of Baykar drones in the country. Azerbaijan previously used TB2 combat drones in its war against Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The Akinci is a high-altitude, long-endurance drone with a maximum takeoff weight of 6,000 kilograms (12,228 pounds), compared to the TB2′s 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds). The Akinci’s 1,500-kilogram payload is 10 times more than that of the TB2.
The Akinci can also fly higher than the TB2 at around 30,000-40,000 feet max. The Akinci also uses a wide range of ammunition and missiles, including MAM –L, MAM-C, Cirit, L-UMTAS, Bozok, SOM-A, and the Mark 81/82/83 bomb series. (Source: Defense News)
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UNMANNED SYSTEMS UPDATE
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14 Feb 24. AeroVironment’s Puma 3 AE Now Has Extended Endurance of Up to 3 Hours. AeroVironment’s PS2500 battery is now approved for use in the Puma 3 AE unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The optional PS2500 battery allows operators to achieve extended endurance of up to three hours of flight time. The increased endurance provides operators with greater mission flexibility and time on station across land and maritime operations.
“The new PS2500 battery offers both new and current Puma customers the opportunity to dramatically expand the duration of their operations, enabling more ground covered in a single flight,” said Brad Truesdell, AeroVironment’s vice president and general manager of small UAS (SUAS). “Adding longer endurance capabilities to Puma’s existing flexible launch options and modularity makes it a truly unparalleled asset for various types of operations.”
Puma customers can now choose between the standard smart battery with two and a half hours of endurance, or the PS2500 battery with three hours of endurance. The high-energy-density lithium-ion PS2500 battery pack features an improved capacity of 24.5Ah (amp-hours) while retaining the size and form factor needed to be seamlessly integrated into Puma 3 AE’s existing battery bay and is also interoperable with Puma LE as a Line Replaceable Unit (LRU). (Source: UAS VISION)
14 Feb 24. DARPA’s REMA Program to Add Mission Autonomy to Commercial Drones. Commercial drone technology is advancing rapidly, providing cost-effective and robust capabilities for a variety of civil and military missions. DARPA’s Rapid Experimental Missionized Autonomy (REMA) program aims to enable a drone to autonomously continue its predefined mission when connection to the operator is lost.
The program is focused on constantly providing new agnostic drone autonomy capabilities for transition in one-month intervals to outpace adversarial countermeasures. REMA progressed from program announcement to contract awards in just 70 business days.
“REMA is the demonstrator for rapid ideation and tech development,” said Dr. Lael Rudd, REMA program manager. “The five performers under contract are working as a conglomerate without firewalls to create common solutions to achieve the program goals.”
As small aerial vehicles play increasingly important military roles on the battlefield, REMA will render ineffective adversaries’ electromagnetic countermeasures intended to disrupt communication links between operator and drone to abort missions and cause crashes.
“REMA is focused on creating autonomous solutions to maximize effectiveness of stock commercial and small military drones on the battlefield,” said Rudd. “Through creating an autonomy adapter that works with all commercial drones, regardless of manufacturer, and by developing mission-specific autonomy that is constantly refreshed and easy to upload prior to a mission, we aim to give drone operators the advantage in fast-paced combat operations.”
The 18-month, single-phase program is divided into two technical areas:
1) A drone-autonomy adapter interface and
2) mission-specific autonomy software.
REMA will be able to agnostically detect the drone type when connected and apply autonomy to increase the drone’s capability. REMA will be completed in development cycles starting at three-month intervals and accelerating to one-month intervals, to repeatedly provide new and improved autonomy for direct transition.
Contracts for the drone-autonomy adapter interface technical area have been awarded to Anduril and RTX. Contracts for the mission-specific autonomy software technical area have been awarded to Leidos, Northrop Grumman, and SoarTech.
The first development cycle, or “spiral challenge,” started in December 2023, is focused on developing platforms with agnostic autonomy features. The performers are expected to demonstrate a full working solution to the first challenge in March 2024. (Source: UAS VISION)
14 Feb 24. Schiebel Camcopter S-100 Receives Operational Approval from Australian CASA. Wedgetail Aerospace, supported by Schiebel Pacific, successfully obtained the approval from the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to operate the Schiebel CAMCOPTER® S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS) in civil airspace. It is the first large (>150 kg) Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) UAS to attain this civil approval from the Australian authorities.
Wedgetail Aerospace, in close cooperation with Schiebel Pacific and the Australian authorities, completed the process to achieve their experimental approval with a series of flight demonstrations in Western Australia. This endorsement enables the S-100 to operate in Australian civil airspace. Possible applications now being pursued include fire and disaster monitoring, cargo delivery, as well as inspections and surveillance.
Additionally, Wedgetail Aerospace is a CASA approved training organisation and will offer an S-100 license for civil operations. Of note, the S-100 is regularly flying under a Defence Aviation Safety Agency (DASA) UAS permit, which the Royal Australian Navy obtained back in 2017 for their S-100 operations.
“This is a significant milestone for Schiebel Pacific and its Australian RPAS operations. The CASA approval enables us to offer the outstanding capabilities of the CAMCOPTER® S-100 system to the civil sector. With strong local partners, our wealth of experience in the operation of the S-100 and now with the approval of CASA, we are very well positioned for the Australian commercial market,” said Fabian Knechtl, Managing Director at Schiebel Pacific.
“Wedgetail Aerospace are delighted to have been able to work with Schiebel to achieve the first approval in Australia to operate a Large Category UAS and will now bring this transformational technology to the commercial market”, said Thomas Symes CEO of Wedgetail Aerospace. (Source: ASD Network)
12 Feb 24. DIU Awards Anduril Contract to Innovate New Capabilities for Undersea Warfare
- Dive-LD is a flexible autonomous underwater vehicle, capable of rapidly integrating complex payloads and multi-sensor suites.
The U.S. Navy selected Anduril and its Dive family of large autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to prototype distributed, long-range, persistent underwater sensing and payload delivery in contested environments. Anduril provides a family of AI-enabled AUVs that are designed to perform a wide range of defense and commercial missions.
“Our selection takes place at a critical moment for the Department of Defense,” said Anduril CEO and Co-Founder Brian Schimpf. “In an era of strategic competition, our AUVs like Dive-LD provide urgently-needed capability to deter maritime threats around the world. We are excited to work with our U.S. Government partners as we look to build advanced, affordable, autonomous capabilities at scale in support of U.S. Navy priorities.”
Amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in the maritime environment, the Department of Defense (DoD) signaled its intent to invest in large quantities of attritable autonomous systems to strengthen deterrence, project power, and achieve affordable mass. To that end, Dive-LD leverages commercial best practices to deliver unparalleled dominance in the undersea environment at rapid speed, massive scale, and low cost for a vehicle of this class.
Mass is a critical element of undersea deterrence. But insufficient fielding of unmanned undersea vehicles with long endurance and large payload capabilities at scale has created a significant gap. In July 2023, DIU sought proposals for commercial solutions to fill that gap. As part of the selection process, Dive-LD carried out government-defined missions for DIU and U.S. government program sponsors during a “swim-off” competition that rigorously evaluated vehicle capabilities at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island.
During this event, Anduril engineers successfully tracked and shared the location of the Dive-LD asset with operators around the world in real-time by leveraging Lattice, Anduril’s AI-powered software platform for command-and-control (C2) of autonomous vehicles, highlighting how multiple operators, units, and watch floors can leverage Lattice for remote mission monitoring and execution. After the successful demonstration, Dive-LD was down-selected for a contract under DIU’s Commercial Solutions Opening process.
“Dive-LD is foundational to Anduril’s maritime capabilities for commercial and defense applications. By combining proven subsea vehicle development expertise with advanced manufacturing processes, the platform is quick to produce, economical to manufacture and service, simple to customize, and robust in operation,” said Anduril Chief Strategy Officer Chris Brose. “Dive-LD is the most reliable and flexible AUV on the market today, capable of rapidly integrating complex payloads or multi-sensor suites to provide advanced capability for a wide range of missions.”
Anduril is committed to providing the U.S. and its allies with asymmetric undersea advantage to deter conflict, and if necessary, fight and win. Driven by Anduril’s significant investments in long-range, autonomous undersea capabilities, Dive-LD has emerged as the leading solution for a variety of missions, including operational preparation of the environment, surveillance and reconnaissance, mine warfare, subsea and seabed warfare, seafloor mapping, and more.
This is only the beginning of Anduril’s efforts to support critical maritime missions. As demonstrated in Australia with the signing of a co-development partnership alongside the Royal Australian Navy and the Defence Science and Technology Group on Extra Large Autonomous Undersea Vehicles (XLAUV), Anduril is committed to advancing distributed maritime operations through large and extra-large autonomous subsurface capabilities. We look forward to working with DIU and other government partners under this prototyping program to deliver persistent, scalable, long-range undersea autonomous solutions for the U.S. Navy. (Source: ASD Network)
12 Feb 24. Elbit Systems, a global leader in defense technology, announces the debut of its latest Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) at the renowned Singapore Airshow 2024 at Changi Exhibition Center, between February 20-25, 2024, at its booth in hall C-N65.
The new UAS will be launched at a special event scheduled for the 21st at 11:00 AM.
Elbit Systems is proud to introduce its new tactical UAS, crafted to address the evolving challenges of the aerospace and defense industries. This cutting-edge UAS expands the operational flight envelope with a next-generation digital architecture, multi-mission capability, versatility, and survivability. The UAS boasts exceptional payload capacity, increased range, flight speed, endurance, and operational efficiency. Its multi-role platform allows flexible payload configurations suitable for various land, air, and maritime missions.
Elbit Systems offers a comprehensive range of UASs – from the versatile tactical Skylark I-eVTOL and Skylark 3/Hybrid UAS to the best-in-class Hermes 900 and Hermes 900 Starliner (certified for civilian applications) Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAS. Designed based on decades of operational experience, our UASs are in service with numerous military and security users worldwide. Our extensive experience and innovative approach to all aspects of UAS development, production, fielding and support result in outstanding UAS performance and highly effective operational capabilities around the globe.
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