UNMANNED SYSTEMS UPDATE
20 Feb 08. General Atomics of San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a cost plus incentive fee contract for $6,094,533. This effort is for the change to enhance the Maintenance Level Technical Orders, which are a part of the system development and demonstration of the MQ-9 Reaper Unmanned Air Vehicles. At this time no funds have been obligated. 658th AESS/PK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-02-G-4035, Order 002316).
19 Feb 08. Northrop Grumman Corporation continues to grow its international business in remote control vehicles for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) with recent sales of its Revolution vehicles across the Asia and Asia Pacific regions. Northrop Grumman designs, engineers and manufactures a range of remote control EOD vehicles through its subsidiary, Remotec, and has provided Revolution vehicles to armies throughout the region including in Singapore, Nepal and New Zealand and in one of the largest orders received to date, a fleet of 43 Revolution vehicles to the Indian Ministry of Defence. The company’s Andros mid-sized remote control vehicle has been selected as the vehicle of choice for ensuring security at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and has been provided to Korea and Taiwan.
20 Feb 08. Thales said that its UK’s WATCHKEEPER programme is on track and has been steadily moving forward since June 2007, when the company unveiled its final configuration following a Critical Design Review undertaken by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The WATCHKEEPER system, developed with Elbit Systems, is now being produced at UAV Tactical Systems Ltd (U-TacS), the Thales UK/Elbit Systems joint company site in Leicester. The system will include the following features:
* Dual-payload configuration of advanced SAR/GMTI radar and EO/IR/LTD*
* Ground control stations with advanced imagery exploitation and networked distribution
* Flexible, all-weather operation with de-icing capability
* Improved access to sub-systems for easier maintenance
* Fully autonomous flight capability, including automatic takeoff and landing