UNMANNED SYSTEMS UPDATE
22 Aug 08. The U.S. Army is considering accelerating the production decision for its Sky Warrior system, noting that experience flying variants of the Predator-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) abroad should provide the Pentagon’s test and acquisition community enough information to proceed with buying it early, according to program officials. The current program calls for a low-rate initial production (LRIP) decision in fiscal 2010 for the Block 1 Sky Warrior system, which will employ all of the desired features including a heavy-fuel engine, a tactical common data link, fully automated landing system, four Hellfire missile hard points and the Common Sensor Payload electro-optical and infrared system. (Source: Aviation Week)
28 Aug 08. Sources close to BATTLESPACE suggest that the U.K. MoD will shortly be initiating a contest to replace its Desert Hawk UAVs supplied by Lockheed Martin