15 Dec 09. AAI Corporation announced today that its Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System has performed the first “proof of concept” flight demonstration of an unmanned aircraft controlled by a four-dimensional trajectory (4DT) flight management system (FMS) certified for use in manned commercial aircraft. It was conducted at the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., in cooperation with GE Aviation Systems, which provided the 4DT FMS, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the U.S. Army. This Shadow aircraft “proof of concept” flight demonstrated that an unmanned aircraft system can be coupled with certified flight management systems as a potential enabler for eventual 4DT operations in the national airspace system (NAS). The first flight took off at 2:50 p.m. Central Time on Thursday, December 3, from the Redstone Arsenal Airfield, lasting 45 minutes and demonstrating both lateral and vertical control of the Shadow 200 aircraft coupled with the GE FMS. On Friday, December 4, a three-hour demonstration was conducted that allowed more rigorous testing of the FMS-controlled Shadow 200 aircraft. The demonstration was part of the Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, or CRDAs, the FAA entered into with both AAI and GE Aviation Systems to perform operational and technical assessments in support of the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the NAS. Four-dimensional trajectory-based flight management is a critical part of the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System initiatives. Results of this test will be used to conduct 4DT simulations of Shadow aircraft in the NAS at the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
04 Dec 09. Russian industry incapable of producing UAVs and SAMs, says air force chief. Russia’s aerospace industry is not capable of producing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) suitable for the armed forces, Russian Military Air Forces (VVS) commander-in-chief Colonel General Aleksandr Zelin stated on 26 November. In today’s Russian-built systems, “we receive neither the speed, the altitude nor the surveillance fidelity”, he said. (Source: Jane’s)
16 Dec 09. Schiebel recently conducted, in cooperation with
Boeing, a demonstration for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command
(USASOC) at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, integrating the CAMCOPTER® S-100 and ground unmanned systems for psychological operation missions in-theatre. A USASOC and Boeing-led team, including also John Deere Company, Trident, Inc. and American Technologies Corporation, assembled a group of unmanned platforms and capabilities to perform a PSYOP demonstration.
The CAMCOPTER® S-100 was equipped with an American Technologies Corporation loudspeaker capable of addressing crowds at a distance of up to 2 km, a leaflet drop capability, as well as an IAI POP300 EO/IR camera payload. The John Deere R-Gator Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) was also equipped with a loudspeaker augmented with the Trident, Inc. data link, demonstrating the potential for teaming UGVs with an UAS. The psychological operation mission at a mock-up city training facility at Ft. Bragg, simulating in-theatre conditions, was aimed at minimizing civilian unrest and preventing civilian casualties while apprehending a suspected terrorist cell. The S-100 was utilized to survey the area and provide real-time aerial intelligence, as well as to address the public and drop information leaflets.
07 Dec 09. Russia is negotiating a second purchase of Israeli-made spy drones roughly twice the size of an initial $50m sale announced in April, Israeli defence sources said on Monday.They said the new deal with state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) would be worth about $100m and would feature improved surveillance equipment on the pilotless planes.
“The Russians are going for a triple upgrade of their fleet and its
capabilities,” a defence source said. IAI declined to comment. Russia’s war with neighbouri