Sponsored by The British Robotics Seed Fund
http: www.britbots.com/fund
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06 Mar 24. Swarm Aero to Build Factory in Northwest Arkansas. Swarm Aero, a developer of large uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms, has selected Northwest Arkansas as the site for its advanced, high-volume manufacturing of uncrewed aircraft. The company conducted a nationwide search, surveying potential locations in more than 20 states, and chose Northwest Arkansas for its robust skilled labor force, vibrant community and attractive business environment.
Danny Goodman, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Swarm Aero said, “Rogers was the perfect place for us. The facilities were great, the community was welcoming and we felt very much wanted here.”
Swarm Aero was founded to provide the U.S. Armed Forces and our allies with cutting-edge defense capabilities to meet requirements for the Pacific Theater. Leveraging artificial intelligence and autonomy, the company’s swarming technology provides the U.S. Military with new use cases for UAVs and saves lives by keeping our nation’s most important assets—our servicemen and women—out of harm’s way.
Goodman continued, “I thank Congressman Steve Womack for listening to our story and making the introductions that made this possible. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of his district.”
Northwest Arkansas is critical to the company’s mission as the future home of its advanced manufacturing center. Headquartered in Oxnard, CA, Swarm Aero has established an office in Rogers, AR and is working with local community leaders and real estate groups to plan its new production facility. The Arkansas location will be designed for high-rate production, with considerable investment in advanced manufacturing technologies, and at full production will employ a large force of engineers and technicians.
Swarm Aero was founded in 2022. The team has extraordinary pedigree in working with the Department of Defense (DOD) to fulfill critical needs and requirements as well as decades of aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Airbus, Archer, and others. The team has previously completed bns of dollars in contracts involving DOD, has built software platforms supporting ms of users and employed cutting-edge AI in critical applications. (Source: UAS VISION)
05 Mar 24. UK-based Evolve Dynamics has unveiled its Sky Mantis 2 mini rotary wing drone. Based on end-user feedback, the drone has been an improvement of the original Sky Mantis, offering a more powerful propulsion system and improved sensors, according to the company. The new addition to the Evolve Dynamics’ portfolio resulted from research and development programmes and end-user collaboration.
The drone can be rapidly deployed in about one minute, and its configuration allows for fast battery and payload swaps. Users can carry the system in a backpack, including the charger and spare battery.
Compared to the original drone, Sky Mantis 2 features what Evolve called an “upgraded” propulsion system, offering greater reliability and stabilisation in flight, with the additional power to lift up to 2kg extra payload. The propulsion system gives the platform a one-hour flight time (resulting in 48 hours of endurance when the drone is tethered).
Sky Mantis 2 will also feature the Doodle Labs Mesh Rider radio as standard, while various optional external radios offer the ability to operate the drone from a safe distance. A range of task-specific payloads can be fitted to the UAV, including a daylight 61 MP (9504 x 6336 px) 30X zoom HD camera with image stabilisation. (Source: News Now/Shephard)
05 Mar 24. TNI-AU plans to deploy two new UAV squadrons. The Indonesian Air Force (Tentara Nasional Indonesia-Angkatan Udara: TNI-AU) has announced that it will add two additional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) squadrons to its operational forces.
State-owned media said on 29 February that the two new units will be deployed at Anang Busra Air Base in Tarakan in North Kalimantan and at Abdul Rachman Saleh Air Base at Malang in East Java.
The new squadrons will be equipped with Turkish Aerospace (TUSAŞ) Anka (Phoenix) medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAVs, according to First Marshal R Agung Sasongkojati, head of the TNI-AU’s Information Service (Kadispenau).
“Currently, we already have [UAV] squadrons, namely Squadron 51 in Pontianak and Squadron 52 in Natuna. We will add two more squadrons, namely 53 in Tarakan and 54 in Abdul Rachman Saleh [Air Base] in Malang,” said First Marshal Sasongkojati. (Source: Janes)
05 Mar 24. Enhanced Chinese Sky Hawk stealth UAV conducts flight tests. China’s Tianying (Sky Hawk) tailless low-observable, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has started flight-testing following upgrades to its “main parameters”. According to Chinese state-owned media, the changes improve the UAV’s “stealth” characteristics and “endurance”. Janes has assessed video imagery of the Sky Hawk conducting a test flight aired by the state-owned broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) on 27 February. The video footage of the UAV also showed it in flight with its tricycle landing gear in wheels down position, which is indicative of preliminary flight-testing. The upgraded UAV exhibits some design changes compared with an earlier iteration displayed during the China Air Show 2018 at Zhuhai. One prominent change is an expansion of the wing aileron surfaces. The UAV also appeared to have a new antenna for very-/ultra-high-frequency (V/UHF) communications on its mid-dorsal surface. (Source: Janes)
05 Mar 24. OCCAR must avoid Eurodrone design alterations after first board meeting. This first board meeting commenced to discuss development progress, but OCCAR must focus on the prototype while avoiding pressure to revert back to design.
Representatives from participating nations in the manufacture of the future ‘Eurodrone’ gathered in Hallbergmoos, Bavaria in late February for their first board meeting since the project launched two years ago.
Hosted by the Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation (abbreviated ‘OCCAR’ in French), the project manager overseeing platform development, stipulated the latest acheivements and progress in the development process.
The Czech, French, German, Italian and Spanish (and Japan as an observer state) consortium will engage with sovereign industry partners to deliver a uniquely European Medium Altitude, Long Endurance, Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (MALE RPAS).
Launched in 2016, the programme was followed by various design reviews, including a Definition Study that defined common requirements between France, Germany, Italy and Spain in 2018.
The subsequent two years were fully devoted to negotiating a global contract with Airbus Defence and Space GmbH as prime contractor, Airbus Defence and Space S.A.U, Leonardo and Dassault Aviation as major subcontractors. It covers the development, production and initial in-service support for 20 systems.
Since then, the partners completed successful preliminary and critical design reviews. Now, we can expect the manufacture of the first prototype to commence this year. (Source: Google/ airforce-technology.com))
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The British Robotics Seed Fund is the first SEIS-qualifying investment fund specialising in UK-based robotics businesses. The focus of the fund is to deliver superior returns to investors by making targeted investments in a mixed basket of the most innovative and disruptive businesses that are exploiting the new generation of robotics technologies in defence and other sector applications.
Automation and robotisation are beginning to drive significant productivity improvements in the global economy heralding a new industrial revolution. The fund allows investors to benefit from this exciting opportunity, whilst also delivering the extremely attractive tax reliefs offered by the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS). For many private investors, the amount of specialist knowledge required to assess investments in robotics is not practical and hence investing through a fund structure makes good sense.
The fund appoints expert mentors to work with each investee company to further maximise the chance of success for investors. Further details are available on request.
www.britbots.com/fund
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