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08 May 24. DSA 2024: Malvus Sense unveils hydrogen-electric-powered VTOL UAS. Malaysian firm Malvus Sense unveiled the CW-25H, a new hydrogen-electric-powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft system (UAS), in collaboration with Chinese UAS firm JOUAV at the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2024 exhibition held in Kuala Lumpur from 6 to 9 May.
Powered by hydrogen-electric hybrid technology, the CW-25H has a flight time of up to 330 minutes.
The two companies are collaborating on UASs for the Malaysian Armed Forces. JOUAV designs and develops drones, while Malvus Sense assembles them in Malaysia.
The CW-25H has a maximum service ceiling of 6,000 m and a cruising speed of 80 km/h. It is adaptable for various applications from infrastructure inspection to environmental monitoring.
Syed Omar Syed Mohamad, managing director of Malvus Sense, said, “The CW-25H represents a paradigm shift in aerial operations. Its hydrogen-electric hybrid technology not only extends endurance but also ensures environmental sustainability. We are proud to offer a solution that not only meets but exceeds industry standards, setting a new benchmark for efficiency, safety, and performance.” (Source: Janes)
08 May 24. DSA 2024: Chinese company Poly Technologies showcases missile-capable USV. Chinese defence company Poly Technologies showcased the A2000, a new next-generation combat unmanned surface vessel (USV), at the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2024 exhibition held in Kuala Lumpur from 6 to 9 May.
The A2000 attack USV has a length of 45 m, a displacement of 280 tonnes, and a top speed of 35 kt. It features twin diesel engines and two controllable pitch propellers.
It is equipped with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for surveillance and is integrated with an eight-cell vertical launching system for launching surface-to-air missiles, and 24-cell launchers at both sides for rockets. However, it is not fitted with anti-ship missile launchers.
The USV can co-ordinate with smaller vessels for a swarm attack, provide air defence, and extend its reach via satellite connectivity. Its trimaran hull design minimises radar detection. It also supports vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations for enhanced surveillance, positioning it as a versatile asset for peacetime and conflict scenarios. (Source: Janes)
08 May 24. DSA 2024: Aselsan showcases Marlin USV in ASW configuration. Turkey’s Aselsan has for the first time displayed its Marlin unmanned surface vessel (USV) in its full anti-submarine warfare (ASW) configuration.
In this configuration – on show at the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2024 exhibition in Kuala Lumpur from 6 to 9 May – the USV is integrated with the Mini-Düfas low-frequency active towed array and passive towed sonar system. Aselsan aims to operationalise the mini version of its Düfas towed active sonar for USVs, called Düfas-M, in 2024.
Tests on hardware components are under way, with sea trials on a Marlin USV set for the second half of 2024. Düfas features both active and passive arrays and detection and tracking capabilities.
Speaking to Janes on 7 May, Suat Ekmen, Aselsan’s Asia-Pacific manager, said, “The specifications including operating frequencies of the array and the towed cable length are kept confidential since the system is at the final stage of development.” (Source: Janes)
07 May 24. Soaring, a global leader in autonomous heavy lift cargo drones for contested logistics in defense environments, today announced its successful completion of the U.S. Army’s first nighttime autonomous aerial resupply of ammunition during a battalion-level Live Fire Exercise (LFX). Leveraging Soaring’s vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft system (UAS), Gabriel (G1), a multi-purpose, multi-payload autonomous aerial vehicle, the company completed 40 tactical drills to resupply platoons with class I and class V supplies including food and ammunition.
Conducted as part of U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division platoon LFX and situational training exercises (STX) near Schofield Barracks, HI, the innovative autonomous resupply drill demonstrated the G1 system’s reliability and adaptability in varying conditions. As part of the LFX, the G1 successfully completed three emergency Class V resupply missions, delivering 800 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition to the platoon’s weapons squad during each drop. Soaring also completed three consecutive class V resupplies within 16 minutes from the time of the initial call during an STX executed in the mountainous jungle terrain of the Kahuku Training Area (KTA).
“The Army is working to identify a reliable, autonomous alternative for tactical resupply to replenish mission-critical resources at the point of contact with the enemy, without risking lives,” said Lieutenant Colonel Pete Walther, Battalion Commander in the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division, responsible for this training event. “Our soldiers require resupply of water and ammunition to continue the fight, however lessons from the Ukraine conflict teach us that our current forms of tactical resupply will likely fail, especially in the Pacific region. There is a real need for innovative low-risk resupply solutions critical to the success of the operation.”
Capable of transporting mission-critical payloads to infantry platoons and squads at the tactical edge directly from the Battalion’s Combat Trains Command Post (CTCP), Soaring’s G1 system has successfully demonstrated its ability to resupply entire platoons faster and with less risk than ground vehicle-based resupply missions. The G1 offers mounting compatibility for varying cargo needs, supporting mission agility.
“Safe and expedient resupply capabilities are critical to mission success, especially in the dynamic environments faced by our service members. Our innovative G1 UAS has successfully proven it is capable of addressing both elements to deliver advantage at the tactical edge,” said Daniel Trunfio, Chief Executive Officer of Soaring. “I am exceptionally pleased with the G1’s performance as part of the LFX. Its proven ability to adapt to changes in elevations, weather, and edge conditions will significantly aid mission agility in even the most contested environments. I am grateful to the 25th Infantry Division for allowing us to demonstrate G1.”
06 May 24. AgEagle Aerial Systems Drones Used by US Army Corps of Engineers. AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc., a provider of full stack unmanned aviation systems (UAS), sensors and software solutions for customers worldwide in the commercial and government verticals, has announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) completed its training for National Guardsman utilizing, among other UAVs, the AgEagle eBee TAC drone, NDAA- compliant and the first fixed-wing drone to be added to the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Blue UAS list and cleared to fly over humans.
AgEagle CEO, Bill Irby, commented, “We believe that the use of our drones by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to certify their National Guardsman to use USA is a big win as it serves to validate our technology in the U.S. Military-Industrial complex. The UAS can be used to assist Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP) soldiers in their vital yet dangerous missions. We look forward to continuing to provide mission-critical support to our growing commercial and government customer base as we further position ourselves as a leader in the increasingly growing UAS market.”
Soldiers from the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) and high-yield explosive CERFP completed the USACE Unmanned Aviation System (UAS) Basic Qualification Course from March 18-22 at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The U.S. military domestic CBRN Response Enterprise includes National Guard units assigned to the National Guard’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams (WMD-CSTs), CERFPs, and Homeland Response Forces (HRFs). There is at least one National Guard CERFP in each of the 10 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regions.
The National Guard CERFP mission capabilities include incident site search of collapsed buildings and structures, conducting rescue tasks to extract trapped casualties, providing mass decontamination, performing medical triage and initial treatment to stabilize patients for transport to medical facilities by the Incident commander, and the recovery of CBRN incident fatalities, all which now include the assistance of unmanned vehicles and other systems.
AgEagle’s eBee TAC is a cyber-secure governmental and tactical mapping drone specifically designed for enhancing situational awareness.
NOTE: The use of the AgEagle and/or eBee TAC is not an endorsement of either product by USACE. (Source: UAS VISION)
06 May 24. USAF Demos Assembly, Deployment of 3D-Printed Drones in Under 24 Hours.
In an open area of the Eglin Air Force Base range known as B-70, a group of Air Force field grade officers and black-shirted innovators huddled together above an eight-pound model aircraft as they raced against their deadline to build it.
The group of officers and innovators, known as Black Phoenix, created a goal for themselves to design, create, build and fly an unmanned aerial system within 24 hours. Around the 22.5-hour mark, the team secured the tail pieces and lastly, the propellers. The final step on a journey, that started more than six months prior, was to put the UAS in the air.
The officers began the project as part of their Blue Horizons fellowship. Blue Horizons is an Air Force Center for Strategy and Technology mission that is part think-tank, part incubator that promotes unconventional thinking and processes to Air Force problems with strategic impact.
A 3D-printed unmanned aerial system sits ready for its first flight during a Blue Horizons demonstration April 25, 2024 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The goal of the demonstration was to create, build and fly a UAS within 24 hours. The team spent the week at Eglin creating UASs for various designs and mission specialties. (U.S. Air Force photo by Samuel King Jr.)
The Black Phoenix crew is one of five teams wrapping up those projects after year-long fellowships.
Their three-person team took on the task of evaluating how to rapidly adapt small UAS, their technology and payloads based on the need and environment.
“Small UAS are becoming a new warfighting capability,” said Col. Dustin Thomas, a Blue Horizons fellow and Black Phoenix team member. “However, the Air Force can’t rapidly change these aircraft based on the threat environment or quickly use new technologies to meet the needs of a specific mission. Our project aims to find ways to change that.”
To take their project from the theoretical to practical, the team turned to Titan Dynamics, a small aerospace company focused on rapid and cost-effective UAS designs and development.
“We went in search of a young, smart, new start-up company, who was willing to take on a big risk,” said Lt. Col. Jordan Atkins, Black Phoenix member. “We couldn’t be more impressed with their ability to yield a miracle like this in only two months.”
The team used Titan’s software automated design software to create an aerodynamic UAS body based on weight, power, dimensions and payload in less than 10 minutes. That design code gets fed into 3D printers to create the lightweight UAS body parts. Once all the pieces are printed, the team builds the newly created UAS designed specifically for its mission parameters.
Black Phoenix took this method and first tested it in Southwest Asia in March with Task Force-99 with some success. Then, they brought that test data and lessons learned to Eglin for their final in-the-field tests. They sought out the Air Force Chief Data and AI office’s Autonomy Data and AI Experimentation proving ground, which aims to accelerate development and experimentation in programs like the Black Phoenix project.
“Eglin is trying create a space to test small UAS and new technological capabilities very quickly,” Thomas said. “Historically, the Air Force is relatively slow in adapting and testing these technologies, and Eglin is trying to change that paradigm. We wanted to partner with them and be a part of that paradigm shift.”
Col. Dustin Thomas, Blue Horizons launches a 3-D-printed unmanned aerial system during a Blue Horizons demonstration April 25, 2024 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The goal of the demonstration was to create, build and fly a UAS within 24 hours. The team spent the week at Eglin creating UASs for various designs and mission specialties. (U.S. Air Force photo by Samuel King Jr.)
In support of the ADAX proving ground, the 413th Flight Test Squadron’s Autonomy Prime flight flies autonomous UASs regularly, and new aircraft and autonomy customers come to Eglin AFB to test their technologies.
During Black Phoenix’s week at Eglin AFB, the team tested six autonomous aircraft using the quick create, build, fly method for various missions including an eight-pound personnel recovery UAS that would deliver supplies to a simulated Airman behind enemy lines.
Sometimes the aircraft flew successfully and other times, when the team pushed the boundaries, the aircraft crashed. The successes and failures were all part of Black Phoenix’s goal to gather research on the feasibility of the rapidly created UAS idea.
What they did discover was regardless of flight or crash, the internal autonomy hardware and the payload within were virtually unharmed. To build back and try again meant only reprinting the outer UAS structure at a cost of around $20 to $50.
“We’ve taken big risks this week in flying so many new aircraft for the first time, but the risk is also low because these entire aircraft are built from commercial off-the-shelf items, so the financial investment is small,”
said Lt. Col. Peter Dyrud, Black Phoenix team member.
After the test, the Black Phoenix team will put together their findings and present their study evaluation to the secretary of the Air Force Secretary and Air Force chief of staff in May.
Top Photo: Noah Benton, Titan Dynamics chief technology officer, launches a an eight-pound, 3-D-printed unmanned aerial system during a Blue Horizons demonstration April 25, 2024 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The goal of the demonstration was to create, build and fly a UAS within 24 hours. The team spent the week at Eglin creating UASs for various designs and mission specialties. (U.S. Air Force photo by Samuel King Jr.) (Source: UAS VISION)
06 May 24. Lufthansa Technik to work with Israel’s Elbit on military drones. Lufthansa (LHAG.DE), will work with Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems in the field of military drones via its maintenance subsidiary Lufthansa Technik as it seeks to expand its defence business, a spokesperson for the unit said on Monday.
The project concerns an offer to deliver and maintain up to eight of the Israeli Hermes 900 Starliner drones for the German Navy.
Lufthansa Technik will be responsible for maintenance and staff training, while Elbit will be in charge of the production of the drones. The project’s value wasn’t disclosed by either side.
The companies signed a memorandum of understanding in January this year, but a formal contract was yet to be signed.
Elbit Systems declined to comment.
This is the first military drone project for the subsidiary of the German flagship carrier.
Its defence business includes service and maintenance for NATO’s staple aircraft such as the F-35 fighter jets, the Chinook transport helicopters, and the Poseidon reconnaissance planes.
Germany launched a 100 bn euro ($107.68 bn) special defence fund in 2022 in what it described as a “Zeitenwende” or turning point to increase its military spending after Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Hermes 900 Starliner is an Israeli-made reconnaissance and attack drone capable of carrying up to 450 kilograms of payload, operated by India, Canada, Brazil and Switzerland, among others.
The joint project will be presented at the International Aerospace Exhibition ILA in Berlin in June, Lufthansa Technik said. (Source: Reuters)
06 May 24. Kaman And Textron Systems Join Forces To Advance KARGO UAV Technology. Kaman and Textron Systems have recently announced a Strategic Alliance Agreement. This agreement facilitates collaboration on opportunities and critical technologies for Kaman’s KARGO UAV. Textron Systems, with its extensive 30-year experience in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), brings a wealth of knowledge and technical expertise, as well as insights on safety and airworthiness.
“This agreement enables the team to maintain pace as we move closer to productionizing and scaling KARGO UAV,” said Romin Dasmalchi, General Manager of KARGO UAV. “We are thrilled to collaborate with Textron Systems, a team with a deep bench of knowledge and experience.”
“By collaborating with Kaman, we are able to build on our decades-long experience in UAS and continue the expansion of our capability set,” said Wayne Prender, Senior Vice President Air Systems, Textron Systems. “We are looking forward to supporting the critical capability that Kaman is bringing with their KARGO UAV.”
The KARGO UAV is a purpose-built, medium-lift UAS designed to meet the needs of a global market. With the combined capabilities of Textron Systems and Kaman, this UAS will be accessible to customers in both commercial and defense markets worldwide. Furthermore, as we move into production and expand the KARGO UAV product line, we have the opportunity to expand the manufacturing process, bring products to market more efficiently, creating greater value for all stakeholders. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
03 May 24. RAF personnel graduate as Protector UAS operators. The course qualified future instructors on the system, while building specific mission scenarios that will form the basis of RAF Protector crew training.
Personnel within the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) have graduated as operators of the Protector RG Mk1 uncrewed aerial system (UAS) after a year of specialised training.
Specifically, 54 Squadron – the advanced air Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) Academy – and 56 Squadron completed the inaugural basic phase course at a training centre in Grand Folks, North Dakota, a facility managed by the original equipment manufacturer of the system, General Atomics (GA).
These crews of Operational Conversion Course (OCU) 1, comprising of pilots, sensor operators, and mission intelligence coordinators conducted extensive ground school training, evaluation of various simulated scenarios in the mission simulators, as well as the live flying of Protector, located in California, via satellite link, under the tuition of GA Instructors.
The course qualified future instructors on the Protector system, while building specific mission scenarios that will form the basis of RAF Protector crew training.
Future OCU training will evaluate the skills required to operate Protector and its equipment, including real-time exploitation of Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) activity to find, fix and follow designated targets on the ground, with the crew working in unison to position the air vehicle, and its sensors, to maintain optimum target tracking.
What kind of UAS is Protector?
Protector is an MQ-9B Reaper system, and there is only one unit in the RAF. Although, the service also operates nine MQ-9A systems acquired between 2007 and 2014, according to GlobalData intelligence. (Source: 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.
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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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