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20 Sept 24. Portable sUAS to Enhance U.S. Army Reconnaissance Capabilities.
PDW’s C100 sUAS has been selected for the U.S. Army’s Company-Level sUAS initiative, offering portable VTOL solutions to enhance reconnaissance capabilities in contested environments.
Performance Drone Works (PDW) has been selected to provide its flagship C100 quadcopter, a Group 2 small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS), in support of the U.S. Army Directed Requirement for Company-Level sUAS.
The C100 will be fielded to unit elements across the Army to enhance fire and maneuver in near-peer and contested operating environments.
PDW’s C100 supports the U.S. Army’s medium-range reconnaissance (MRR) requirement for a modular, Soldier-portable vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) sUAS capable of providing effects across reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, communications relay, and kinetic and non-kinetic payload delivery.
The C100 enables dismounted, mounted, or airborne maneuver units with extended endurance and payload capacity in a ruggedized and highly deployable form factor.
Weighing just 21 pounds and small enough to fit in a rucksack, the C100 quadcopter empowers units to organically deploy air support, conduct precision strikes, and gather intelligence—all without the need for manned aircraft or external fire support.
Ryan Gury, PDW CEO and Co-founder, commented, “This award is a true testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire PDW team. The world is witnessing the transformative power of quadcopters on the battlefield, whose unmatched agility, precision, and tactical versatility are revolutionizing modern warfare.
“The C100 reduces the reliance on organic fires support from both external or higher headquarters, to further enable the maneuver force with decentralize and dispersed capabilities. We are honored to have been selected for the Army’s Company Level sUAS Direct Requirement, where the C100 will deliver the first wave of these game-changing capabilities.
“The C100 system enables a significant transformation of modern maneuver forces. As we enter a new era of small robotics in warfare, PDW is proud to contribute to the American renaissance in defense robotics.”
General (Ret.) Tony Thomas, former Commander of SOCOM and PDW Chairman of the Board, added, “PDW is delivering the decisive capabilities that give warfighters the upper hand, empowering them with tools to succeed and survive in the most demanding environments.” (Source: https://www.defenseadvancement.com/)
26 Sep 24. Lithuania to deliver thousands of FPV drones to its army, Ukraine. The Lithuanian government will supply thousands of locally-made, first-person-view drones to the Ukrainian and Lithuanian armed forces as part of a major investment in a low-cost capability that is reshaping modern combat.
The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense has announced a $1m contract with Vilnius-based drone company Granta Autonomy, founded in 2015, for its new GA-10-FPV-AI quadcopter platform.
“The new unmanned aerial vehicles form part of a larger €8m defense procurement initiative involving several additional Lithuanian drone manufacturers,” the Lithuanian authorities said in a press release.
Overall, 2,300 drones will be delivered to the Lithuanian military and 5,000 units will be donated to Ukraine, pooled together from selected Lithuanian companies, with the first deliveries expected to arrive in the war-torn country by the end of this month.
This marks the first time that the Granta Autonomy GA-10FPV-AI platforms will be delivered to both armies, a company representative told Defense News, with almost 1,000 drones included in the contract.
The drones feature a quadcopter frame with vertical take-off and landing capabilities and the ability to carry a maximum payload of 3 kilograms, per company information.
In August, the Lithuanian defense ministry had announced that combat drones manufactured by five Lithuanian firms had passed the tests put together by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to simulate a front-line environment and would be chosen to be sent to troops.
According to the local news network LRT, an initial batch of drone had previously failed such a test.
The GA-10-FPV-AI is advertised as being able to operate autonomously in GPS-denied environments, customizable for different video transmission frequencies and camera types.
Ukrainian FPVs have grown in importance in recent months on the battlefield, hailing successes of striking Russian attack helicopters as well as armored vehicles.
Experts have predicted that the future use of FPVs in combat is expected to involve them operating in swarms or groups to overwhelm adversary defenses on the cheap.
Lithuania has paid attention to these developments, having announced over the summer that its armed forces are undergoing a specialized course at training instructors to operate FPVs as well as plans to equip all military branches with these drones. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
27 Sept 24. Iran Unveils New Shahed-136B Attack Drone.
Iran revealed its latest military advancements, including an upgraded version of the Shahed-136B suicide drone, during a military parade on Saturday.
The unveiling coincides with increasing regional tensions and ongoing allegations that Tehran is supplying arms to Russia.
The Shahed-136B, an enhanced version of Iran’s known one-way attack drone, was showcased at the parade, which marked the anniversary of the end of the Iran-Iraq war. The new variant boasts several significant upgrades, including a larger warhead, a range between 2,500 to 4,000 kilometers, a turbojet engine, and improved stealth capabilities.
The Shahed-136B is thought to be an evolution of the drone supplied to Russian forces for use in Ukraine, though Tehran continues to deny allegations of providing military support to Moscow.
Western governments have frequently raised concerns about Iran’s drone program, with particular attention to its potential impact on regional conflicts, such as the war in Yemen and attacks on Israel, and broader geopolitical dynamics. Tehran, however, maintains that its military developments are defensive in nature. (Source: UAS VISION/Defence Blog)
26 Sep 24. Mayman Aerospace has completed successful flight tests at a military base in the Southern California desert of its RAZOR test bed VTOL aircraft. The RAZOR test bed is exactly the same dimensions and weight as the RAZOR P100 and uses the same propulsion, engine gimballing, thrust vectoring and flight control systems.
Supported by our Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contract with the US Department of Defence, the fully autonomous flight tests were designed to test avionics, thrust vectoring mechanisms, flight control laws, software, and command and control (C2). It also enables early verification of operating procedures. This series of tests focused on the transition of the engines moving out of hover mode, which is critical for high-speed winged flight. It also added to our history of successful autonomous take-off and landings.
The Mayman Aerospace RAZOR VTOL aircraft is designed with multi-role capabilities. Its proprietary control system enables swift, secure and efficient transportation of critical supplies, bolstering military readiness and resilience in challenging and austere environments. RAZOR aircraft can also be configured to extend the range of small Air-to-Air or Air-to-Surface missiles such as Brimstone or Hellfire, delivering them over 200 miles. The aircraft can then deploy the missile for final target acquisition, enhancing the reach and precision of the missile systems.
Launched vertically without the need of special launch system or infrastructure, RAZOR can act as an ISR, target designation and launch platform. Due to its extreme speed the RAZOR can quickly intercept drones. RAZOR also provides a cost-effective alternative to expensive cruise missiles. Its swift, agile, AI-guided C2/C3 enables precise payload or kinetic impact delivery. This versatile platform ensures efficient operations at a fraction of traditional costs.
The RAZOR UAS revolutionizes battlefield target-intelligence collection, providing rapid, flexible data acquisition. With VTOL capability for deployment in confined areas, projected speeds up to 500 mph, and advanced surveillance technology, the aircraft provides a platform to acquire superior image quality by carrying large gimbal balls at high altitude. As a self-sufficient platform, RAZOR ensures immediate and reliable intelligence, enhancing battlefield decision-making. This aircraft is essential for modern warfare.
David Mayman, Founder and CEO of Mayman Aerospace said:
“Our recent flight tests were 100% successful and we are confident RAZOR will reach speeds greater than 450kts. As a multi-role, dual use technology Razor is already changing the way defense commanders and civilian leaders are thinking about autonomous VTOL applications. We are a software-driven hardware company and our team is achieving performance levels once only dreamed about. We are super excited about the next set of flight tests later this year.”
Dr Manu Sharma, Chief Engineer, at Mayman Aerospace, added: “In these flight tests we flew seven autonomous mission sets and all systems worked perfectly as planned. The primary objective was to validate recent flight-software and control-law updates, with particular attention to the change from hover mode with the engines canted outwards from the aircraft center, to transition mode with all engines canted in the same direction, which is required to get us into winged flight. It is also a benefit to get additional autonomous flight time on the vehicle, take-off and landing in particular, to increase our confidence in the system as a whole.”
These flight tests are a major step forward for Mayman Aerospace and additional test flights are scheduled for later this year.
“At Mayman Aerospace we are pioneering the future of autonomous warfare with our cutting-edge high-speed VTOL aircraft”, noted David Mayman. “We are integrating artificial intelligence within existing intelligence, surveillance, navigation, control, and strategic frameworks to develop autonomous systems that are cost effective, quick to manufacture, relatively expendable and can be deployed in sufficient numbers to meet future battlefield requirements. One of the first casualties of modern warfare will be airfields, and therefore VTOL aircraft will be critical to future conflict success.”
Mayman Aerospace is well advanced in its mission having designed, built and flight tested five full scale prototypes and secured US Dept of Defense contracts. The RAZOR aircraft is fully scalable and the team plans to develop P100, P500 and P1000 variants. Manufacturing and sales of P100 is scheduled to begin in 2025.
27 Sept 24. BAE Systems Australia Set for First Test Flight of STRIX UAS. The first test flight of BAE Systems Australia‘s (BAESA’s) STRIX Uncrewed Aerial System is scheduled for mid-October, with the company citing the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) platform as a unique combination of operation, range, and payload.
Flight testing for the prototype, X-wing design was approved in July by Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and will take place at an undisclosed site in Western Australia.
“Some whiteboard sketches and ideas were thrown around in June/July 2022 but the final design/concept for STRIX was not finalised until March 2023. So, we’ll have gone from concept design to first flight of a first-of-type prototype within 18 months,” Kisa Christensen, director of Red Ochre Autonomy and Sensors at BAESA, told Janes . “We’re taking a staged approach in the lead-up to the first full-blown flight.”
She added,
“We’re starting with the nose-up manoeuvre, then we’ll couple that with a vertical take-off and hover, followed by a vertical landing. The final test flight will implement transition from a hover to conventional flight and then back to hover and a vertical landing. So, the platform’s full flight characteristics will be involved.
“Then we will progress to our next spiral, which focuses on testing the unique hybrid propulsion that powers this concept. This will enable realisation of the full range capability that can be achieved through STRIX’s efficient fixed-wing cruise.”
Developed in collaboration with Australian firm Innovaero, STRIX’s versatility is claimed as one of its assets. Potential multirole mission capabilities include strike, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, assured targeting, antisubmarine and anti-surface warfare, electronic warfare, and teaming with rotary-wing platforms. (Source: UAS VISION/Janes)
27 Sept 24. Russia has Secret War Drones Project in China, intel sources say. Russia has established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine, according to two sources from a European intelligence agency and documents reviewed by Reuters.
IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned weapons company Almaz-Antey, has developed and flight-tested a new drone model called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with the help of local specialists, according to one of the documents, a report that Kupol sent to the Russian defence ministry earlier this year outlining its work.
Kupol told the defence ministry in a subsequent update that it was able to produce drones including the G3 at scale at a factory in China so the weapons can be deployed in the “special military operation” in Ukraine, the term Moscow uses for the war.
Kupol, Almaz-Antey and the Russian defence ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article. China’s foreign ministry told Reuters it was not aware of such a project, adding that the country had strict control measures on the export of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based defence think-tank, said the delivery of UAVs from China to Russia, if confirmed, would be a significant development.
“If you look at what China is known to have delivered so far, it was mostly dual-use goods – it was components, sub-components, that could be used in weapon systems,” he told Reuters. “This is what has been reported so far. But what we haven’t really seen, at least in the open source, are documented transfers of whole weapon systems.”
Still, Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington-based think-tank, said Beijing would be hesitant to open itself up to international sanctions for helping Moscow’s war machine, and that more information was needed to establish that China was playing host to production of Russian military drones.
The White House National Security Council said it was deeply concerned by the Reuters report of the drones programme, which it said appeared to be an instance of a Chinese company providing lethal assistance to a U.S.-sanctioned Russian firm.
The White House has not seen anything to suggest the Chinese government was aware of the transactions involved, but China has a responsibility to ensure companies aren’t providing lethal aid to Russia for use by its military, a spokesperson added.
The G3 can travel about 2,000 km with a payload of 50 kg, according to the reports to the Russian defence ministry from Kupol, which was placed under U.S. sanctions in Dec. 2023. Samples of the G3 and some other drone models made in China have been delivered to Kupol in Russia for further testing, again with the involvement of Chinese experts, they said.
The documents don’t identify the Chinese drone specialists involved in the project that it outlined and Reuters was unable to determine their identity.
Kupol has taken delivery of seven military drones made in China, including two G3s, at its headquarters in the Russian city of Izhevsk, according to the two separate documents reviewed by Reuters, which are invoices sent to Kupol in the summer by a Russian firm that the two European intelligence sources said serves as an intermediary with Chinese suppliers. The invoices, one of which requests payment in Chinese yuan, don’t specify delivery dates or identify the suppliers in China.
The two intelligence sources said the delivery of the sample drones to Kupol was the first concrete evidence their agency had found of whole UAVs manufactured in China being delivered to Russia since the Ukraine war began in February 2022.
They asked that neither they nor their organisation be identified due to the sensitivity of the information. They also requested certain details related to the documents be withheld, including their precise dates.
‘DOUBLE STANDARDS ON ARMS SALES’
The sources showed Reuters five documents in all, including two Kupol reports to the ministry in the first half of the year and the two invoices, to support their claims of the existence of a Russian project in China to manufacture drones for use in Ukraine. The programme has not previously been reported.
Kupol’s reports to the ministry didn’t give more precise locations for sites related to the project. Reuters was also unable to determine whether the defence ministry gave the company the green light to proceed with the serial production proposed.
Beijing has repeatedly denied that China or Chinese companies have supplied Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine, saying the country remains neutral. In response to questions for this article, the foreign ministry told Reuters that China’s position presented a contrast with other nations with “double standards on arms sales” whom it said had “added fuel to the flames of the Ukrainian crisis”.
The ministry said earlier this month that there were no international restrictions on China’s trade with Russia when responding to a Reuters report that Kupol had started to produce the Garpiya-A1 long-range military drone in Russia using Chinese engines and parts.
The new documents reported here indicate state-owned Kupol has gone further by sourcing complete UAVs from China.
Both Russia and Ukraine are racing to ramp up their production of drones, which have emerged as highly effective weapons in the war.
David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security research group and has conducted extensive work on Chinese and Russian cooperation on drone production, told Reuters that Kupol could skirt Western sanctions on Russia by setting up a production facility in China where it could access advanced chips and expertise.
But Bendett at CNAS said Beijing had reason to tread carefully: “For a factory to exist officially that builds UAVs for the Russians exposes China to some of the more severe effects of the sanctions, so it’s not clear the extent to which China would be willing to expose itself.”
The Ukrainian government didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article.
COMPARABLE TO U.S. REAPER DRONE?
The G3 is an upgraded version of the Garpiya-A1 drone, according to Kupol’s reports sent to the defence ministry. It was redesigned by Chinese experts working off blueprints of the Garpiya-A1, they said.
Kupol said that within eight months, the project in China would be ready to produce a Chinese-designed REM 1 attack UAV with a payload of 400kg. The two European intelligence sources said this system would be similar to the U.S. Reaper drone.
The sources said another Russian defence firm called TSK Vektor acted as the intermediary between Kupol and Chinese suppliers in the project. They said the Russian firms worked with a Chinese company called Redlepus TSK Vector Industrial, based in Shenzhen, without specifying Redlepus’ role.
TSK Vektor and Redlepus didn’t respond to requests for comment.
A separate document reviewed by Reuters reveals plans involving Kupol, TSK Vektor and Redlepus to establish a joint Russian-Chinese drone research and production centre in the Kashgar special economic zone in China’s Xinjiang province.
Reuters was unable to determine who produced the document, which bore the logos of the three companies, or identify the intended recipient. The 80-hectare “Advanced UAV Research and Manufacturing Base” would be able to produce 800 drones a year, the document said. No timeline was given for when it would be operational.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his military had received around 140,000 drones in 2023 and that Moscow planned to increase this number tenfold this year.
“Whoever reacts faster to demands on the battlefield wins,” he told a meeting in St Petersburg about drone production.
(Source: UAS VISION/Reuters)
26 Sept 24. Schiebel CAMCOPTER S-100 Supports European Coastguard Functions in France and Belgium.
The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) contracted Schiebel to support multi-purpose maritime operations with its Unmanned Air System (UAS) CAMCOPTER S-100 in La Manche and the southern section of the North Sea.
The operation aimed to assist the maritime authorities of Belgium and France across a variety of coast guard functions including emission monitoring. Stationed at the Gris- Nez Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in the Pas-de-Calais Department of France, the S-100 supported on request both participating countries within an airspace validated by the civil aviation authority depending on the areas flown over.
The UAS provided enhanced support for maritime safety, search and rescue, maritime surveillance, environmental protection and maritime accident and disaster response.
The operationally mature S-100 executed these tasks equipped with multiple sensors, a Trakka TC-300 EO/IR sensor, an Explicit Mini Sniffer for emission monitoring, a Becker Avionics BD406 Emergency Beacon Locator, an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver and a Mode-S Transponder ADSB out.
“We have been supporting EMSA since 2018. The CAMCOPTER also helped in several search and rescue operations. The S-100 saves valuable response time and enables a quick and efficient way of scanning large areas even for very small objects and anomalies at sea,” said Hans Georg Schiebel, Chairman of the Schiebel Group.
(Source: UAS VISION)
23 Sept. 24. ‘Dual-use’ case: Russian attack drone maker evades Western scrutiny. A Russian startup drone manufacturer has cashed in on the exploding demand for unmanned aerial vehicles spurred by the war in Ukraine, selling over 1,000 drones while working to avoid Western sanctions, according to documents reviewed by Defense News.
Integrated Robotics Technologies, located in southeastern Russia’s Bashkortostan Republic, is an example of how Russian companies have switched to a wartime economy orchestrated by Moscow to prosecute the invasion of Ukraine.
IRT is not named in sanctions by Western governments despite touting its lineup of surveillance and attack drones in its advertising materials, a marked switch from a marketing strategy previously aimed at the agricultural and energy markets. A presentation by the Bashkirian government, seen by Defense News, shows that in 2023 alone, IRT produced more than 1,000 UAVs.
The company’s portfolio includes several types of so-called kamikaze drones, cheap and disposable aircraft fitted with an explosive warhead that have become the hallmark of Ukraine war tactics. An operator can plunge them into vulnerable targets from afar with deadly precision. The vendor also markets a set of larger, more complex drones that it claims can stay in the air for 20 hours and cover up to 1,600 kilometers while producing high-quality aerial imagery – useful for energy pipeline inspections but also for surveilling the battlefield from afar.
It is likely that countless companies like IRT exist scattered across Russia. The case underscores the government’s concerted efforts to mitigate the effectiveness of Western sanctions imposed after attacking Ukraine. The campaign, still labeled a “special military operation” in Kremlin verbiage, has been burning through weapon stocks new and old at an unprecedented pace.
With the war in Ukraine in its third year, Russian businesses like IRT have come into the spotlight of Western authorities as they try to restrict the flow of components that could aid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts. In turn, Russia has been finding new ways to sustain its access to vital products, turning to China and setting up front companies in third countries like the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and in Central Asia, UN trade records and government information show.
IRT’s website does not explicitly mention a military dimension to its business, billing its drones instead as civilian tools. However, the company has participated in defense-oriented trade fairs since the war in Ukraine began in 2022.
“As they like to say now, it is dual-use,” quipped a press release by a regional trade show (archived here) covering IRT’s appearance at the event, referring to the company’s ostensibly agricultural tack.
The company did not return an email seeking comment on its defense-related activities.
A technology is dual-use when it was originally developed for civilian purposes but has significant warfare-related applications, says Robert Shaw, the program director for export control and nonproliferation at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, a think tank that studies arms control and sanctions.
“IRT’s UAVs seem to fit this definition very well,” he said, “and especially kamikaze drones very clearly have military applications.”
Founded in September 2021, IRT describes itself in public appearances as an innovative company that hopes to advance Russian domestic drone-making abilities. It has hosted aerospace engineering events for local youth and counts around 20 employees, according to public records.
While a private company, Integrated Robotics Technologies has received money and contracts from Russian government entities. Public records show that the regional government of the Republic of Bashkortostan paid IRT eight times for consulting services in early 2022. Governmental support has since expanded through programs to boost domestic UAV production, including plans to build drone-related research centers, launch platforms and factories, all outlined in regional government meetings in 2023 and 2024
The plans are worth tens of bns of rubles (hundreds of ms of U.S. dollars), according to Republic of Bashkortostan government documents.
Eager to tout a local drone champion, officials have kept tabs on the company’s fortunes: IRT had produced 1,049 drones of six different types in 2023 alone, according to a presentation from Jan. 15 of this year. Of these, 332 were of the Scout or Dark Wing varieties, marketed as suicide drones in the company’s product catalog. The company also built 14 long-range surveillance drones of the IRT-5 variety and hundreds of quad- and hexacopters.
It’s unclear to what extent an individual company like IRT would be affected by Western sanctions. On a national scale, though, there are indications that Moscow has struggled with supplanting some parts of its supply chains with local vendors, most notably in advanced semiconductors and similarly specialized components and tools.
Russian customs data seen by Defense News shows a handful of occasions in which Integrated Robotics Technologies has imported drone components and parts for a 3D printer from China.
Companies linked to IRT may also be involved in procuring components on its behalf, making it difficult to gauge the extent to which the company relies on foreign components. For example, the company appears to have close ties to a medium-sized chemical- and laboratory-equipment manufacturer.
“Russian defense-related procurement efforts are using a wide range of third countries to circumvent sanctions,” Shaw told Defense News. He said the procurement of 3D printing components is a notable detail. “Our research suggests that additive manufacturing is a particular area to watch, especially when it comes to UAV and missile production,” he said. Being linked to a chemical company might allow for producing specialized materials for drone-building or polymers for 3D printing, Shaw said.
(Source: C4ISR & Networks)
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