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07 Nov 24. Insitu’s Proliferated-Low Earth Orbit Satellite Control for Integrator UAS has 2,000 Nautical Mile Range. Insitu, a Boeing Company, is now leveraging Proliferated-Low Earth Orbit (P-LEO) Satellite Communication (SATCOM) control for its Integrator Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS). This capability enables Integrator to fly up to 2,000 Nautical Miles (NM) point-to-point with 27.5 hours of endurance, the longest range/endurance of any small UAS in its class.
Integrator with P-LEO SATCOM capability can be controlled from anywhere in the world. This new capability adds another SATCOM option for Integrator, alongside current Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) SATCOM on Integrator, providing end users with even more options for Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) control.
“We are excited to bring this game-changing capability to the battle-tested Integrator UAS platform,” said Insitu Vice President of Engineering, Programs and Flight, Justin Pearce. “With a range of 2,000 nautical miles, Integrator can easily fly from Guam to Okinawa in one sortie and operate from small naval vessels anywhere in the vast INDOPACOM theater. This is the type of capability Combatant Commanders have been waiting for, and Integrator offers a lower cost, attritable, persistent long range ISR option when flying large Group 5 UAS is too risky or too expensive,” he added.
Integrator’s new P-LEO SATCOM control capability is available for approved customers and can operate with the Flying Launch and Recovery System (FLARES) Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) kit, which enables launch and recovery from small ship decks in gusty winds and heavy seas, as well as from expeditionary land sites. Unlike tail-sitter aircraft, FLARES VTOL system does not need operators to hold the UAS on launch or catch the UAS on recovery, ensuring maximum safety.
P-LEO does not occupy any of the six currently available payload bays, ensuring that Integrator’s 1,000+ multi-intelligence configurations remain available to customers. Best-in-class payload options include communications relay, Electronic Warfare (EW), multi-spectral optics, AI-assisted wide-area search, and kinetics. With 40lb of field-swappable payloads across six bays, it is the most flexible and capable UAS in its class.
Integrator is battle-proven, with thousands of combat hours in the most challenging conditions including GPS-contested airspace and extreme climates. It is currently being further weatherized for operations in the Arctic and High North.
Insitu’s current UAS product line includes ScanEagle and Integrator, both VTOL-capable with FLARES. Insitu UAS offer a full suite of command, control, and data processing solutions including INEXA Control, TacitView, Catalina, and an open architecture Common Ground Control Systems. (Source: UAS VISION)
06 Nov 24. Thales and Exail partner to deliver next-generation autonomous underwater vehicle mine detection capabilities for French Navy’s SLAMF Mine Countermeasures programme. Thales and Exail have been selected by the French defence procurement agency (DGA) to deliver eight, plus eight more in option, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV).This extended version of the A18-M AUV will integrate the SAMDIS 600 sonar for the SLAMF program (the French Armed forces programme, supervised by the DGA, which aims at renewing the French Navy mine warfare capabilities with massive use of unmanned systems).
06 Nov 24. Saab Brings New Autonomous Capability to Naval Vessels. Saab presents Autonomous Ocean Core, a ready-to-use autonomous control system to provide autonomy capabilities to surface and subsurface naval platforms in military and civilian missions.
Autonomous Ocean Core is a vessel agnostic control system with an open architecture, designed to make vessels autonomous to enhance their mission success at sea. It provides baseline autonomy, including vessel control, to platforms on or below the ocean surface and allows operators to add additional capabilities continuously without losing built-in safety functions.
With Autonomous Ocean Core integrated, un-crewed vessels can operate on missions such as mine detection and clearance, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as electronic warfare.
The system has different modes for maneuvering on a mission, each supporting precise control and operational flexibility based on the mission’s need. Furthermore, the system can be can be configured to operate in three different manners, each tailored to specific operational needs and safety requirements.
The system is ready to perform tasks right out of the box, with or without added functionality. With safety assured, it provides a solid foundation for expanding autonomy capabilities through Saab’s continuous development and third-party collaborations.
“The development of naval unmanned and autonomous units is progressing, enhancing capabilities for maritime security operations. Autonomous Ocean Core can boost key operational strengths for the dull, dirty, dangerous and dear. This control system gives our customers a tactical edge, increasing availability and efficiency and becoming less dependent on active manpower,” says Mats Wicksell, Senior Vice President and Head of Saab’s Business Area Kockums.
Saab’s leadership in autonomous systems include Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASVs) and Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) working with seabed infrastructure, anti-submarine warfare training and mine hunting. (Source: ASD Network)
07 Nov 24. U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works® Demonstrate First Live Control of an Uncrewed Air Vehicle by UMCS and MDCX™.
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) collaborated with the U.S. Navy and General Atomics (GA) in a first-ever live control flight demonstration of an uncrewed system by the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control Station (UMCS).
Powered by the Skunk Works® MDCX™ autonomy platform, the UMCS controlled a GA MQ-20 Avenger uncrewed air system (UAS) as it completed a live fly mission. This demonstration is a pathfinder that helps to advance the complex technology necessary to enable crewed and uncrewed teaming as envisioned for programs such as CCA and others.
The flight test is a significant milestone in the development of UMCS, setting the stage for the Navy’s future unmanned aviation operations.
MDCX™ enabled the U.S. Navy Air Vehicle Pilots at Patuxent River, Maryland to control the MQ-20 during its flight in California.
“Skunk Works is proud to collaborate with the Navy to bring its Carrier Air Wing of the Future vision to life,” said John Clark, vice president and general manager, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. “The MDCX made it possible to rapidly integrate the MQ-20 ‘autonomy core’ with the UMCS, demonstrating common control capability and third-party platform integration.”
“Autonomous collaborative platforms that are mission capable with technologies that have been demonstrated at high readiness levels and the maturation of those technologies is just one of the focus areas for GA-ASI,” said GA-ASI President David R. Alexander. “This collaboration with the USN and Lockheed Martin advances the UMCS’s beyond line-of-sight capabilities, while demonstrating the maturity of our Tactical Autonomy Core Ecosystem (TacACE).”
“This was a huge step for unmanned naval aviation,” said Lt. Steven Wilster, MQ-25 AVP. “This demo showcased UMCS’s first live control of an unmanned air vehicle, and it was great to be part of history in the making. The team is paving the way for integrating critical unmanned capability across the joint force to combat the high-end threat our warfighters face today and in the future.”
The U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps are collaborating via a Tri-Service Memorandum of Understanding on critical sub-systems for CCA platforms. The Navy leads the U.S. Department of Defense in developing a common control architecture and ground control station (GCS) for these systems. This work is being done in collaboration with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, leveraging decades of operational experience delivering GCSs underpinned by the U.S. government’s Open Mission Systems architecture for third-party platform integration for optimal interoperability.
The Navy will refine UMCS’s requirements based on data from this demonstration and conduct further flight tests to advance command and control technologies, autonomy and crewed-uncrewed teaming.
07 Nov 24. On November 5, 2024, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) used its MQ-20 Avenger® Unmanned Aircraft System to perform commanded autonomy maneuvers as part of a demonstration with the U.S. Navy (USN). The USN used its MD-5 Ground Control Station (GCS) with Lockheed Martin’s MDCX™ autonomy platform to command and control the jet-powered UAS. Working collaboratively with the USN and Lockheed Martin, the GA-ASI team successfully executed the flight demonstration over a Proliferated Low Earth Orbit (PLEO) datalink.
The USN’s Unmanned Carrier Aviation program office PMA-268 used GA-ASI’s MQ-20 as a surrogate to demonstrate how its Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control Station (UMCS) can command a variety of unmanned aircraft. The MD-5 GCS was operated from the USN’s test facility at Patuxent River, Maryland, while the MQ-20 was flown out of GA-ASI’s Desert Horizon flight operations facility in El Mirage, California.
This flight was the first time a GA-ASI UAS completed bi-directional communications using the UMCS operation codes while performing autonomous behavior. The procedure was completed using the PLEO datalink.
“This effort was a prime example of industry partners and government agencies working together to perform important new capabilities,” said GA-ASI President David R. Alexander. “The team efficiently and safely demonstrated aircraft flight control from another government agency’s control station. Using GA-ASI’s Tactical Autonomy Core Ecosystem (TacACE) software, the team not only executed airborne commands, but did so in a safe, controlled environment.”
The demonstration was part of an effort to advance technology for future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). GA-ASI initiated the demonstration between PMA-268 and Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works to demonstrate connectivity between the Navy’s UMCS and GA-ASI’s MQ-20 Avenger. MQ-20 is a jet-powered platform used extensively as a CCA surrogate test bed for autonomous UAS technology development. GA-ASI was recently selected for the U.S. Air Force’s CCA program.
31 Oct 24. Ditch Tanks for Drones Says Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Eric Schmidt, the billionaire investor and former CEO of Google, said it’s time for the US military to do away with tanks, artillery and mortars in favor of aerial drones similar to the ones that he is building to help Ukraine.
“I read somewhere that the US had thousands and thousands of tanks stored somewhere,”
he told the Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
“Give them away. Buy a drone instead.”
Schmidt’s comments were reported by Bloomberg News.
Schmidt is listed by Bloomberg Bnaires Index as the 51st richest person in the world with a fortune valued at $33.3 bn as of Wednesday. The former Google boss said that the Russia-Ukraine war has shown how “a $5,000 drone can destroy a $5 m tank.”
Earlier this year, Forbes reported that Schmidt is the founder of White Stork, a military startup that is building a “kamikaze drone” which is designed to loiter on the battlefield before being dispatched to destroy its target.
“White Stork” is also a reference to a species of bird that is commonly found in Ukraine, where Schmidt has taken on a significant role in helping the country’s defense efforts to repel the Russian invasion.
The company has been developing a mass-producible drone that uses artificial intelligence to zero in on a target even in environments were communications have been interrupted by GPS jamming, according to Forbes.
In July of last year, Schmidt penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal touting drones as “the future of war.
According to Schmidt, Ukrainian forces have “succeeded” because of their deployment of drones — this despite the fact that Russia has a 3-to-1 advantage in soldiers as well as air superiority. While Ukraine has incurred heavy losses, it “has continually out-innovated the enemy.”
Schmidt served as Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011, a time of rapid growth for the California-based technology company. He later became executive chairman for Google, and in 2015, for its new parent company, Alphabet, before resigning as chairman in 2018. (Source: UAS VISION/New York Post)
04 Nov 24. British Army Takes Drones Seriously. From delivering stores to high-speed racing, soldiers have had their eyes firmly on the sky as the use of Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) gathers pace in the British Army.
While the latest technology was being tested by the Experimentation and Trials Group (ETG) on Salisbury Plain, soldiers were enjoying the thrills and spills of First Person View (FPV) drone racing at events in London and Colchester.
An assault on Imber village by 2nd Battalion The Royal Yorkshire Regiment used a wide range of drones able to fulfil varied roles, as well as technology to counter the threat of drones.
Troops laid mines from a Spike Firefly UAS to ambush enemy vehicles, received supplies and evacuated a casualty on a Malloy T400 heavy lift drone, flew Parrot Anafis to observe the ground ahead, and dropped small munitions from DefendTex D40s.
Enemy drones flying over the 2 R YORKS troops were jammed using DroneShield equipment and shot out of the sky with the Smartshooter SMASH sight, which mounts on the standard issue SA80 A3 assault rifle and uses image processing software to target UAS. A blast from a shotgun provided a low-tech last line of defence.
This is my first major exercise since leaving training and it has been an eye opener, seeing how all the kit we have here works, and how it would come together in a real scenario
– PRIVATE CHARLIE BUGBY, 2ND BATTALION THE ROYAL YORKSHIRE REGIMENT
D40 operator Private Charlie Bugby said:
“This is my first major exercise since leaving training and it has been an eye opener, seeing how all the kit we have here works, and how it would come together in a real scenario.”
ETG Commander Colonel Toby Till said the widespread use and varied applications of UAS mean that commanders at every level “need to be looking up as much as they are looking down”.
“We have a range of sensors, a number of drones of all sizes, and importantly got the network that can take those feeds,” he said. “There is a whole series of effectors, particularly FPV drones which take a real niche skill to be able to operate, and we are learning from our partners across defence how to operate those.”
Drone racing is a way for soldiers to learn the challenging skill of flying FPV drones, which are flown using a virtual reality headset and lack the GPS and stabilization software fitted to conventional drones. This makes them much harder to fly, but simpler to construct and maintain and less vulnerable to jamming.
Private Blake Summerville raced for 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment at the 1st (UK) Division drone racing competition, held in Colchester as the first event of its kind organised by the Army.
“The pilot is in total control of an FPV and you have to understand how the drone banks when it turns and be more precise in use of the controls,” he said. “It is quite hard to learn, and it takes a lot of time to build your experience and muscle memory.
Competing against others gives you an idea of your own skills – and I feel that I am at a good level for the time that I’ve been flying.”
With five units entering teams, the event was open to soldiers enrolled on the jHub Drone Academy, which is training a cadre of FPV UAS pilots. It is part of Project Lewes, the Army’s work to integrate new technologies and capabilities into its existing forces to improve lethality.
Organiser Major James Metcalfe, of Headquarters 16 Air Assault Brigade, said the aim was to “kickstart interest in a sport among our soldiers, to develop the skills that will provide a military capability”.
At the highest end of competition, the Military International Drone Racing Tournament was held at Armoury House in London. The third ever staging of the event, and first in Britain, saw military teams from across the globe race FPV drones over, under and around obstacles at speeds of over 125mph.
Racing drones are built by their operators and their simplicity – a carbon fibre frame with motors on each of four spokes, controlled by three small circuit boards mounted in the middle – is part of their military applicability.
Lieutenant Colonel Karl Eze, a reservist in the Honourable Artillery Company and leader of the tri-service British team, highlighted “the asymmetric capability of the technology”.
Participants sat during a round of the FPV Drone races.
Participants gathered at the Honourable Artillery Company, Armoury House, London for the 3rd ever Military International Drone Racing Tournament and the first to be held in the UK. The Tournament had been organised by Lt Col Karl Eze of the Honourable Artillery Company.
The drones are not simply a packaged product, purchased and flown. Each drone in this Tournament is hand made. Competitors build their own, going to the large online community for assistance but mostly they have learnt by watching “How To” videos on social media.
One of the Competitors, Corporal Luke Crossley of the Royal Engineers for the past 12 years, got into FPV (First Person Video) drone racing as recently as March this year, having done a military course in November the year before, he took the opportunity and built his own drone.
FPV drones differ from the drones you may be more used in that they have none of the ‘bells and whistles’ no gyroscopic stabilisation,
Easily and relatively cheaply assembled in large numbers, FPV drones have proved themselves on the battlefields of Ukraine and the Middle East as a one-way precision strike capability. Carrying small explosive charges, drones’ range of up to 12 miles and agility means they can punch above their weight, such as flying through an open hatch to destroy an armoured vehicle by exploding inside it.
While lacking explosives, the tournament’s spirit of competition was strong, with the Australian Defence Forces team winning and the British finishing a close second. With Chief of General Staff General Sir Roland Walker presenting prizes, the importance of drone technology in how the Army will fight in the future could not have had a stronger endorsement. (Source: UAS VISION/British Army)
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