Jun 07. EADS Sharc UAV demonstrator successfully completes first flight. With the successful first flight of the new UAV, Sharc, EADS Defence & Security (DS) has launched the flight test campaign for this innovative unmanned helicopter. During the first flight, the unmanned coaxial dual-rotor 200 kg class helicopter – which is being tested by the Military Air Systems unit of DS – demonstrated stability and impressive flight characteristics. Through this UAV demonstrator – roughly 250 cm long, 70 cm wide and 120 cm high – EADS has extended its range of high-performance UAVs. With a maximum take-off weight of 190 kg, the system can accommodate 60 kg of mission equipment in its payload compartments. Sharc is equipped with a redundant flight control unit, a laser altimeter and also control and data links. Sharc has been designed as an unmanned aerial vehicle without hydraulic components, the rotors being controlled by means of electrical actuators. “The innovativeness of this demonstrator in all its details provides emphatic evidence of the leading position that EADS Defence & Security occupies in the field of high-performance unmanned aerial vehicles within Europe,” stated Stefan Zoller, member of the EADS Executive Committee for Defence & Security, in reaction to the successful first flight. The modular design of the avionics facilitates the integration of a whole range of different mission equipment. Tests on electro-optical and infrared sensors are part of the overall flight campaign. In addition, Sharc can also accommodate a compact synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. (Source: Shephard)

18 Jun 07. Cyber Defense Systems, Inc has received an Experimental Airworthiness Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, the first for small hand launched UAS’s under 100lbs in the United States, allowing the CyberBug™ Unmanned Aerial System to fly in the National Airspace System. (Source: ASD Network)

25 Jun 07. EDO Corporation, as a member of a consortium led by Atlas Elektronik UK, has been awarded a research contract by the UK Ministry of Defence. The contract calls for the consortium to demonstrate the use of an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) to combat “influence” mines. The “Atlas-QED” consortium, which also includes team-member QinetiQ, plans to have a prototype system ready by early 2009 to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept, as part of the Royal Navy’s Fast Agile Sweep Technology (FAST) program.

Jun 07. EADS Sharc UAV demonstrator successfully completes first flight. With the successful first flight of the new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Sharc, EADS Defence & Security (DS) has launched the flight test campaign for this innovative unmanned helicopter. During the first flight, the unmanned coaxial dual-rotor 200 kg class helicopter – which is being tested by the Military Air Systems unit of DS – demonstrated stability and impressive flight characteristics. Through this UAV demonstrator – roughly 250 cm long, 70 cm wide and 120 cm high – EADS has extended its range of high-performance UAVs. With a maximum take-off weight of 190 kg, the system can accommodate 60 kg of mission equipment in its payload compartments. Sharc is equipped with a redundant flight control unit, a laser altimeter and also control and data links. Sharc has been designed as an unmanned aerial vehicle without hydraulic components, the rotors being controlled by means of electrical actuators. (Source: Shephard)

28 Jun 07. iRobot Corp. announced a strategic alliance with TASER International, Inc. to develop new robots that can remotely engage, incapacitate and control dangerous suspects with integrated TASER electronic control devices. Built on iRobot’s combat-proven PackBot(r) robot platforms, the new TASER-equipped robots will add a new ability to control dangerous suspects while keeping personnel, the suspect and bystanders out of harm’s way. iRobot and TASER together have developed a working proof-of-concept model – iRobot(r