The UAV is primarily intended for intelligence and observation functions, but can also be used for mapping purposes. It has an endurance of approximately 20 hours with an ordinary engine and between seven and eight hours with an electrical engine. In many cases, there is a need for integrating between covert activity made possible by the silent engine and between a longer endurance.

The UAV is equipped with a payload produced by Controp, which includes three sensors – a video camera, a cooled IR camera and a laser marker for the purpose of guiding operational forces. In addition, it can also carry an assortment of different payloads, such as one produced by BlueBird itself which includes daytime and IR cameras with a very high resolution of up to four centimeters per pixel, for terrain mapping operations.

According to Itai Toran, the UAV is intended to become operational towards the end of 2013. The company is already in negotiations with two clients, but the UAV is also garnering considerable interest from defense elements in Israel and around the world.

grey eagle uav

Soldiers assigned to Company F, 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, cased their company colors during a brief evening ceremony in front of family and friends at the Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft system, or UAS, hangar on Marshall Army Airfield. The ceremony was the final piece of a very busy deployment preparation plan that began less than 12 months ago with the company’s activation ceremony at the very same location.

Lt. Col. Ed Vedder, commander, 1-1 ARB, applauded the deploying Soldiers’ constant hard work during the past several months and noted that the Fenix Company team illustrates that “excellence can occur.”

“This is the best-trained, most prepared Gray Eagle company to ever deploy in the United States Army,” Vedder said.

The Gray Eagle is a medium-altitude, long-endurance system designed to perform better at higher altitudes, designed to see and listen better than its predecessors. New targeting systems and a new engine also allow the aircraft to fly longer and higher and carry more weight than many of the Army’s previous unmanned systems.

During remarks at the company’s April 12, 2012, activation ceremony, 1st CAB Commander Col. Mike Morgan celebrated the Gray Eagle’s capabilities, adding that the system is a key part of the Army’s modern full-spectrum combat aviation brigade.

“Our missions of today and tomorrow require overhead platforms that provide new, real-time intelligence, surveillance, security and targeting,” he said. “Gray Eagle is a state-of-the-art platform that allows ground forces to move further faster and provides a picture for the commanders so they can make more informed decisions for maneuver and security.”

Fenix Company is home to more than 120 Soldiers, who represent more than 20 military occupational specialties. Considered “self-sustaining,” the company can pack up, deploy, unpack, launch, get the mission done and move again if necessary all the while fueling themselves, launching themselves, feeding themselves and taking care of the ground force.

The Fort Riley-based company is the first Gray Eagle unit in the Army to train at and deploy from their home station.

“You exist to support the ground force commander,” Vedder said. “Be vigilant and watch out for each other. You will save lives and make a difference (downrange).”

Gray Eagle Operator Spc. Ian Klaiber was the second member of Company F to arrive at Fort Riley. The young Soldier has watched his company go from occupying a single office with no furniture, to a 100-person strong organization where “things just started to click.”

“It took a lot of hard work to get us where we are today,” he said. “We are well trained and ready to go.”

The Fort Riley Soldiers will assume the Gray Eagle mission from Company F, 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, in Regional Command-East in Afghanistan. The company is expected to be gone for nine months.

Speaking to Deccan Herald on the sidelines of an event here, ADE Director P S Krishnan said: “The first flight of Rustom II will be in February 2014 and we are confident that it will meet all the parameters.”

The aircraft, which is named after Professor Rustom B Damania of the Indian Institute of Science, is being developed by the ADE in Bangalore, which is part of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Equipped with contemporary technology, Rustom II will have an endurance level of 24 to 30 hours, he explained.

The first version of Rustom had an endurance of 12 to 15 hours, which has been drastically improved.

Speaking about the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Nishant, he added: “Besides the orders for four which the Indian Army has placed, we are likely to get orders for eight more.”

Nishant had completed the confirmatory trials in Pokhran and Chandan ranges in the past.

It is based on this that the Army took the delivery of four vehicles. “The performance of the payload sensors, in particular, has been better than even the imported UAVs with the Army,” he had said earlier.

This comes as a huge relief to ADE, which has been working on the project since 1991.

The General Staff Qualitative Requirements for the Nishant project was given to the DRDO by the Indian Army in 1999, soon after the development trials were over.

The introduction of unmanned aircraft platforms is changing this paradigm, removing the limitations that have restricted manned missions, while introducing new capabilities that significantly enhance operational flexibility and efficiency of maritime control. This capability is specifically important in recent years, as countries are required to cover growing maritime areas claimed by the Economical Exclusion Zones (EEZ) that span up to 200 nautical miles from their coastline or farthest island. In the case of India, for example, such area covers a huge expanse of the Indian Ocean, bordering Indonesia in the east to Somalia in the west. A country cannot cover such vast space from its coastal radar stations, nor can it commit manned patrol flights to cover the entire area.

At Aero-India 2013 Elbit Systems is introducing its newest and largest unmanned aircraft system (UAS) – Hermes® 900 in a new configuration adapted for maritime mission. This UAS can carry payloads of up to 350 kg. In the maritime configuration the payload suite includes maritime surveillance radar, AIS, an electro-optical multi-sensor payload and electronic surveillance systems. It has the endurance to cover vast ocean areas, redundant line-of-sight and satellite communications links and radio relay, enabling the operator to ‘talk through’ to vessels at sea. The aerodynamic efficiency of the Hermes® 900 enables frequent changes in flight profiles, enabling visual identification of vessels at sea in addition to the ISAR capability provided by the radar. Satellite communication enables it to fly to mission areas at extended ranges as far as 1000 nautical miles from shore.

A unique capability supported by Elbit Systems command and control systems is the ability to control two UAS simultaneously from a single ground control station, using the two redundant data-links. This has a significant effect on the assets, manpower and operating cost, as well as in improving the efficient utilization of UAS that can now cover more area or run a denser surveillance over a given area. The maritime command and control system employed at the ground control is optimized for the maritime mission, supporting specific mission planning applications such as maritime search, Search and Rescue, etc. The entire command and control is located in a single shelter, which can be operated on shore in a mobile shelter base or indoor configurations at sea or co-located in several locations.

Recognizing the extraordinary challenge of monitoring the Indian EEZ and vast shoreline, Elbit Systems has teamed with Windward Ltd. – in order to tackle this challenge from a different point of view and offer a unique solution to the Indian Authorities.

MarInt, Windward’s proprietary satellite-based maritime analytics system is capable of covering any area of interest, delivering insightful maritime domain awareness with diverse applications such as EEZ monitoring, illegal fishery monitoring, regional traffic analysis and port traffic management.

By leveraging multiple earth observation satellites and other readily available data sources, MarInt overcomes data overload and conducts multi-source data integration, applying contextual and geo-specific behavior and discrepancy analysis to generate actionable insights.

MarInt performs deep behavior analysis on each ship searching for irregularities and discrepancies, under the assumption that active ship transmissions may be intentionally misleading. Vessel behavior is analyzed to detect anomalous and suspicious behavior, which differs from routine maritime patterns, and could indicate to illicit activities. Bottom line, MarInt is able to tell you where is the perpetrator you didn’t even know was there.

A unique solution presented at Aero India for the first time globally, is the combination of our UAS with MarInt – a maritime analytics system – as the search light for UAS operations. The use of unmanned assets with MarInt can empower Navy, coast guard, customs, environmental monitoring and other authorities in better enforcing laws and regulations in their territorial waters and EEZ, providing them with powerful means to take legal action and recover lost assets, thus deterring offenders from repeating such violations. Operating 24/7, MarInt reveals areas of suspicious activities and pinpoints anomalous vessels. This enables tasking of unmanned assets such as UAS to patrol the designated areas, identify and track the suspicious vessels, significantly optimizing aerial patrol and increasing mission effectiveness while reducing cost.

AUV62

The AUV62 is an advanced and highly modern and capable system for cost-efficient training of a navy’s ASW forces. The AUV62 is an artificial acoustic target that mimics a submarine in a way that is compatible with any torpedo- and sonar system on the market today. The AUV62 system fully replaces the use of a submarine in the role as a manoeuvring training target. With the AUV62 Saab offers a state-of-the-art training capability for demanding customers investing in the future.

The order, from an undisclosed customer, has a total value of MSEK 269 and comprises supply and long term maintenance and support of AUV62, the latest version of the advanced training target for Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) training.

System deliveries will take place during 2014 and 2015, followed by long term maintenance and support of the systems.

“We are very proud of the confidence our customers place in the AUV62 system and are satisfied to have been able to secure this order for the system.” says Görgen Johansson, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Dynamics, Saab.

Silent Guardian UAV

BoldIQ, the revolutionary optimization software company, will provide its fully integrated and automated flight operations management platform – Astro™ – with its built in optimization engine – Solver™. Through the application of sophisticated proprietary systems-based optimization, the Astro platform will enable customers of the Silent Guardian to plan and accomplish more missions at any time with a given number of aircraft than with traditional planning methods. Furthermore, the Astro platform supports real-time optimized and actionable disruption management and recovery, plus rapid automated scenario planning, thus adding a level of overall mission reliability for the customers.

The Astro system was developed to support a ‘management by exceptions’ doctrine. The high level of automation, intelligent rules engines, scalability and flexibility, will provide customers with the ability to manage the planning and ongoing operation of their fleet and missions with less personnel and to a higher degree of operational efficiency. This is another aspect of the superior value proposition offered by the Silent Guardian program.

The first of its kind hybrid UAV concept utilizes a turbofan engine for initial high performance takeoff and climb. Stored electric power and very advanced thin film solar photovoltaic (PV) provide energy for electric thrusters to enhance its extraordinary endurance, quiet operations and low emissions. Potential government applications for Silent Guardian include border patrol and homeland security, search and rescue, visual and thermal reconnaissance and forward air control. Potential civil applications include disaster and fire detection and management, energy and natural resource surveillance, large area border security, treaty, fishery and aerial law enforcement, extreme range cargo ship convoy protection, pipeline and power transmission line inspection, large area weather monitoring, including hurricane ‘hunting’ and satellite-like aerial photography, communication and data relay.

George Bye, CEO of Bye Aerospace, said selecting BoldIQ is the optimal choice for the unique Silent Guardian solar electric hybrid program. “Given shrinking defense and government budgets combined with higher expected returns, the ability of BoldIQ’s solution to enable our customers to accomplish more missions with lower operating costs is exactly in-line with the overarching value we are proposing,” he said.

“The Silent Guardian represents a revolutionary new paradigm in unmanned aviation,” said Roei Ganzarski, President & Chief Operating Officer of BoldIQ, adding “with a mission of enabling our customers to expect and realize more from their resources, we are proud to have been selected to partner on such a bold new program.”

FSB Tenders for Micro-UAV Sensor Package

Officials have allocated about 7 million rubles (about $230,000) for the project, aimed at developing a 200-gram (6.5 ounce) electro-optical surveillance sensor package for the mini-UAV, code-named “Fly Fisher,” with a take-off weight of no more than 1 kilogram.

The developer will be tasked with analyzing foreign and Russian scientific and technological research to assess the system’s stabilization, surveillance capabilities, and power supply needs.

The tender requires the developer to create a sketch design and a scale model for testing. It also requests definition of parameters for transmitting surveillance images in real time without any loss in quality at a range of up to five kilometers (three miles).

Applications for the tender will close on February 21, with the study slated for completion by November 2014.

Abe Karem, the father of the Predator uav, with the Albatross, an early model of what would later became the Predator. Karem built the Albatross in his garage.- NOVA “Rise of the Drones” Credit: WGBH / PBS To run with Alex Strachan story.

Drones are in the news every day, through their military application in Afghanistan and Pakistan and, more recently, in Mali and Algeria in North Africa.

What many people may not realize, according to a panel of insiders — military advisors, academics and the engineer dubbed the “Father of the Predator” — who faced the media at last week’s meeting of the TV Critics Association in Los Angeles, is that drones are being used increasingly in civilian life, by big-city police departments looking to cut costs on aerial surveillance and by traffic monitors, among others.

Drones, unmanned aerial robots that replace hands-on pilots and navigators, are a marvel of technology.

There are those, though — including Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution senior fellow and director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative in Washington, D.C. — who caution that drones’ widespread application hasn’t been properly thought out, from either a legal, ethical or even scientific point of view.

Drones are making science fiction a reality, Nova producer Peter Yost says, which is one reason why he was so anxious to make the program.

Drones, unmanned aerial robots that carry visual sensors, navigation systems and, sometimes, weapons, could conceivably replace the most sophisticated manned planes, and sooner than many people expect.

The worry, according to Singer, is that we may soon have 30,000 drones crisscrossing the sky, gathering information on every breath you take, every move you make.

Singer appeared on a panel alongside Yost, University of Pennsylvania engineering professor Vijay Kumar, predator drone creator Abraham Karem, founder of Karem Aircraft, and retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, president and CEO of the Deptula Group and an ardent advocate of the use of drones as a way of minimizing casualties — both civilian and military — in conflict zones.

Semantics aside, one thing is certain: Drones are opening a new chapter in aviation history, and Yost wants anyone who sees the program to be more aware of what’s going on from a scientific perspective, and what may be at stake from a human, social perspective.

That shadowy relationship between the multi-billion dollar video-game industry, with its institutional paranoia over industrial espionage, and the real-world U.S. military, which values secrecy and security above everything else, made Rise of the Drones a difficult program to make, Yost admitted.

“It’s a shadow world,” Yost said. “I spent a year, reading and just talking to people as a straight reporter, and I would often hit walls. I had to make aesthetic choices that reflect the sense that while we’re seeing some of this, we’re not seeing other pieces of this. That’s just the reality. I know that everyone in the program knows things they’re not telling us, or things we just can’t know.

“We’re putting some light on this. That’s what the program is about. There are certain things we know, that we learned along the way — but there’s a lot we don’t.”

Kumar, professor of robotics engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, agreed the questions of privacy and surveillance are important.

“But I’ll tell you now that we are our own worst enemies in that regard,” he said. “Every one of us carrying cellphones, we take pictures and oftentimes these end up on the Internet. And it’s unclear to me that what we’re doing will actually significantly affect the level of privacy we have as individuals.

“You have to look at the positive side (of drones), too. Imagine the aftermath of a disaster and the need to respond to that immediately The first responders some day will no longer be humans. They’ll be robots. They’ll respond. They’ll be the eyes and ears on the scene providing situational awareness, so when humans come, they’re not in harm’s way.”

Singer for his part cautions against a brave new world where Big Brother is all-seeing, however.

“This technology, it’s a lot like the computer around 1980,” he said.

“It’s a powerful technology. It’s moving from the military side over into the civilian world, and we’re going to see both incredible positive uses for it, but also some negative uses. I do think it is a gamechanger when you start to think about issues of privacy.

“For example, when it comes to law enforcement — and, again, this is not far off in the future — you’ve got literally tens of thousands of local police departments that, right now, either can’t afford aerial surveillance or they can only afford one or two police helicopters, they’re going to turn to these small drones. They’ll be able to get them in large numbers. That does change the kind of tracking that the police will be able to do. I think of the old Where’s Waldo? books.

“Even if you’re only trying to find Waldo, you’re going to pick up footage of a lot of other people. I don’t mean this in a nefarious 1984 way. It just means that a lot more people are going to be brought under observation.

“As for the positive uses, I think of the realm of journalism. We’re seeing a lot of different journalist programs start to look into using surveillance. That’s going to mean a lot better reporting.

“But we’re also seeing things like paparazzi exploring using it. The head of one paparazzi agency said it will, quote, ‘Strike fear into the heart of any celebrity thinking about having an outdoor birthday party.’ That’s the world we’re going into.”

Tel: (937) 320-0594
Email: drussell@sumaria.com

Web: www.sumaria.com
Category: Aerial Platforms & Systems

Company Overview

Sumaria Systems, Inc., is a CMMI® Level III assessed, ISO 9001:2008 certified, and ISO 8000-110:2009 Master Data Quality Management certified, Information Technology, Engineering and Professional services and solutions company headquartered in Danvers, Mass (USA). We have a proven track record of delivering cost-effective services and solutions to our clients on time and within budget. With more than 30 years of experience and hundreds of successful projects, Sumaria provides a diverse range of technology-based solutions including data management and secure network architecture design and implementation. Our Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Group provides systems engineering and imagery processing and quality improvement assessments, program management support, and acquisition support services to the Department of Defense (DoD) and other government agencies.

Canadian military forces leased and operated unarmed Israeli-built Heron UAVs in Afghanistan.

The country’s Joint Uninhabited Surveillance and Target Acquisition System (JUSTAS) program was supposed to be operating drones in 2010, but that deadline slipped and officials are now saying it might be 2017 before the country’s air force has operational unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs), the story said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed in the election campaign of 2006 that Goose Bay in Newfoundland and Labrador would become home to a new 650-member military rapid reaction unit, as well as a new squadron operating long-range UAVs, the story said. But that never came to pass.

The Canadian military continues to be bogged down pondering with the requirements and capabilities of JUSTAS, according to the story. It has not said when a contract for UAVs would be finalized.

The Defence Department asked industry in 2012 what type of aircraft might be available, the story said. It hopes to get preliminary approval for an acquisition this year. The program is estimated to cost at least $1 billion,.

Northrop Grumman has proposed to the Canadian government that it buy a fleet of the company’s Global Hawk UAVs to use for various missions, including surveillance of Canada’s coastline, the story said.