Testing
The US Air Force is buying a single General Atomics Predator C Avenger jet-powered unmanned combat aircraft. Lt. Gen. Thomas Owen, commander of the service's Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, approved the procurement. The value of the sole-source contract was censored. The partially stealthy
News
Algerian media report that the US and France have jointly established a secret unmanned aircraft base in the Libyan Desert, near the area of Katroune. Aircraft from the secret base are allegedly flying missions to Niger, Mali and Mauritania, with the declared objective of seeking out Saharan arms trafficking networks
National Associations
The Australian Certified UAV Operators Association has just unveiled its new web site. The site contains a directory of Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) certified UAV Operators, information regarding the association and its members and links to important information and news about unmanned aviation, and the operation of unmanned
Testing
GKN Aerospace (Isle of Wight, UK) reported that it supplied many of the composite parts and structures for the second X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration aircraft. The US Navy and Northrop Grumman completed first flight of the second UCAS-D air vehicle. As part of a multi-year contract, GKN
Military UAS
A Google Maps satellite image of an isolated airstrip in Nevada shows a secret but operational unmanned aircraft test facility. The Yucca Lake Airfield, deep inside the heavily restricted Tonopah Test Range, is on land owned by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a division of the Department of Energy
Testing
Australia’s Minister for Tourism, Manufacturing and Small Business, Jan Jarratt, has announced plans to trial unmanned aircraft to catch illegal fishing vessels in waters off Queensland. Ms Jarratt said that the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation has commissioned Brisbane-based Insitu Pacific Pty Ltd to conduct a series
News
Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said. Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in
News
This new video from the TAAC Conference features an interview with NMSU’s Stephen Hottman and some in-flight footage taken during the flight demonstrations. New Mexico State University’s Physical Science Laboratory hosted its 13th annual UAS TAAC (Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technical Analysis and Applications Center) Conference last week at
Events
High tech wizards from across Texas gathered in Wimberley last Saturday to share what they've learned developing high tech, remote controlled aircraft. "I think you probably would categorise all of us as techno-geeks, because we like the gadgets, we like flying things. We like putting all this
Accidents
A former senior Pentagon official with extensive knowledge of unmanned aircraft expressed great scepticism of the aircraft supposed to be a stealth RQ-170 shown on Iranian television. AOL Defense asked one of Washington's most experienced UAS experts to have a look at the Iranian TV footage. The so-called
Business News
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Poway, California, is being awarded a $319,236,484 firm-fixed-price contract for 40 MQ-9 Block 1 aircraft, and 40 aircraft containers. The location of the performance is Poway, Calif. Work is expected to be completed by September 2013. This was a sole-source acquisition; one proposal was
Events
Local TV Station, KASA Fox, broadcast this report of the live flying demonstrations at the annual national UAV convention organized by the Technical Analysis and Applications Center (TAAC) from New Mexico State University. Hundreds of industry experts watched the aerial robots sail over the Rio Grande valley from the Tamaya