Reconnaissance

The Space Administration in the Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D), of the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMoD), and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), have successfully launched the “Ofek 16” reconnaissance satellite into space, today (6.07.2020), at 4:00 AM. The launch was performed from the Palmachim Airbase in Israel, a launch site based south of Tel Aviv in central Israel, using a “Shavit” launcher.

Elbit Systems has added an Unmanned Aerial System capability to the Seagull Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV), broadening surveillance and intelligence gathering capabilities of the unmanned boat. Trials conducted in recent weeks were dedicated to the integration of Elbit Systems' Skylark C mini-Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), onboard the Seagull USV, further enhancing its intelligence-gathering capabilities.

In a trend to improve wide-area persistent surveillance (WAPS) beyond existing capabilities, three defense industries from Israel unveil groundbreaking, lightweight WAPS systems designed for small, tactical unmanned aerial systems (STUAS) at the Singapore Airshow. These platforms are designed to operate with tactical forces and provide intelligence support to the units in direct contact with the enemy.

The Russian Air Force has begun testing the medium-altitude long-range drone Orion Medium Altitude, Long Endurance (MALE) strike-reconnaissance drones.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to demonstrate the Air Force Research Lab’s “Agile Condor” capability using a company-owned MQ-9 Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). The testing will determine the optimum artificial intelligence and machine learning methodologies to find, identify and track select targets. Agile Condor also has the potential to dramatically reduce satellite bandwidth requirements as a result of its ability to automatically identify, classify, and nominate targets of interest.

Australia commits to buy six Northrop Gruman MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance drones, to be fielded beginning in 2023, at an investment of $1.4 billion. The Tritons will operate with manned aircraft to enhance Australian anti-submarine warfare, maritime strike, and search and rescue capabilities.

This post continues our discussion on Future Drones Mission autonomy evolved parallel to the automation of piloting functions. Such capabilities are derived from mission payloads that become smarter to collect, process and fuse data with other sensor streams and store it on the platform. Persistent Wide Area Surveillance (PWAS) is an example of those capabilities that help military and security...

Airobotics, an Israel based developer of automated industrial drone based systems completed an investment round raising $32.5 million to strengthen its industrial and mining solutions and expand into new applications. "Our next stop – automated drones in cities" sasid CEO Ran Krauss.

The event demonstrated collaboration of manned and unmanned vehicles conducting a combat mission. Among the unmanned assets included in the demonstration was an all terrain vehicle (ATV) modified with a landing plate on top, to operate a tethered multi rotor UAV and an aut0nomous mortar vehicle that provided direct and indirect fire support for the combat team, using the robots as fire observers, thus establishing a robotic 'hunter-killer' team.

Northrop Grumman and United Technologies Corp. have recently completed the first flight test of the MS-177 long-range, multi-spectral imaging (MSI) sensor on the RQ-4B Global Hawk Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The MS-177 sensor is designed to provide capabilities to not only "find" targets using broad area search and different sensing technologies, but to also fix, track, and assess targets through its agility and multiple sensing modalities.

The French defense procurement agency (DGA) selected Thales to provide up to 70 ‘Spy'Ranger’ Mini-Drone Reconnaissance Systems (SMDR) for the French Army. Induction of the first batch of 35 systems is expected to begin in 2019. The total cost of the contract, with options, could reach €104.3 million (US $108.8 million).

Lockheed Martin has successfully launched today the WorldView-4 commercial remote sensing spacecraft for DigitalGlobe, Inc. The satellite orbits Earth every 90 minutes, traveling 17,000 miles per hour, providing the world's highest-resolution 30 cm commercial satellite imagery, capturing as much as 680,000 square kilometers of the Earth's surface daily.

The Pentagon is harnessing its strategic missile warning system to conduct surveillance on a global scale, improving strategic situational awareness over the entire planet. A new Battlespace Awareness Center (OBA) that came online last month processes massive streams of satellite infrared immagery, generating Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) that turns the pentagon's 'Space-Based Infra-Red Systems' (SBIRS) into an all-seeing, unblinking eye.

Elbit Systems introduce today the Skylark C - the first naval member of its electrically powered mini-UAV family. Based on the operational and combat-proven Skylark I-LEX Mini UAS, the naval variant extends the Skylark reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities to the maritime domain.