US Navy foresees an uncrewed future for its surface and underwater fleet
The service has been conducting various procurement and development efforts to integrate unmanned surface and underwater vehicles into its inventory.
Skycam has announced that it has sold its Kahu unmanned aerial vehicle to an Australian based customer, marking the first export of a New Zealand manufactured UAV system. The customer, the University of Queensland, will use the system to conduct surveillance of mined land rehabilitation.
The University of Queensland will monitor mined land rehabilitation throughout Australia, obtaining high resolution imagery from the onboard sensors which include a still camera, gimballed video and forward looking infra-red (FLIR) cameras.
Skycam said the primary interest in selecting the Kahu was the ‘quality of the still imagery that can be collected, and a requirement for a ‘platform that is highly customizable but able to be transported as checked luggage’.
Powered by an electric motor, Kahu has a 2.3m wing span, weighs some 3.8kg and can stay airborne for 1.5 hours. Kahu operates autonomously, using GPS navigation and has a range of 40km.
The service has been conducting various procurement and development efforts to integrate unmanned surface and underwater vehicles into its inventory.
Tekever has manufactured the AR3, AR4 and AR5 UAS with all systems sharing common electronics and software architecture, which has enabled the reuse of ground segment elements within the new ARX UAS.
As the dynamics of aerial combat rapidly evolve, Chinese scientists have engineered a sophisticated air separation drone model that can fragment into up to six drones, each capable of executing distinct battlefield roles and challenging the efficacy of current anti-drone defences such as the UK’s Dragonfire laser system.
Advancements in air defence technologies have begun to reshape aerial combat dynamics in the Middle East, as illustrated by recent events involving the Israeli Air Force and Hezbollah.
Both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war have been using UAS for effective low-cost attacks, as well as impactful web and social media footage. Thousands more have now been committed to Ukrainian forces.
The US Army has intentions to develop light, medium and heavy variants of the Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) as part of the branche’s Next Generation Combat Vehicle family.