Sierra Technical Services has carried out engine run testing on the 5th Generation Aerial Target (5GAT), the company announced on 20 January.
STS is developing 5GAT under a US Army Corp of Engineers Contracting Office contract awarded in March 2017.
The system, being delivered to meet specialist ‘threat representative’ aerial combat requirements, is a high-performance, unmanned, fighter-size aircraft. It will be used for air-to-air and surface-to-air weapon evaluation, pilot training and ground forces training when translated into production as the Next Generation Aerial Target.
First flight of the 5GAT demonstrator is scheduled to take place early in 2020.
The company has tested over 15 mission sets for the drone, with the rotorcraft used to demonstrate the viability of armed forces utilising large uncrewed aerial systems’ (UAS) for autonomous missions in the future.
The US Navy’s answer to a sixth-generation fighter has experienced a range of setbacks and delays to the programme, with only $47 million in this latest proposed budget set aside for completing the aircraft.
The UAE’s Edge Group has been positioning itself as a key defence and technology partner to Indonesia, where it has been focusing on naval platforms, UAVs and long-term industrial collaboration.
With roughly 80% of combat missions flown by Typhoons in Europe, the Eurofighter consortium is emphasising the continued relevance of its jet and wants to ramp up production to continue to deliver combat mass in light of a shifting geo-political world order.
In the past 18 months, Boeing’s MQ-28A Ghost Bat uncrewed aerial system (UAS) has achieved several milestones including teaming with manned aircraft, achieving 100 flight hours and training of first military pilot.
The order for two more aircraft for the NATO Multinational Multirole Tanker Transport (MRTT) fleet comes as Airbus considers increasing A330 MRTT production to meet demand.
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