AAI, KOR Electronics announce strategic alliance

AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with KOR Electronics Defense Solutions that will combine AAI’s expertise as a UAS systems integrator with KOR’s signals intelligence (SIGINT) equipment. The announcement was made 11 April, 2012.

According to a joint statement, the two companies intend to integrate KOR’s SIGINT products, focused on expeditionary tactical unmanned aircraft such as AAI’s renowned Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System, as a new addition to AAI’s family of Multi-Mission Payloads (MMP). Each modular MMP pod can be attached quickly to the Shadow aircraft to equip it for the mission at hand.

AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems Senior Vice President and General Manager, Steven Reid, said of the alliance, ‘This technology provides warfighters actionable, time-sensitive data on the capabilities and activities of their adversaries. Equipping our Shadow aircraft — a trusted and omnipresent asset for so many US and allied customers — for this collection mission can help deliver intelligence fast, and to a broader array of deployed forces and formations.’

KOR Electronics President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Carnino, said, ‘During the process of evaluating initial alliance partners, KOR recognized that AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems was a market leader in UAS design, development, production and support, and that the Shadow Tactical UAS is ideally suited for KOR’s market-leading SIGINT precision location capability. KOR’s precision location capability, coupled with the Shadow aircraft’s existing electro-optic/infrared sensor, will significantly improve the find, fix and finish timeline and enhance the utility of the Shadow system’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance role.’