AeroVironment and Kratos team up

AeroVironment and Kratos Defense & Security Systems have teamed up to develop and demonstrate highly integrated and operationally effective multi-domain UAS for peer/near-peer environments.

The collaborative project is designed to demonstrate the ability to launch, communicate with, and control a small, tube-launched loitering aircraft from a larger runway-independent UAS. The overall system-of-system effectiveness will be evaluated for its ability to coordinate the effects of smaller AeroVironment systems, relay useful information back to the Kratos mothership, and either pass information back to a ground control station or act upon that information to modify mission taskings.

Trace Stevenson, VP and deputy general manager of AeroVironment’s UAS business, said: ‘Working with Kratos, an innovative host aircraft partner, together we are developing and will demonstrate the integration of tube-launched UAS and tactical missile systems into long-range, high speed and low cost unmanned systems for their transport and delivery into near-peer, denied environments.

‘With sufficient onboard autonomy, sensors, payloads and an integrated system design, we aim to demonstrate the deployment of large quantities of smart systems that overwhelm and disable enemy systems, while bending the cost curve to make it financially prohibitive for unfriendly nations to challenge our armed forces.’