UV - Unmanned Vehicles
Aurora secures Orion UAS development contract
Aurora Flight Sciences has received a $48 million contract from the US Air Force for the continued development of the Orion UAS, the company announced on 3 January.
The Orion is a twin-engine UAS capable of flying for over 100 hours at a time with large payloads.
Work on the Orion UAS began in 2006 and its first flight was conducted in August 2013. In December 2014, Orion set the current UAS world endurance record with an 80 hour, two minute and 52 second flight.
The UAS capabilities support multiple intelligence missions simultaneously, including full motion video, electro optical infrared sensor, communication relay, cross cueing and payload fusion.
The Orion can fly at an altitude between 15,000ft and 30,000ft, has an endurance of more than 120 hours and can carry a payload of up to 2800lb.
Work under the contract will be performed in Columbus, Mississippi, and Manassas, Virginia.
More from Unmanned Vehicles
-
Skeldar's R-350 demonstrates MUM-T success
UMS Skeldar and partner ESG have recently carried out a number of joint manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) demonstrations involving the 150kg R-350 for the German armed forces ...
-
Naval Group selects Atmos UAV for UAS testing
Naval Group has selected the Netherlands’ Atmos UAV for the testing of its fixed-wing vertical take off and landing UAS solution for evaluation purposes, the ...
-
Aurora introduces solar-powered UAV
Aurora Flight Sciences has developed a solar-powered UAV called Odysseus for climate and atmospheric research. Odysseus is a long endurance, high-altitude system that utilises advanced ...
-
Elbit Systems to supply ISTAR solution
Elbit Systems has received a contract from an unnamed Asia-Pacific country to supply a comprehensive UAS-based intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) solution, the ...
-
Belgium looks to follow UK with SkyGuardian
Belgium looks to be following the UK in the procurement of the General Atomics (GA-ASI) MQ-9B SkyGuardian UAV, after the announcement on 19 November that ...
-
Industry mulls commercial drone durability
While the use of unmanned systems by emergency services and aid organisations is already widespread several key capability gaps still exist, covering areas such as ...