Royal Navy uncrewed aircraft trial marks European first
UK flight test sees largest unmanned aircraft take off from a Royal Navy aircraft carrier.
Black Swift Technologies’ S2 UAS has been selected by the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) to conduct high-altitude, high-latitude atmospheric research studies in Greenland, the company announced on 23 April.
INSTAAR is part of the University of Colorado Boulder. The UAS will be deployed for work that supports the East Greenland Ice-Core Project (EastGRIP). EastGRIP is a drilling project aiming to retrieve an ice core by drilling through the North-East Greenland ice stream. Researchers expect to gain new knowledge on ice stream dynamics and past climate.
The S2 will operate at temperatures below -20°C, and will be flying at altitudes of up to 14,000ft. The UAS will perform transects or vertical profiles of the arctic atmosphere to analyse the water vapour above the ice sheet to better understand the impact of climate conditions on Greenland’s mass as a result of sublimation, or evaporation, directly into the atmosphere.
UK flight test sees largest unmanned aircraft take off from a Royal Navy aircraft carrier.
CATIC have displayed its new AR-2000 drone at Dubai Airshow 2023, emphasising ship-based capabilities with PLA already purchasing.
Australia has ordered four Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton UAS which can operate as an uncrewed maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) alongside the country’s in-service Boeing P-8A MPA fleet.
The Khronos tethered UAS has been designed to be simple to use and has drawn on Elistair’s experience with hundreds of existing customers.
The use of long-duration Uncrewed Surface Vehicles for maritime surveillance and monitoring has become part of the fleet inventory as navies try to reduce the level of effort required to gather intelligence on areas of interest.
A growing number of uncrewed systems have been on show at Sydney's Indo-Pacific Maritime exhibition with a select few currently being trialled to see if they can enhance the Royal Australian Navy's surveillance levels.