COVID-19 disruption delays Falco Xplorer certification to 2022
Test progress on Falco Xplorer has been restricted by COVID-19 but Leonardo remains focused on obtaining military certification for the MALE UAV.
Leonardo’s Falco Xplorer MALE UAV will not receive a military certification until 2022, more than two full years later than originally planned, because of flight test complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The test programme ‘slowed down’ in 2020 mainly because of travel restrictions preventing Leonardo staff from reaching the test range at Trapani Air Base in Sicily, according to Fabrizio Boggiani, SVP airborne sensors and mission systems at Leonardo.
‘Support from both internal resources and even the supply chain have been affected,’ he confirmed.
Despite the travel restrictions still to be lifted, Boggiani told Shephard that the company is
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