• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Aurora secures Orion UAS development contract

  5th January 2018

  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 …

• Military Logistics

  Marshall to support French C-130H fleet

  4th January 2018

  Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group has received a contract from France's Service Industriel de l’Aéronautique (SIAé) to provide engineering services to the French Air Force …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Stryke receives contract from US Army

  9th January 2018

  Stryke Industries has received a contract to apply the ScenGen artificial intelligence engine to the US Army's UAS fleet, the company announced on 4 January. …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  AeroVironment announces new Joint Venture

  4th January 2018

  AeroVironment and Japan’s SoftBank Corp have formed a joint venture to develop solar-powered high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAS for commercial operations. Called HAPSMobile, the joint venture …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Ballard introduces new UAS fuel cell

  3rd January 2018

  Ballard Power Systems has developed a next generation fuel cell propulsion system to power UAS, that it will flight test for durability under a follow-on …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  TeAx introduces ThermalCapture IRnet

  8th January 2018

  TeAx Technology has introduced ThermalCapture IRnet - an Ethernet interface solution for live data streaming to new and existing FLIR Tau 2 cores and FLIR …

• Defence Helicopter

  Keeping it cool for FVL

  9th January 2018

  An open architecture cooling standard for use with COTS VPX modules, known as ANSI/VITA 48.8, could soon be applied to the next-generation of aircraft, including Future …

• Defence Helicopter

  Pentagon issues USN V-22 flight test funding

  8th January 2018

  The US DoD has awarded Bell-Boeing a $23 million contract to support the work currently being carried out by both manufacturers on the USN's V-22 …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  European unmanned ambitions continue into 2018

  10th January 2018

  The European MALE RPAS project enters 2018 on schedule and on budget as industrial partners begin the development phase, Shephard understands. The three industry members, Airbus …

• Training

  Kratos receives target drone contract

  3rd January 2018

  Kratos Defense and Security Solutions’ Composite Engineering subsidiary has received a $93 million contract for unmanned target aircraft from the US Army, the company announced …

• Special Operations

  DoD says SOF-traditional force roles blurring

  5th January 2018

  The US Department of Defense (DoD) has commented on the increasing crossover between conventional and special operations forces that will see future general forces take …

• Special Operations

  USSOCOM looks to 5G communications

  5th January 2018

  Representatives from USSOCOM are exploring new tactical capabilities that could be provided by the application of so-called fifth generation (5G) mobile networks. One glimpse at these …

• Military Logistics

  USMC to identify cold weather clothing gaps

  5th January 2018

  A series of industry meetings are to be held in cooperation with the USMC to discuss upcoming service clothing requirements.  According to an RFI, released …

• Military Logistics

  Romania orders Iveco DV military trucks

  29th December 2017

  Iveco Defence Vehicles (Iveco DV) has signed a contract with the Romanian Ministry of National Defence for the delivery of 173 military logistic vehicles, the …

• Training

  RAAF restructures Hercules training organisation

  22nd December 2017

  The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has disbanded its C-130J training unit in a major restructure of its Hercules training organisation. The RAAF disbanded No.285 …

Programme Results - Defence Insight

• Military UAS - rotary-wing, Military UAS - tactical

  ISTAR UAS project [Canada]

  Programme Background Objective The Royal Canadian Navy's (RCN) main significant UAV project is the RCN Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance Unmanned Aircraft System (RCN ...

• ISR/special mission

  MC-27J - Algeria

  Programme Background Algeria has a long standing ISR aircraft requirement to support its Beech 1900 fleet comprised of six aircraft. The new ISR fleet is ...

• Light attack, Trainer

  IAR-99 Replacement (Romania)

  On 29 August 2017, Leonardo announced that the IAR-99 trainer technology demonstrator (TD) will be fitted with company's Vixen 500E AESA radar. The Vixen 500E AESA ...

• Military UAS - mini, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  General-Purpose UAS [Australia]

  Programme Background Banned As reported by Shephard in August 2023, in the past, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) used commercial UAS from companies such as DJI for ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - mini

  Mini Reconnaissance Drones [Lithuania]

  Programme Background Planned Purchases On 14 September 2022, the Lithuanian MoD announced in a short statement on Twitter, now X, that it had begun organising ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  Small Reconnaissance Drones [Lithuania]

  Programme Background Planned Purchases On 14 September 2022, the Lithuanian MoD announced in a short statement on Twitter, now X, that it had begun organising ...

• Fighter - multirole

  F-16V (9-16) [Bulgaria]

  Programme Background In April 2022, the US State Department approved a potential FMS worth $1.673 million to procure eight F-16Vs to Bulgaria. The aircraft are ...

• AEW&C

  Airbus A330 AWACS (India)

  Programme Background India is planning to increase its AEW&C; capabilities with indigenous radar systems. IAF has requested to procure six Airbus 330 airliner to host ...

• Military UAS - rotary-wing, Military UAS - tactical

  Skeldar V-200 (ASW) [Canada]

  Programme Background Contract Award At Euronaval 2022, Shephard reported that UMS Skeldar and Ultra had been awarded a Phase 2 contract on 19 October to provide ...

• Military UAS - mini, Military UAS - rotary-wing, Military UAS - small

  Company Level Small Uncrewed Aircraft System (SUAS) Directed Requirement (DR) [US Army]

  Programme Background Requirement The US Army approved the Co-Level SUAS DR acquisition in June 2023 to supply Brigade Combat Teams with an "immediate, commercially available capability" to ...

• Military helicopters - transport/heavy lift

  AW101-Norway

  AgustaWestland is also providing initial support and training services, including spares at each of the operating bases and aircrew training. It will then provide performance ...

• Military UAS - rotary-wing, Military UAS - small

  Medium Range Reconnaissance (MRR) / Rucksack Portable UAS (RPUAS) [USA]

  The Rucksack Portable UAS (RPUAS) Programme The RPUAS programme will provide the battalion and below-ground manoeuvre elements within the US Army with an organic, on-demand ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing

  Replicator 2 [US]

  Programme Background 1.0 The Replicator programme is a US effort to field thousands of attritable, autonomous systems across multiple domains before the end of 2025 ...

• Maritime patrol

  Maritime Patrol Aircraft Procurement [Italy]

  Programme Background In an appearance before the Italian parliament’s Foreign and Defence Affairs Committee on 14 July 2022, Italian Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Adm ...

• Military UAS - micro, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  DEF129 (Nano UAS) [Australia]

  Programme Background DEF129 The Australian Ground Service has combined various army procurement efforts under the DEF129 programme to increase the abundance and proliferation of UAVs ...

Equipment Results - Defence Insight

• Medium Range Missile Defence Systems: 20-90km range

  Falcon Air Defence System

  Unveiled at IDEX 2019, Falcon is a medium range ground-based air defence system, including C-RAM and C-UAS capabilities. The Falcon consists of Lockheed Martin's Skykeeper ...

• Land: air defence radar, Land: battlefield and ground surveillance radar, Land: indirect fire location radar

  TMMR

  The Tactical Multi-Mission Radar (TMMR) is Leonardo’s C-band AESA radar designed for detecting, classifying, and tracking small, high-maneuvering targets. It’s designed for various applications, including counter-UAS, ...

• Air: AEW/fire control radar

  RBE2

  The AESA RBE2 is the first AESA radar produced in Europe for combat aircraft. The active phased array replaces the passive array in the RBE2 currently ...

• Counter-UAS systems

  C-UAS Solution

  The C-UAS Solution uses goniometry, radar technologies and various sensors to detect and remove UAS from the air. So far, the solution has been proven effective against ...

• Air: helicopter radar, Air: surveillance and maritime patrol radar

  AirMaster-C

  The AirMaster-C is a two-dimensional, AESA, airborne surveillance radar manufactured by Thales. It is marketed as a lightweight surveillance radar designed to be fitted to ...

• Land: RWS

  Pitbull

  General Robotics developed the lightweight Pitbull family of remote weapons station for use on aerial, land and naval crewed or uncrewed platforms. Armed with a single ...

• Counter-UAS systems

  Airfence 5.0

  Airfence 5.0 is a C-UAS RF technology released by Sensofusion. It is designed to protect airports, personnel, prisons and private companies from rogue UAS in ...

• Counter-UAS systems

  Howler C-UAS

  Developed by Raytheon, the Howler is a counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS), which includes a Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensor (KuRFS), a command-and-control system, and a Coyote ...

• Counter-UAS systems

  Cobham C-UAS

  Unveiled at the AUVSI 2017 trade show in Dallas, Texas, the Cobham C-UAS primarily consists of wideband omnidirectional, directional helix (single- or dual-band), directional flat ...

• Counter-UAS systems

  Skylock C-UAS

  Skylock, an Avnon Group company, has developed a C-UAS system that is intended to bring sensors, jammers and a laser effector into a single deployable ...

• Land: air defence radar

  iMOTR

  The Innovative Multiple-Object Tracking Radar (iMOTR) system has been designed to provide military test ranges with more accurate time, space and position information for several ...

• Land: air defence radar, Land: indirect fire location radar

  KRONOS Land

  KRONOS is a mobile multifunctional C-band radar system designed by Leonardo to support air and coastal defence tactical operations.  The system simultaneously performs surveillance, dedicated target ...

• EO/IR systems

  CM262

  Manfuaucted by AVT Australia, the CM262 is a ground-based imaging system combining four sensor configurations into a compact and ruggedised system for C-UAS and ISR ...

• Air: surveillance and maritime patrol radar

  Seaspray 7500E V2

  The Seaspray 7500E V2 is a long-range, maritime-focused multi-mode surveillance radar produced by Leonardo and manufactured in the UK. The system can rapidly interleave radar modes ...

• Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  Penguin C VTOL

  The Penguin C VTOL is the VTOL version of the Penguin C MIL Mk2; hence it is sometimes called the Penguin C Mk2 VTOL. Edge ...