• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Sea Hunter in new performance trials

  27th July 2016

  Leidos has completed initial performance trials of Sea Hunter, a technology demonstration vessel being developed for DARPA's Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) programme, …

• Digital Battlespace

  Raytheon working on next-gen airborne comms

  27th July 2016

  Raytheon BBN Technologies is working on new technologies to support seamless communication between the next generation of manned and unmanned flying aircraft, even in hostile …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  UK ScanEagles to be refurbed, redeployed

  27th July 2016

  Some of the ScanEagle systems operated in recent years for the UK Royal Navy (RN) will be refurbished by manufacturer Insitu and made available to …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Queensland funds UAS tech development

  27th July 2016

  The government of Queensland, Australia, is looking to increase funding to advance UAS development for a number of civil markets, it was announced on 25 …

• Military Logistics

  HMAS Canberra embarks AAVs

  26th July 2016

  The Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Canberra, a Canberra-class landing helicopter dock ship, has embarked four US Marine Corps (USMC) Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV) off the …

• Training

  ADF PC-21 takes flight

  26th July 2016

  Pilatus Aircraft and Lockheed Martin have successfully completed the initial production test flight of the first Pilatus PC-21 single-turboprop advanced trainer aircraft for the Australian …

• Naval Warfare

  Russia in Baltic naval command change

  25th July 2016

  The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) earlier in July decided to remove more than 50 senior officers of the Baltic Fleet from their posts, which …

• Defence Helicopter

  V-280 for tomorrow's pilots

  22nd July 2016

  The V-280 Valor is a demonstrator born from many of the lessons learnt from the V-22 tiltrotor, but with the pilots of tomorrow in mind. Bell …

• Land Warfare

  Terrex eyes up MIV

  22nd July 2016

  Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK) is considering making a bid for the UK’s future Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) programme. A spokesperson from the company told Shephard …

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Facebook reaches unmanned milestone

  22nd July 2016

  Social media giant Facebook has completed the first full-scale test flight of its high-altitude UAV, Aquila, the company announced on 21 July. The test flight …

• Training

  Thales to modernise German shooting simulators

  22nd July 2016

  Thales Deutschland has received an order worth $5.5 million from the German armed forces for the modernisation of its small arms/handheld antitank weapons shooting simulator …

• Naval Warfare

  Hong Kong modernises maritime monitoring

  22nd July 2016

  Hong Kong has beefed up its ability to monitor maritime traffic thanks to the installation of a new third-generation vessel traffic services (VTS) system. The …

• Defence Notes

  US approves SM-2 Block IIIB sale to Japan

  21st July 2016

  The US State Department has made a determination approving a potential foreign military sale of Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) Block IIIB missiles, equipment, and support to …

• Defence Notes

  US approves munitions sale to UAE

  20th July 2016

  The US State Department has made a determination approving a potential foreign military sale (FMS) of munitions, sustainment and support to the UAE for an …

• Naval Warfare

  CXO300 engine trials continue

  20th July 2016

  The Cox Powertrain CXO300 outboard engine, potentially destined for the Royal Navy (RN), is still undergoing trials ahead of a future launch and full production …

Programme Results - Defence Insight

• Military UAS - MALE

  Future Vertical Lift Maritime Strike (FVL-MS) [USA]

  Programme Background Requirement The FVL-MS programme seeks to develop and acquire a family of systems, including crewed and uncrewed aircraft, to replace rotary life aircraft utilised ...

• Tiltrotors

  V-22 Osprey [Japan]

  Programme Background Procurement Contracts The Japanese government is the first export customer of the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, having ordered 17 helicopters from the US across ...

• Loitering munitions

  Launched Effects - Short Range (LE-SR) [US]

  Background Air-launched effect (ALE) In 2022, the US sought a family of systems comprising an air vehicle, payload, mission systems applications and support equipment to ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  MQ-8C Fire Scout (USA)

  Programme Background Timeline According to the Naval Air Systems Command, having first ordered the MQ-8B in 2009, the UAV has become a pillar of the ...

• Military UAS - small

  Heavy Lift Capability (UASHLC) [UK]

  Programme Background Requirement & Objective The RN identified a requirement to acquire an RPAS to transport cargo and supplies between ships and personnel. When mature, it ...

• Military UAS - tactical

  Heavy Lift UAV [Germany]

  Background  Victor U250 agreement On 10 June 2026, at ILA Berlin, Rheinmetall, ERC Systems, and the North Rhine-Westphalia state formed a strategic partnership to lay ...

• Loitering munitions

  Launched Effects - Medium Range (LE-MR) [US]

  Background Air-launched effect (ALE) In 2022, the US sought a family of systems comprising an air vehicle, payload, mission systems applications and support equipment to ...

• Military UAS - small

  Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) (Increment 1) [USA]

  Programme Background Programme Objective The Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) was to provide a tactical ISTAR capability for US Army Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs). It was ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  Project Proteus [UK]

  Background Requirements The RN requires an uncrewed helicopter to test the viability of larger uncrewed aircraft, possibly providing an alternative to crewed aircraft such as the ...

• Military UAS - tactical

  Heavy Lift VTOL (HVTOL) [US Army]

  Background USMC First, Army Second In September 2021, Kaman unveiled its Kargo UAV, specifically designed to meet the requirements of the Medium Aerial Resupply Vehicle – Expeditionary ...

• Military helicopters - transport/heavy lift

  Heavy-lift Helicopter STH [Germany]

  Background Requirement The German government issued a tender in March 2019 for the procurement of heavy-lift helicopters under the Schwerer Transporthubschrauber (STH) program, 60 units are ...

• Military helicopters - multirole

  Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) (MV-75 Cheyenne II) [USA]

  Programme Background US Army's Future Vertical Lift Programme The FLRAA is one of three strands of a broader army programme. The others are the Future ...

• Military UAS - small

  Intra-Theatre Lift [UK]

  Background  Relationship to the Heavy Lift Challenge The Royal Navy (RN) embarked on the Heavy Lift Challenge, now called the Heavy Lift Capability (UASHLC), to explore cargo-carrying ...

• Military helicopters - transport/heavy lift

  CH-47F CHINOOK [USA]

  Programme Background As the Army's only heavy-lift helicopter, the CH-47F Improved Cargo helicopter is an essential component of the Army's Multi-Domain Battle framework. The CH-47F ...

• Transport

  Large Transport Aircraft-II (LTA-II) [South Korea]

  Programme Background Requirements The aircraft are needed for peacetime, international peacekeeping, emergency and combat operations. They are especially required to ensure a strategic lift capacity ...

Equipment Results - Defence Insight

• Military UAS - MALE

  Korean Future Vertical Lift (KFVL)

  Unveiled at KADEX 2024, the Korean Future Vertical Lift (KFVL) is a family of uncrewed helicopters from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). Despite being in the ...

• Military UAS - tactical

  Aerosonde Mk 4.8 HQ FTUAS

  From the Texton family of Aerosonde UAS, the Aerosonde Mk 4.8 Hybrid Quad (HQ) FTUAS is a tactical drone purpose-built to meet the US Army's Future Vertical Lift ...

• Military UAS - tactical

  HQ-60

  Similarly to other platforms in the L3 Technologies Hybrid Quadrotor (HQ) and Fixed-Wing Rotator family (see separate entries) of VTOL fixed-wing UAVs, the HQ-60 has ...

• Military helicopters - multirole

  SB-1 Defiant

  The SB-1 Defiant is a Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) aircraft. Sikorsky and Boeing announced in February 2013 that they would submit a joint proposal ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  V-247 Vigilant

  The V-247 Vigilant is a tiltrotor UAV from Bell. Officially introduced in 2016, it features an open modular architecture and can host several payloads. These include ...

• Air: Displays

  F-15 Replacement Vertical Situation Display

  BAE Systems Replacement Vertical Situation Display (RVSD) replaces the legacy VSD units on F-15E aircraft. The AMLCD display offers a larger display size and is compatible ...

• Air: Helmet-mounted displays

  X-Sight

  Elbit X-Sight is a developmental helmet-mounted display system designed for helicopters. According to the manufacturer, it will offer a high field of view and colour binocular ...

• Military helicopters - multirole, Military UAS - tactical

  Hexa

  The Hexa, or LIFT Hexa, is a rotary-wing aircraft developed by LIFT Aircraft for military and commercial markets. Due to its configuration and triple redundant autopilot computer, ...

• Military UAS - small

  H6 Poseidon

  Manufactured by Swarmly, the H6 Poseidon is a fixed-wing VTOL-capable UAV. The second largest member of the Poseidon family, the vertical lift is provided through ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  DrN-600

  The DrN-600 is a medium-lift cargo UAV developed by Singapore-based manufacturer ST Engineering. The platform combines vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) with wing-borne forward flight and ...

• Military UAS - tactical

  Victor U250

  The Victor U250 is a heavy lift drone in development by ERC Systems. The UAV has been developed by ERC for critical mission applications including ...

• Light UGVs

  Avenger

  In January 2017, Med-Eng announced the launch of a new bomb disposal and tactical robot, called the Avenger, at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas. ...

• Military UAS - mini

  Veloce-15

  The ST Engineering Veloce-15 (V-15) is a hybrid fixed-wing UAV with four rotors for vertical lift and a tail-mounted two-bladed pusher propeller for horizontal propulsion.  ...

• Military UAS - mini

  Loong 2

  The Loong 2 is a rotary-wing mini-UAV manufactured by LoongUAV. Designed for ISR missions, the UAV features a universal plug-and-play standardised interface, meaning a lot of different ...

• Military UAS - MALE

  Proteus

  Proteus is a technology demonstrator that Leonardo is developing in collaboration with the UK MoD's Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S;) Future Capabilities Group and the ...