The drone operations management platform provides information on 3D vertical structures and obstacles, and access to digital airspace, to improve drone flight safety.
Skyward’s drone airspace maps provide airspace data combined with essential ground intelligence including 3D views of key structures, transmission lines, and more than a million vertical obstacles.
The platform also provides access to LAANC, the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability program provided by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Drone pilots in the field need to know how the surrounding area, including infrastructure, could affect flight, and Skyward offers this critical safety data to all users.
“Showing airspace is important, but it’s only part of the picture. The more intelligence that is available to understand how an area will affect the flight, the less risk a pilot has in the field,” said Mariah Scott, president of Skyward. “Skyward Airspace Intelligence is the only solution that provides easy-to-understand data for things like transmission lines, runways, over a million vertical obstacles, and a 3D view of key structures. It’s the next best thing to physically being in the field.”
In addition to comprehensive airspace information, the following data is now available for situational awareness:
Vertical structure obstacles (over one million structures identified from the FAA and FCC databases)
Major power transmission lines
Airports
Runways
Heliports
U.S. and Canadian National Parks
Stadiums
Hospitals
Schools
Pedestrian walking paths
Skyward Airspace Intelligence is part of a complete workflow that enables pilots mitigate weather, environment and business-specific risks.
The MQ-9B SkyGuardian will participate in NASA-sponsored flight tests in 2020. (Photo: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems)
The defense segment is going from strength to strength — despite a phase not too long ago when defense spending appeared to be dropping. Widespread drone use received a boost with specialized equipment developed for defense forces applications.
The Predator Advances
The General Atomics Predator has gone from a long-distance loiter-and-observe UAV to frontline precision-strike capability, and has been adopted by many military forces around the world.
From first flights in 1994 to initial production in 1997, the Predator has now evolved into many configurations equipped with piston engine, turboprop and jet; line-of-sight radio and satellite command and control; synthetic aperture radar and multi-spectral targeting system; video, TV and thermographic cameras; and laser designators and other payloads.
From pure reconnaissance to various strike and attack configurations, the names have also changed. Predator, Reaper, Gray Eagle, Avenger, Protector, Guardian and SkyGuardian have a host of RQ/MQ designations. For instance, In the RQ-4 Global Hawk name, the “R” means reconnaissance, the “Q” means unmanned aircraft, and the “4” is the series.
The SkyGuardian version of the Predator is a certifiable variant anticipated to ultimately become fully authorized for controlled airspace. It will take part in the NASA Systems Integration and Operationalization (SOI) demonstration program in mid-2020, which will highlight commercial UAS missions using larger drones in the national airspace.
The Predator family has now been evolving for more than 25 years. Unfortunately, the popularity of the Predator family of military unmanned aircraft has led to recent headline news about Predators shot down in the Gulf of Hormuz, or crashed in Afghanistan — such is the price of success!
Global Hawk Gathers Intel
The Northrop Grumman Global Hawk has become a U.S. mainline, high-altitude intelligence gathering asset, deployed by both the U.S. Air Force (RQ-4 Global Hawk) and Navy (MQ-4C Triton). Other friendly nations have also shown various levels of interest in acquiring variants, including Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea.
Northrop Grumman has reintroduced the Firebird as a contender in the airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) field. The Firebird can be configured as unmanned (ground control), autonomous or piloted, and has payload flexibility through open architecture, plug-and-play integration.
The North Dakota UAS test range facility at Grand Sky has initiated procurement of two Firebird UAVs, which they intend to supply to their customers for mapping, inspection and monitoring applications using their extensive, long-range BVLOS capabilities.
Skyborg Equipped with AI
And then there’s this U.S. Air Force Skyborg program, which aims to drag the most possible out of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation in an airborne fighter support roll. Kratos has flown the drone hardware a couple of times – the XQ-58A Valkyrie is a “low-cost” unmanned aircraft designed to fly alongside front-line attack aircraft like the F-35 and F-18.
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is researching the technology, new sensors, payloads and networking capability these drones will be outfitted with to fly alongside manned fighter jets.
A whole slew of other extremely capable drones are already being operated by the U.S. Army and Navy in a variety of support roles.
Anti-Drone Detection and Prevention
On the flip side, an entirely new related industry segment has come about in the last several years, usually adapting existing radar, sound, infrared or other ground detection systems.
This segment is aimed at circumventing unwelcome drone encroachment over sensitive facilities. Airports, governments, prisons, and energy and water utilities are among the facilities who want to prevent unwanted drones penetrating their airspace.
Solutions may be portable and short range, or ground-based and longer range, with the capability to take down an invading drone or detect where it came from and provide significant warning time.
One solution uses an attack drone that ensnares an intruder-drone in a net and brings it the defender’s location to support second-level investigations. Whatever the solution, drone defense is a growing field.
Skyfront’s Perimeter 4 long-range hybrid gas-electric drone this summer successfully performed the first civilian beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flight without visual observers under the FAA’s Part 107 rules.
The flight serves as a significant step toward the safe integration of unmanned aerial vehicles into the national airspace, according to the company.
During the round-trip flight, the Perimeter UAV flew over mountainous, rugged terrain along a four-mile stretch of the Trans-Alaska pipeline. The UAV maintained a constant above-ground altitude of 400 feet with multiple ascents and descents of 1,000 feet on 45-degree slopes. Radio-based telemetry, command and control of the vehicle was uninterrupted during the flight.
FAA representatives observed all aspects of the mission, including planning, system setup and ground-station operation. The Perimeter “did [the flight] safely, effectively and efficiently. It accomplished a beyond-visual-line-of-sight mission, and it was approved by the FAA,” said Robert Huber, program manager for the Integration Pilot Program (IPP) of the FAA.
“Today’s flight was a milestone in the unmanned community,” said Troy Mestler, CEO of Skyfront. “We at Skyfront are excited to be pushing the limits of unmanned aerial vehicles here in the United States.”
The Perimeter UAV was integrated with Iris Automation’s Casia collision avoidance system and was observed by Echodyne’s ground-based detect and avoid systems.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration purchased the UAV and organized the flight over the pipeline, with the approval of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.
Safely integrating autonomous drones into global airspace is the goal of Altitude Angel.
The company has completed its involvement in the Gulf of Finland (GOF) U-Space project, declaring the trials to have been a “huge success” and an “amazing showcase” of its unmanned traffic management (UTM) technologies.
The GOF U-space demonstrations are funded by the SESAR Joint Undertaking for European sky air traffic management research.
In July and August, advanced drone operational demonstrations took place across Estonia and Finland, showcasing use cases that involved both manned and unmanned aircraft in shared airspace. The demonstrations relied on systems such as Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM O/S to remain safe.
GuardianUTM, the company’s core system, is already helping drones operate in controlled airspace. It powers the UK’s national UTM system, operated by NATS, the UK’s main air navigation service provider.
Altitude Angel was a key UTM partner for the trials, providing services that included integration to the FIMS (flight information management system) for the transport of flight plans, telemetry/position reports, AIM (geofencing/volume reservations), as well as alerts and registration data to-and-from the drone operators and manned aviation which were involved in the trials.
Altitude Angel was able to demonstrate its UTM platform across a number of scenarios that varied in scope and range, and included:
urban drone fleet operations with police intervention,
long-distance multisensory inspection flights over forests,
urban drone operations in controlled airspace,
powerline inspection in rural areas, maritime search and rescue, and
international parcel delivery.
The demonstration series concluded with an urban Volocopter air taxi flight around Vantaa International Airport, Helsinki.
“We’ve been working with the SESAR team for over a year on this project. It’s been a great few months in Finland and Estonia supporting the live demonstrations which have been huge success and an amazing showcase of our world-leading UTM technologies,” said Simon Wynn-Mackenzie, Altitude Angel’s head of products.
“Not only did the scenarios give us another opportunity to demonstrate our production UTM platform in another real-life environment, they went a long way to showing the public how drones can be used in a positive and socially beneficial way on a daily basis,” Wynn-Mackenzie said.
“Our only disappointment was that we were not able to demonstrate our world-first Conflict Resolution Service which we unveiled in July, as the trial scenarios had already been agreed. However, we’ll be looking to showcase our constantly evolving platform and several new services very soon,” he said.
Other UTM demonstrations. In November 2018, Altitude Angel led the team behind Operation Zenith, which gave a view of the future of air traffic management and drone integration into busy, complex airspace, demonstrating how by using the right technology, it’s possible to safely integrate unmanned traffic into controlled airspace and open the skies to commercial airspace worldwide.
The U-space initiative. The GOF U-space project, with a broad consortium of 19 members, demonstrates Europe is on course with its implementation of U-space, an initiative that aims to ensure safe and secure drone traffic management, taking into account the rapid growth in the use of drones.
The GOF concept enables shared situational awareness for all aviation stakeholders. The success of the project is based on deep air traffic management experience of all consortium members, including three world-leading UTM technology vendors and two air navigation services providers, developing interoperability and data-sharing solutions that are aligned with SESAR’s overall U-space architecture.
The U-Space project has received funding from the SESAR Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Connection Europe Facility (CEF) programme under grant agreement SJU/LC/343-CTR.
SenseFly, a drone solutions provider, will be demonstrating its drone solutions at Intergeo 2019, which will take place Sept. 17-19 in Stuttgart, Germany.
According to the company, visitors to its booth will be able to explore the flexibility of senseFly’s eBee X drone and its role in optimizing GIS and surveying workflows to achieve high quality outputs, such as centimeter-precise 3D point clouds, orthomosaics and digital surface models.
Attendees will be able to learn about the range of payloads and software solutions the eBee X platform can be used with, including the senseFly Aeria X, senseFly Duet T, senseFly S.O.D.A., senseFly S.O.D.A. 3D, MicaSense RedEdge-MX and Parrot Sequoia.
The senseFly team will also be hosting a series of Meet the Experts sessions on-stand featuring guest speakers and demos from senseFly partners such as Pix4D, ALLNAV and Harxon. The 10-minute talks will be followed by Q&A sessions.
“Our expert team also enables us to deliver the knowledge and insight our users need to navigate the changing landscape as drone technology continues to garner greater public and legislative attention worldwide,” said Gilles Labossière, CEO of senseFly. “Our customers’ needs are constantly evolving, and it’s vital for us to ensure that our products and solutions are as dynamic and versatile as they are to meet their unique and complex challenges.”
SenseFly’s can be found at booth B3.078, Hall 3, at Intergeo 2019.
The FALCon research project has already carried out initial flight experiments with unmanned small aircraft. (Photo: German Aerospace Center)
The parachute safety solution manufacturer Drone Rescue Systems GmbH is supporting the European research project FALCon, the “Formation flight for in-Air Launcher 1st stage Capturing demonstration.”
Under the leadership of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), research is being conducted on how launch vehicles can be returned to the launch site as efficiently as possible for re-use.
The aim of FALCon is to achieve cost-efficient and environmentally friendly satellite transport. The focus of the project lies on the return of rocket stages after launch. To be able to reuse these stages, efforts are being made to recapture them in the air using a “rocket catcher.”
For the next three years (March 2019 to February 2022) the focus will be on the development and flight demonstration of a technical solution for this idea. While still in the air, rocket stages are to be captured by a transport aircraft over the sea and pulled into the vicinity of the landing site. There, the stages are to land independently.
“We are proud to be part of the FALCon research project together with five international partners and DLR as part of HORIZON2020 (EC grant 821953), the EU’s largest research and innovation program to date. The capture and towing of rocket stages in flight, that is, an autonomous and safe landing, is a particularly interesting topic for us as a manufacturer of parachute safety solutions,” said Andreas Ploier, CEO of Drone Rescue Systems GmbH.
The research project has already carried out initial flight experiments with unmanned small aircraft.
Lynx–Lawrence & Mayo, an Indian engineering equipment providers, has expanded its portfolio to include specialized drones, through its partnership with ideaForge, India’s largest UAV manufacturer.
As part of the agreement, ideaForge’s drones equipped with more than a decade of UAV design expertise, will be accessible to Lynx – Lawrence and Mayo for applications across urban development, weather monitoring and testing, agro-technology and other sectors.
Developed by a team of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay graduates, ideaForge has been celebrated for its innovations in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) domain. It built a small, light autopilot in 2009 and India’s first autonomous quadcopter UAV. Their designs have led the development of world class, indigenous UAVs for security and surveillance, reconnaissance, mapping, photogrammetry and other industrial applications. Now, their UAVs even come with the capability to meet the DGCA regulations, to ensure NPNT compliance.
Through this partnership, Lynx–Lawrence & Mayo will have access to ideaForge’s fleet of UAVs for inspection, surveillance, traffic and crowd management, and disaster management. The fleet includes:
Switch UAV – A fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) hybrid for terrain-independent deployment with long range, high endurance and high altitude capabilities.
Q-Series UAV – Enterprise specialist VTOL quadcopter built with military design philosophies.
Ninja UAV – Lightweight and economical micro UAV built specifically for mapping and advanced surveillance.
Netra Pro – Rugged quadcopter for maximum redundancy in extreme conditions.
Netra V-Series – Field-proven UAVs for mission-critical applications, integrated with high zoom HD real-time video transmission.
“We at Lynx have been driving innovation and excellence in advanced precision equipment for engineering and industry. With the addition of innovative UAVs from ideaForge, we are delighted to add a range of advanced and futuristic drones to our portfolio,” said Glenford D’souza , Lynx senior general manager. “We will be strategically deploying these products to create an integrated and specialised service/solution offering to our existing and potential clients. We look forward to a long term and fruitful partnership.”
IdeaForge has deployed more than 700 systems and has trained more than 1,200 pilots in services including the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force; state police forces; Indian railways; and many more agencies.
IdeaForge drones have been used in defense and homeland security for border monitoring, anti-terror operations, counter insurgency operations, disaster management, traffic monitoring, campus surveillance, crowd management and more.
With the flexibility to customize their drones for an array of requirements, ideaForge also provides end-to-end UAV solutions and services to the industrial and commercial sectors.
Kansas receives approval for first beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone flight in the nation using only onboard detect and avoid.
The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) has received permission to conduct the first beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone operation in the nation leveraging only onboard detect-and-avoid systems.
This is the first U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorized operation to fly without a requirement for visual observers or ground-based radar. It is the result of the 31-member Kansas UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP) team efforts to advance drone technologies.
In a collaborative effort among Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus (K-State Polytechnic), Westar Energy, Iris Automation and KDOT, the Kansas IPP team will fly a nine-mile track to evaluate technologies to inspect power lines in rural Kansas. This approval is the first of its kind for long line linear infrastructure and is the first step to enable routine commercial infrastructure inspection across the state.
This is the first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight to leverage onboard sense and avoid systems alone for collision avoidance. It also marks the first required automated avoidance action.
Historically, all FAA-issued Part 107 BVLOS waivers have required visual observers or ground-based radar. These mitigations limit the possibility of true BVLOS flights, as they are typically prohibitively expensive and limit operations to pre-defined corridor areas with radar coverage.
This important milestone is facilitated by Kansas UAS IPP partner Iris Automation’s Casia onboard collision-avoidance system.
“The UAS industry has worked over 10 years to demonstrate the most significant commercial benefit of drone operations within the United States,” said Bob Brock, KDOT director of aviation. “We are proThe Applied Aviation Research Center on the K-State Polytechnic Campus, which assisted in development of the safety case that ultimately led to FAA approval, will be responsible for the training and flight operations with a cross-functional team from the KDOT IPP. Flights will take place over the next few months, providing the FAA with much-needed data on true BVLOS activity.d of the joint state, university and industry team that made this landmark decision possible.”
“The ability to fly BVLOS missions without ground-based radar or visual observers is a significant advancement, and Westar Energy views this as an opportunity to play a key role in shaping the future of UAS operations within the utility industry,” said Mike Kelly, Westar Energy Senior UAS coordinator. “Being able to operate under this waiver allows the Kansas IPP team the ability to research and develop truly scalable BVLOS UAS operations for the automated inspection of linear infrastructure.”
“We look forward to leveraging this waiver to integrate UAS technology into the transmission line inspection process,” said Kurt Carraway, UAS Executive Director of the K-State Polytechnic Applied Aviation Research Center. “We are certain that utilities will be able to quickly realize a return on investment while mitigating safety to their maintenance personnel and increasing the reliability of their infrastructure to the general public.”
“Flying rural missions like these without a human pilot onboard or costly radar on the ground is exponentially safer and more cost effective,” said Iris Automation CEO and Co-Founder Alexander Harmsen. “The FAA is trusting us to pave the way for a safer, scalable future together with this precedent-setting second approval of our system.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation selected Kansas Department of Transportation as one of nine participants in the FAA UAS IPP. This program allows state, local and tribal governments to conduct advanced UAS operations to gather data to assist the rulemaking process that will set the boundaries for UAS operations in the United States.
“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.
Photo: Nuro
Hey, R2, Where’s my pizza?
Domino’s pizza will start using Nuro’s R2 unmanned vehicles for delivery in Houston, Texas, later this year. Once customers have opted in, they can track the R2 vehicle via the Domino’s app and will be provided with a unique PIN code to unlock a compartment to get their pizza. Nuro is already at work in Houston delivering goods from dinner to dry cleaning.
Screenshot: BBC
Drone Attack
A BBC documentary has sent the drone industry into a tizzy. “Britain’s Next Air Disaster? Drones” begins with the December 2018 Gatwick Airport incident when two drones entering airport airspace led to a disruption of operations for three days. Dronemakers dislike the documentary’s thrust that drones are a threat to public safety and a tool for terrorists, while barely mentioning their positive contributions in fields such as search and rescue, plant inspections and agriculture.
Photo: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com
NavIC Rising
The Indian Space Research Organisation is in talks with chipmakers Qualcomm and Broadcom to substitute GPS in Indian mobile phones with its own satellite system (NavIC). The Times of India noted that cellphones hold the biggest commercial potential for NavIC, with more than 650 million mobile users in India. ISRO and the Indian Air Force are also working to equip fighter jets with the navigation system, and commercial vehicles registered after April 1 are mandated to have NavIC trackers.
Photo: Monitum Pty Ltd.
Infrastructure sensors are Mthing
Internet of things (IoT) project Mthing is researching GNSS monitoring sensors to record near-real-time measurements of infrastructure construction. The 18-month project in Brisbane, Australia, aims to develop GNSS IoT sensors that will provide cost-efficient, constant and high-precision monitoring that will connect to cloud services and provide instant alerts. Mthing aims to produce low-cost sensors with broad market potential. The research team includes Queensland University of Technology, survey company Monitum, and the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre.
EGNSS improves positioning integrity and accuracy for the Boreal drone. (Photo: GSA)
News from the European GNSS Agency
The Skyopener project, co-financed by the European GNSS Agency (GSA), aims to pave the way toward increased use of remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) in civil applications.
The project has tested the benefits of multi-frequency GNSS and EGNOS in RPAS, revealing gains in availability, accuracy and robustness.
There is increasing demand to operate RPAS over long distances because of their potential for a wide range of civil applications. However, regulation regarding RPAS use in civil airspace does not yet allow beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations, and remotely piloted aircraft are not allowed to fly in non-segregated civil airspace and are not yet widely used for civil and commercial applications.
This is something that Skyopener aims to change.
RPAS for civil applications. The project is developing operational processes that will reduce all categories of risks associated with RPAS and allow an air navigation service provider (ANSP) to manage very-low-level RPAS operations. Thanks to the benefits it offers in terms of improved integrity and positioning accuracy, EGNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) will play a central role in these processes.
Through these operational processes, Skyopener will contribute to the roadmap for the integration of civil RPAS into non-segregated airspace, which will have a huge impact on the service applications that can be offered by these aircraft.
“Systems that enable RPAS to fly safely, in compliance with regulations, will enable market access and significantly reduce the cost of insurance premiums for RPAS operators, making a wide range of RPAS applications more commercially attractive and widely used,” said Marc Pollina, CEO of Skyopener consortium member M3 Systems.
Excellent results. A test conducted by the project into the benefits of multi-frequency GNSS and EGNOS has delivered excellent results. The test found that the use of GPS and Galileo in L1/E1 and L5/E5 multi-frequency combinations provides improved availability, better accuracy and greater robustness against interference, as interference with one frequency band has no effect on the second.
What’s more, EGNOS helps meet increasingly stringent requirements for robust navigation, continuity, accuracy and availability — further complemented by Galileo’s multi-constellation capacity and integration with other sensors such as inertial or vision sensors.
The Boreal drone used in the project is a fixed-wing system that operates over a long range (more than 100 kilometers) in BVLOS, with EGNOS and Galileo enhancing navigation by improving positioning integrity and accuracy. In addition, the RPAS is equipped with a newly developed communication and navigation surveillance (CNS) system that combines use of GNSS, satcom and special security measures.
Essential GNSS. GNSS technologies are essential for RPAS. The primary need is obviously for navigation — the RPAS uses GNSS waypoints to follow the trajectory defined in its mission. However, GNSS also addresses other key needs, such as geofencing to ensure that the RPAS keeps within the mission parameters and surveillance to enable adequate tracking by the operator and civil aviation authority.
GNSS also enables high accuracy and, ultimately, automated landing and the geo-referencing of collected data. These benefits will increase in the future, with the Galileo authentication service reducing the risk of threats, and PPP data correction on E6 providing better geo-referencing.
Terra Drone Brazil, a group company of Japan-based Terra Drone Corp., has successfully completed Brazil’s first drone inspection of an offshore FPSO tank. The unmanned FPSO tank inspection was undertaken for Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras.
The ballast tank inspection using drones was conducted aboard P-66, a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit from Petrobras that is operating in the Pre Salt Area at Santos Basin. An FPSO is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil.
Petrobras needs its cargo and ballast tanks inspected regularly for maintenance. Any kind of corrosion, cracks, fractures or welding anomalies must be identified quickly before they can damage the structural integrity of the ship.
The drones are prepped for the tank inspection. The UAV inspection just over an hour. (Photo: Terra Drone)
Traditionally, this inspection is done by sending a team of up to four men inside the confined tank space using scaffolds or rope access. This kind of close-up visual inspection of one tank alone can take from half a day to a full day, and pose a safety threat to the workers inside the tank.
Using drones reduces the need for workers to enter the tank. “Not only is unmanned FPSO tank inspection safer, but it is also much quicker and more precise than manual inspection,” said Marcelo Belleti, executive director at Terra Drone Brazil. “Further, drone inspections for cargo tanks can lead to potential cost-savings as well.”
Terra Drone Brazil completed the inspection of a ballast tank for Petrobras in little over an hour with a team of only two men. The high-definition pictures and videos captured by the drone ensured a quality deliverable report for all 40 points pre-defined for the close-up inspection.
Terra Drone Brazil is certified by ABS (American Bureau of Shipping), DNV GL (Det Norske Veritas and Germanisher Lloyds) and Loyd’s Register as a service supplier approved for surveying using Remote Inspection Techniques (drones) as an alternative means for a close-up survey of the structure of ships and mobile offshore units. The Petrobras P-66 is ABS-certified.
With tariffs, trade wars and sanctions ruling the day, how is a self-respecting UAS manufacturer supposed to make a buck? And to whom are the manufacturers of defense UAS able to sell their wares?
To NATO and other friendly countries, comes the ready answer, but there may still be a problem selling drones with armaments and offensive capabilities. Another layer of governmental review could swing into action when a company wants to sell to friendly countries like Saudi Arabia or perhaps to allies within the old Russian USSR block.
Last year, General Atomics lost sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for Predators and/or Reapers, large-bodied medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft systems (or MALES). The deal went instead to a competing Chinese outfit. General Atomics complained bitterly about the loss of this business, which it blamed on restrictive U.S. export rules. The Administration responded by apparently loosening the regulations, in fact easing the way for most international sales. In response, it is possible that UAV manufacturers have also undertaken some changes which make U.S. drones even more competitive for export.
Business matters appear to have improved significantly. In May this year, the State Department actually used emergency provisions within the Arms Control Act to bypass Congressional review of a proposed sale to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan of a package of Insitu Blackjack drones and launchers, worth $80 million.
The competition for world-wide sales of U.S. UAS products is increasingly tough, especially against Chinese suppliers with equivalent or perhaps less capable mil-spec drones. Hence the export rule changes which now appear to be working in the right direction.
Chinese Drones in the U.S.
Meanwhile, in an effort to accommodate U.S. concerns about the potential for user data somehow “leaking” to DJI — the Chinese supplier of almost 75% of U.S. drone purchases — DJI has implemented a “Government Edition” which apparently addresses the risk of data loss.
When US-based 3D Robotics stopped supplying 3DR Solo drones, the Interior Department found itself in a bind, as it had already bought hundreds of these devices for its inspection/surveillance operations. As the department searched for a new source for UAVs, it came to the conclusion that U.S. supplied drones were much less capable or up to ten times more expensive than equivalent DJI units. So they began working with DJI to solve the issue with potential data loss, and went on to test the results extensively
Working with the U.S. Interior Department for over 18 months, DJI has equipped drones and their controllers with modified hardware and custom software that ensure that the drones only operate in local data mode: information collected in flight is stored on the UAV alone and must be manually downloaded after flight. The drone is actually loaded with custom software by the user prior to flight to ensure this mode of data collection.
Even with these modifications, for now the use of DJI drones is still restricted to non-sensitive applications.
USAF/Kratos XQ-58A
The XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator, a long-range, high subsonic UAV completed its inaugural flight March 5, 2019, at Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona. (Photo: U.S. Defense Department)
Kratos is working with the U.S. Air Force to develop a jet-powered UAV system that can fly alongside manned fighter aircraft to multiply their effectiveness. At much lower cost than manned aircraft, the concept appears to be that more risk can be taken with the ‘loyal wingman’ UAVs to not only support the mission of the attack aircraft, but to also keep it safe.
We reported earlier on the XQ-58A after its first flight in March of this year. Now the Valkyrie is back in the flight test program with its second flight lasting 71 minutes over the Yuma test range on June 11. In the long- erm, it is hoped that both ground controllers and flight crew would operate these extensively autonomous drones.
A parallel “Skyborg” program is also underway to develop the hardware and artificial intelligence software capability to enable this type of drone to fly and fight alongside manned aircraft.
In conclusion, trade wars and tariffs aside, let’s hope that good UAV products can still make headway on their merits alone.
