Through an $18.6 million contract sourced through the Dept. of Defense Man Transportable Robotic System Increment II (MTRS Inc II) program, the U.S. Marine Corps has ordered more than 140 of FLIR Systems’ Centaur UGVs, plus spares. Marine Corps Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams will use the UGVs to help with various hazardous tasks such as disarming improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance. Different sensors and payloads can be added to support several different mission types. Deliveries of the UGVs are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2020.

UAV Navigation and Sky Power have worked together to design flight control technologies. The companies recently came together and agreed to equip UAV Navigation’s Flight Control technologies with Sky Power’s Engine, which led to UAV Navigation’s flight control system being able to seamlessly integrate with Sky Power’s 2-stroke and Wankel engines. Thanks to this seamless integration, it is “extremely easy and convenient” to use these two systems together in one UAS platform, the companies say.

Northwest UAV (NWUAV) is adding Inertial Labs' positioning, navigation, and orientation technologies to its list of UAS technologies and services, thanks to a recently announced partnership between the two companies.  NWUAV says that Inertial Labs offers the “best value, smallest, most accurate, and lowest power consumption products.” As a result, the companies share a philosophy and commitment to providing the highest quality and best value building blocks for the unmanned industry. “We’re excited to partner with a company that shares our high standards for quality, value and performance,” says Inertial Labs Business Development Manager, Anton Barabashov.

To support the growing use of unmanned systems across the agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is establishing a new Unmanned Systems Operations Program. According to NOAA, the program will support the “safe, efficient and economical operation” of unmanned systems (UxS) that it uses to collect high-quality environmental data for its science, products and services. “Unmanned airborne and maritime systems are transforming how we conduct earth science at NOAA,” says retired Navy Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet, Ph.D., deputy NOAA administrator.