Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. recently cut the ribbon on its new 100,000 square foot UAS production facility, which is located in the Will Rogers Business Park in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  According to Kratos, the new facility will be used to accommodate existing and expected increased demand for its newest line of high performance, jet powered unmanned aerial tactical and target UAS. Kratos says that over the next five years, it plans to hire at least 350 employees in Oklahoma. Kratos says that these employees will fill the “high-skilled engineering, design, and manufacturing functions” that will be needed to support the production contracts for these aircraft. 

The Army Research Laboratory has awarded Blake Stringer, Ph.D., assistant professor of aerospace engineering in Kent State’s College of Aeronautics and Engineering, a grant worth more than $130,000 to study propulsion systems for a new generation of intermediate-sized UAS. Currently, the military is limited to airplanes and helicopters when it needs to move people and supplies through the air. With this in mind, Dr. Stringer, who retired after 20 years in the Army, will work with Army Research Laboratory consultants and researchers at the University of Tennessee to see how plausible it is to create a UAS that is somewhere in between the size of the military's current aviation options.

During a ceremony at Naval Air Station Patuxent River’s Webster Outlying Field on Oct. 18, the U.S. Navy commissioned its first UAS test and evaluation squadron. Known as Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (UX) 24, the new unit flies over 23 fixed and rotary wing UAS, including the MQ-8 Fire Scout, RQ-20 Puma, RQ-21 Blackjack and RQ-26 Aerostar. The ceremony marked UX-24’s official transition from what was formerly known as NAWCAD’s UAS Test Directorate, which was previously overseen by Commander Matthew Densing. Under Densing’s leadership, the directorate executed more than 2,200 flight hours and 2,000 ground test hours in support of UAS developmental test.  During the ceremony, Cdr. Densing officially assumed leadership of UX-24.

​In an effort to create a global defense technology leader that focuses on developing “differentiated and mission critical solutions” for customers across the globe, Harris Corporation and L3 Technologies Inc. have agreed to combine in an “all stock merger of equals” that results in a combined company called L3 Harris Technologies Inc. Both companies are fully invested in the world of unmanned systems, as L3 recently acquired ASV Global—a USV and autonomous vessel control systems company—to create L3 ASV, while Harris is an FAA-approved vendor of the LAANC service, which provides UAS with access to the controlled airspace near airports.