AeroVironment Inc. has announced a new strategic relationship with General Dynamics Land Systems (GD) to produce “highly integrated and effective” tactical UAS and tactical missile systems (TMS) for armored ground combat vehicles. “By integrating the leading small tactical UAS and loitering missile systems with the leading armored combat vehicles, our team will deliver a new level of battlefield lethality, survivability and combat effectiveness to protect and enable the warfighter,” explains Kirk Flittie, vice president and general manager of AeroVironment’s UAS business.

A team from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) will compete in the systems track of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Subterranean Challenge. A multi-year robotics competition with a $2 million prize, the Subterranean Challenge will task robots to autonomously search tunnels, caves and underground structures. The Carnegie Mellon team, which includes a member from Oregon State University, is one of just six teams that will receive up to $4.5 million from DARPA to develop the robotic platforms, sensors and software needed to accomplish these “unprecedented underground missions.”

During the Air Force Association’s annual Air, Space and Cyber Conference, Insitu announced its Integrator Extended Range UAS. The UAS, which is a beyond line of sight (BLOS), SATCOM-enabled small UAS capable of “ranging modern combat theaters,” delivers Group 4 and 5 capabilities in a Group 3 aircraft. Some of these capabilities include “high quality, full motion video on par with current ISR systems while flying at acoustically and visually undetectable altitudes; bandwidth throughput up to 10 megabits per second with a less than 1.5 second latency,” and a significantly reduced manpower footprint for operations, as it only takes a team of 12 operators, maintainers and mission commanders to operate the system. 

The U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) has awarded Robotic Research a five-year $50 million contract for Autonomous Unmanned Systems Teaming & Collaboration (AUSTC) for the Counter-WMD Mission in challenging subterranean and other environments. Robotic Research is a Maryland-based engineering and technology company that provides autonomy software and robotic technology to several Federal and commercial customers.   AUSTC builds on prior and ongoing Robotic Research Small Business Innovative Research contracts—also with ARDEC—in support of the Mobile Autonomous Counter-WMD System, Increment B (MACS-B).