PARIS – Italian aviation firm Piaggio Aero unveiled Tuesday the HammerHead unmanned aircraft system along with Selex ES here at the Paris Air Show marking the first time an Italian company has developed a large scale UAS.
The international market continues to demand medium to large sized unmanned aircraft. It’s a market that U.S. and Israeli defense firms have dominated. [Continue reading…]
PARIS — Raytheon Co. is pitching a futuristic new uniform system featuring a helmet-mounted monocle that would let troops target air strikes simply by moving their head and pressing a button.
The system, unveiled this week at the Paris Air Show, is designed for the joint terminal attack controller. Called the Advanced Warfighter Awareness for Real-time Engagement, or AWARE, it features a transparent monocle display attached to a helmet, small computer affixed to the chest and smart phone-like device on the wrist.
“Everything here is based on current technology and an open architecture,” Todd Lovell, an engineer and technical director in the intelligence, information and services unit at the Waltham, Mass.-based company. The helmet display is made by Lumus Ltd., based in Rehovot, Israel.
The Raytheon unit in 2012 generated about $6 billion of the company’s overall revenue of $24 billion, according to John Harris, vice president and general manager of the segment.
The company gave demonstrations of the system to reporters and other show attendees. Officials said the Air Force may begin a competition later this year to further develop or buy the equipment. Other contractors such as General Dynamics Corp. may also be interested in bidding for the work.
Similar to screens already installed in aircraft and vehicles, the system would allow a service member on the ground to digitally mark a target such as a building or vehicle. The coordinates could then be instantly relayed to a fighter jet or armored vehicle to carry out a strike.
Indeed, next to the ground display was another of an F-16 cockpit, which as part of the simulation fired a laser-guided missile that struck and blew up the target. The system can also track other objects such as friendly forces.
The number of airmen or special operations forces in the U.S. military who would probably use the gear ranges from 1,000 to 5,000, according to Rimas Guzulaitis, director of business development for the unit.
The system is designed to make troops more aware of their surroundings by giving them three-dimensional visual and audio data, according to a brochure distributed by the company. Ultimately, it’s about improving the safety of troops and their effectiveness in combat, Guzulaitis said.
Writing down coordinates from a map and relaying them verbally “can inject errors into the system,” he said. If you can make the process easier, he said, “you cut through the fog of war.”
PARIS — Executives at Boeing Co. dismissed a recent audit of the P-8 Poseidon program that found the Navy needs to conduct more “critical testing” before buying production models of the submarine-hunting plane.
“I wouldn’t read anything into that,” Chris Raymond, vice president of business development and strategy for Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security unit, said in a June 16 briefing with reporters at the company’s Paris offices before the start of the Paris Air Show. “Between us and the Navy, we still feel like we’re very on track with the flight test program. It’s going well.” [Continue reading…]
PARIS — Drone-maker General Atomics will sell an unarmed version of its Predator unmanned system to the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the Middle East as part of a plan to boost international sales, a vice president said.
The drone, called the Predator XP, is equipped with radar and sensors to offer wide-area surveillance but not weapon systems such as laser-guided bombs or air-to-ground missiles, according to Christopher Ames, director of international strategic development for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., based near San Diego. [Continue reading…]
PARIS — The U.S. military over the next decade may sell as many as 100 of the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to international customers, the program manager said.
The military is already in discussions with “more than three” countries interested in buying the aircraft, which takes off like a helicopter and flies like an airplane, Marine Corps Col. Greg Masiello, who manages the V-22 program, said on June 17 during a press conference with reporters at the Paris Air Show. [Continue reading…]
