ASIAN DEFENCE: UAV

Showing posts with label UAV. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Russian Military Servicemen are being Trained to Operate Israeli UAVs

8:58 PM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

Some 50 Russian military servicemen are undergoing training in the use of Israeli-built unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said. Earlier on Monday, Russia and Israel signed a military cooperation agreement."We have bought 12 UAV systems from Israel, and 50 servicemen are currently being trained to operate them," Serdyukov said during a meeting with his visiting Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak.

Under the first contract, signed in April 2009, Israel delivered two Bird Eye 400 systems (worth $4 million), eight I View MK150 tactical UAVs ($37 million) and two Searcher Mk II multi-mission UAVs ($12 million).The second contract was for the purchase of 36 UAVs, worth a total of $100 million, to be delivered later this year.Russia and Israel are currently negotiating the establishment of a joint venture to produce UAVs, worth an estimated $300 million.Russian Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin said in April that Russia had spent about 5 billion rubles ($172 million) on the development of indigenous drones, which eventually failed their tests.
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RAAF operated Heron crashed at Kandahar airfield

9:30 PM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

DEFENCE covered up the crash of an unmanned spy plane in Afghanistan that left taxpayers with a $1.2 million repair bill.On June 4 this year, a Canadian-built remotely-piloted Heron aircraft operated by the RAAF crashed short of the airfield at Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. There were no injuries.Defence also chose to hide the details of a second Heron crash, this time by an Australian undergoing training in Alberta, Canada, in July. The aircraft was a write-off.Defence admitted that the Kandahar crash had occurred but refused to provide details of the repair bill for "commercial in confidence" reasons.
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Singapore Armed Forces Deploys UAVTask Group to Afghanistan

7:59 AM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has deployed a 52-man Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Task Group to Tarin Kowt, the provincial capital of Uruzgan, and a team of four institutional trainers to Kabul as part of Singapore's overall contribution to the multinational stabilisation and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

The UAV Task Group, which commences operations today, will be deployed for three months, from August to November 2010. The four institutional trainers, who started their operations a week earlier, will be deployed till December 2010. They will then hand over to a second rotation of institutional trainers who will be deployed for four months till April 2011.

Elbit scaling back UAV division

2:58 AM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

Elbit Systems is moving workers from its unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturing division due to a decline in its backlog of orders. About 100 employees are leaving the division for other positions within the company. Elbit Systems explains that nobody is being fired.Elbit Systems makes small- and medium-sized remotely piloted vehicles. The company lost a $350 million Brazilian contract to Israel Aerospace Industries late last year. Also, negotiations to supply UAVs to a certain "eastern" state have dragged on.

Turkey Continues Heron UAV Programme with Israel

1:56 AM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

Turkey has decided to maintain its military unmanned aerial vehicle programme with Israel despite what government officials have described as the worst crisis with Israel in 20 years."Nobody should expect us to declare war on Israel because of this incident," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said, adding the Turkish Defense Ministry would not block the delivery of Israeli UAVs to Ankara's military. Turkey has already paid most of the $190 million for the procurement of 10 Heron UAVs from the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries and Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul IAI has already delivered six Heron medium-altitude, long-endurance UAVs for his forces. He said the Herons, with an endurance of up to 50 hours, have been deemed operational.

Iran Unveils "Karrar" Drone

10:37 AM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

Third UAV Crash in Afghanistan in One Month

1:56 AM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

An unmanned plane of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) crashed in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province on Wednesday, a statement of the alliance released here said. "An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed in the Sharan district of Paktika province today," the statement added. The cause of the crash was mechanical failure, it emphasized. A recovery force was immediately sent to retrieve the UAV. The wreckage was recovered, the statement added. It is the third pilotless plane has crashed over the past one month in Afghanistan. Previously two such unmanned planes were crashed in the northern Kunduz province.

Azerbaijan to Buy Turna UAVs from Turkey

7:45 AM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

Azerbaijan will buy Turna unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for training and target practice from Turkey, the Baku based ARA news agency reported. "Negotiations on a deal are underway with Turkey," Turkish military sources were quoted as saying. They also said a group of Azerbaijani servicemen had been trained in Turkey in how to use, operate and service the aircraft. Turna aircraft are manufactured by Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI).

India Begins hunt for Mini Killer Drones

11:07 PM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

Australia to Purchase 18 RQ-7B Shadow 200 UAVs

11:03 PM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

AUSTRALIAN troops in Afghanistan will be better protected by a fleet of spy planes under a new $175 million deal.Defence Minister John Faulkner will today announce that the Government has approved the purchase of 18 RQ-7B Shadow 200 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and support systems.It is part of a $1.1 billion plan announced in the May budget to boost force protection for diggers serving in Afghanistan.It comes on top of a $32 million lease deal for a C-RAM warning radar to counter rocket and mortar attacks.

Turkish Medium Altitude Long Endurance Anka UAV

10:12 PM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

The Anka UAV, which has a 17.3-meter wingspan, is eight meters long and has a maximum payload of 200 kilograms, will make its maiden flight in October and reach initial operating capability with the Turkish Air Force in September before reaching full operating capability in December 2012, TAI said at the Farnborough Air Show.

TAI sister company Aselsan is supplying the UAV's EO/IR pod and SAR/GMTI radar, while TAI is providing a ground control station, a mobile set-up for exploiting imagery and remote visual terminals supplying real-time imagery to ground troops.

The Anka will have automatic take-off and landing and autonomous flight capabilities, as well as retractable landing gear, a heavy fuel engine, line-of-sight navigation with a range of 200 kilometers and deicing capability.

"There is a high interest in this UAV from export customers and we are prepared to invite them to join the program at observation or associate level," said TAI CEO Muharrem Dortkasli.

UAVs Failed to Make to Monitor Movement of Naxals

9:30 PM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) used successfully by the US in Afghanistan against al-Qaeda have, however, failed to make any impact in the dense forests of the country to monitor movement of Naxals.The security forces which are trying various UAVs over the terrain dotted by thick foliage in Maoist-affected states to track the movement of the ultras have not found a machine which could penetrate the forest cover and give them the desired intelligence.

"We have not been able to acquire any such equipment... surveillance equipment... which would tell the movement of people from air borne vehicles... UAVs... from under the cover of thick foliage," Additional Director General of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD), P C Sabarwal, said at an internal security conference here.The BPRD is the national agency under the central government which looks after modernisation of police forces and takes up new areas of research in subjects related to policing.

German Heron UAV Pilots Train in Israel

2:36 AM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

Worried by insurgent ambushes on its soldiers in Afghanistan and return fire that sometimes kills civilians or local allies, Germany last year ordered a small fleet of Israeli Heron spy drones designed to provide real-time images above a battlefield."It's for the need of the ground troops, for our own protection, like convoy protection," said a Luftwaffe (air force) major, who formerly flew a Tornado fighter-bomber on Afghan reconnaissance missions and could not be named due to military secrecy.

General Atomics Wins Approval to Sell First Predator Drones in Middle East

8:32 PM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

By Gopal Ratnam

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. said it won U.S. approval for an export version of the Predator drone, clearing the way for the first sales of the unmanned aircraft in the Middle East. “There’s interest from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates,” Frank Pace, president of the aircraft systems group at the closely held company, said today in an interview at the Farnborough Air Show near London.

General Atomics recently received U.S. State Department approval to offer an unarmed Predator model to countries beyond the NATO bloc, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Pace said. That would allow sales in the Middle East and elsewhere to governments previously ineligible to buy the planes, he said. General Atomics see the potential for sales of as many as 100 units in the Middle East and Pakistan of the so-called Predator XP model approved for export, Pace said. “Saudi Arabia is a huge country, and if they want to cover the country well, they alone could get 50 aircraft,” Pace said.

News Report On "TIHA" MALE UAV

8:17 AM ASIAN DEFENCE 1 comment

Turkey Unveils "TIHA" MALE UAV

Turkey Unveils "TIHA" MALE UAV

5:04 AM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

Turkey on Friday unveiled its first drone airplane, a surveillance craft able to fly for 24-hour stretches over the rugged mountains where Kurdish rebels are waging a deadly insurgencay.

Turkey's eagerness to produce its own military technology mirrors its increasingly robust and independent diplomacy in the region. And producing its own drone fleet would allow Turkey to sever an important link with Israel, which has provided Turkey with drones even amid rising tensions over Israeli policy toward the Gaza Strip.

While the success of the Turkish-made drone is far from assured, Turkish engineers said they were confident it would become part of the country's arsenal. Ozcan Ertem, head of the project, said an armed version of the Anka, or Phoenix, was possible but not in the works for now.

India May Request for FMS of MQ-8B Fire Scout VTUAS

10:19 PM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

India is planning to issue a letter of request to the U.S government for a U.S. foreign military sale (FMS) of Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical takeoff unmanned aerial system (VTUAS).The Indian government is expected to send a request via the U.S Embassy for FMS clearance, as “the technology is not for release,” an Indian navy official says. Northrop has made presentations on the system over the past few years to the Indian navy and army.

Flight Demonstrations of MQ-8B Fire Scout VUAS in United Arab Emirates

7:28 PM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

With the support of the United States Navy, Northrop Grumman Corporation and its industry partners (Sikorsky/Schweizer, Rolls-Royce, Raytheon, FLIR Systems, Cubic, Kearfott, Rockwell-Collins, General Electric, Sierra Nevada, Telephonics, and L-3 Communications) today successfully completed a rigorous set of flight demonstrations of the MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical unmanned aerial system (VUAS) in the United Arab Emirates under extreme environmental conditions.

The test flights were conducted in early July over a ten day period in the United Arab Emirates. They validated Fire Scout's steady system maturation and helped signal its readiness for the U.S. Navy's upcoming Operational Evaluation of the system, planned for late 2010 aboard the USS Halyburton (FFG-40).

"We welcome Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy to the UAE for continued testing of the Fire Scout," said Ali Al Yafei of ADASI (Abu Dhabi Autonomous Systems Investment). "As a VUAS, Fire Scout has many unique capabilities to offer and we're looking forward to reviewing the results of this in-country testing."

Turkey Seeks Unmanned Aircraft Project with Pakistan‎

2:49 PM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

Turkey's Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Wednesday Turkey hoped to cooperate with Pakistan on unmanned aircraft. "We will now modernize F-16 jets, and we hope to cooperate on unmanned aircraft," Gonul said during his meeting with Pakistan's Minister of Defense Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar in Ankara.Before their tete-a-tete meeting, Gonul said Turkish and Pakistani defense ministries were cooperating not only in defense industry but also in other military issues.

Falco UAV of Pakistan Air Force Crashes

10:08 AM ASIAN DEFENCE No comments

A Falco Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) of the Pakistan Air Force has crashed on Tuesday when it was on routine flight at 11:45am. The wreckage of the Falco Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was found in a garden by local villagers.

According police tis incident has caused no loss of life or property. Pakistan Air Force have ordered in investigation of the crash after removing the UAV’s wreckage. The Falco UAV was included in Pakistani air force in 2009 for optronic and electronic surveillance applications.