08 November 2021
by Richard Scott
DARPA and Dynetics have completed the first mid-air recovery of an X-61 Gremlins Air Vehicle. (DARPA)
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Dynetics have completed a first successful in-flight capture and recovery of an unmanned air vehicle under the agency's Gremlins programme.
A fourth round of flight tests performed last month at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, saw two X-61 Gremlin Air Vehicles (GAVs) fly in formation with a Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules before one was recovered to the aircraft.
Launched by DARPA's Tactical Technology Office in 2015, the Gremlins programme has been conceived to demonstrate the safe and reliable aerial launch and mid-air recovery of multiple low-cost reusable unmanned aerial systems from a larger ‘mother' aircraft. Dynetics, a subsidiary of Leidos, was downselected in April 2018 to deliver the Gremlins demonstration phase.
Dynetics' Gremlins solution involves deploying a towed, stabilised capture device below and away from a C-130 transport aircraft. The semi-autonomous X-61A GAV – supplied to Dynetics by Kratos Unmanned Systems Division – docks with the capture device. Once docked and powered off, it is raised up to the C-130 where it is mechanically secured and stowed.
23 April 2024
by Zach Rosenberg
The first of two Textron T-54s delivered to the US Navy, intended to replace the T-44s. The deliveries were announced on 22 April. (US Navy)
US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) accepted delivery of the first two Textron T-54 Multi-Engine Training System (METS) aircraft at Naval Air Station (NAS) Corpus Christi, Texas, the service announced on 22 April. The aircraft are set to begin training students at NAS Corpus Christi's Training Air Wing Four in boreal spring 2025, the US Navy (USN) told Janes .
The USN intends to operate 64 of the Textron King Air 200-based aircraft, which will replace the Textron T-44 as the service's main twin-engine pilot training aircraft. Deliveries are set to run through 2026, and the aircraft is meant to operate until 2055.
“This aircraft brings modernised training to student naval aviators and prepares them for the advanced aircraft they will fly in the fleet,” said Captain Duane Whitmer, USN programme manager.
17 April 2024
by Jeremiah Cushman
A computer-generated image of the Hypersonix Launch Systems scramjet-powered DART hypersonic testbed. (Hypersonix Launch Systems)
Hypersonix Launch Systems, headquartered in Brisbane, is building a hypersonic test vehicle for the Defense Innovation Unit's (DIU's) hypersonic and high-cadence testing capabilities (HyCAT) programme. DIU issued a solicitation for the project in September 2022. Hypersonix Launch Systems was awarded a contract for scoping the work in March 2023, and a launch contract in September 2023, Matt Hill, Hypersonix Launch Systems CEO, told Janes on 9 April at the Navy League Sea-Air-Space 2024 global maritime exposition in National Harbor, Maryland.
The programme calls for an airborne test vehicle “that can maintain speeds above Mach 5 with a manoeuvrable/non-ballistic flight profile and at least a three-minute flight duration with near-constant flight conditions”, according to a DIU statement in April 2023.
Construction of the first DART air vehicle is under way, and Hypersonix Launch Systems recently completed the component-level preliminary design review, Hill said. Rocket Lab will provide the launch capabilities for the system for the initial test flight.
17 April 2024
by Gareth Jennings
A file photo of a Triton UAV. The US Navy HALE UAV has joined the US Air Force Global Hawk and NATO Phoenix UAVs now operating out of Sigonella in Italy. (US Navy)
The US Navy (USN) has commenced operations of its Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton Broad Area Maritime System (BAMS) in the European theatre, with the first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) departing Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella in Sicily for its first sortie on 17 April.
The milestone was logged by online flight tracking services about two weeks after the USN announced in late March that the first of an undisclosed number of UAVs had arrived in its Sixth Fleet area of operations.
Derived from the Block 30 RQ-4N naval variant of the RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAV, the Triton has been developed to provide the USN with a persistent maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability in support of a full range of military operations that includes signals intelligence, communications relay, and search and rescue.
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Dynetics have completed a first success...
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