AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) declared that they have entered into a five-year cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the Communications-Electronic Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) of the U.S Army.
The agreement brings together AAI UAS and CERDEC to work on different payloads for the three classes of UAS, namely, tactical, miniature and small. These classes are otherwise known as Groups 1, 2 and 3. According to the agreement, engineers from CERDEC and AAI would evaluate the possibility of integrating various CERDEC payload concepts onto AAI UAS.
Aerosonde Mark 4.7 aircraft
During the phase 1 of the CRADA, AAI would provide CERDEC with Aerosonde Mark 4.7 aircraft for the payload development that meets the aircraft’s specifications. In the event of the payload integration is completed successfully, experienced operators from AAI would fly the aircraft to demonstrate its capabilities. The Vice President of Small UAS, Steve Flach, regarded the CRADA as an opportunity for putting AAI’s expertise in UAS to use by collaborating with the Army’s CERDEC. The Aerosonde Mark 4.7 Small UAS is a highly useful system used for conducting military operations on shipboards or for ground-based intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions. The aircraft would be a good fit for CERDEC’s efforts with large payload capacity, open architecture and modular design. Some of the other UAS platforms available for CERDEC are Shadow Tactical UAS and Orbiter Miniature UAS from AAI. The Shadow Tactical has successfully completed 635,000 flight hours in service with the Marine Corps and the U.S Army. The Orbiter is now being offered to law enforcement and military clients by a teaming agreement between AAI and Israel- based Aeronautics.