Aurora Flight Sciences Signs Contract with Air Force Research Lab for Supply of Skate SUAS

Aurora Flight Sciences has won the supply contract for the specialized Skate small unmanned aerial system (SUAS) from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The Skate has been specifically developed to suit unmanned operations in urban environments. The supply of the SUAS is for the Urban Beat Cop (UBC) program.

The UBS program aims at showcasing the ability of the SUAS platform in performing law enforcement missions performed by officers walking a beat along city roads. The system has been deigned to gain familiarity of the surroundings of the routes that it takes on a routine basis. The Skate can autonomously perform such tasks without the intervention of the patrol officer, thereby reducing causalities and improving the situational awareness.

UBC program is a developmental effort for flight test demonstration which spans for a 12 month period. It will be showcasing advanced video processing and parasitic recharging systems that are needed for performing perch and stare operations autonomously. Aurora will be responsible for integrating the capabilities such as automatic deployment and recovery into Skate SUAS from a base station while performing perch and stare missions. The SUAS will be providing mission critical data pertaining to reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition data to war fighters.