, the joint venture of EADS and Rheinmetall in the field of unmanned aircraft systems, has developed a new “Tactical UAS” product family.
The family is based on three aerial platforms with different characteristics and a joint payload concept for a multi-role capability. Based on experience gained in actual operations, the unmanned flight systems are oriented to contemporary tactical requirements and future technical possibilities.
Key here is the flexible selection of aerial platforms depending on mission requirements, with ground and payload equipment remaining unchanged. In future, too, an enhanced version of the KZO system currently deployed in Afghanistan will remain extremely robust, with an all-weather reconnaissance capability and an un-jammable data link. Rounding out the family of tactical UAS products is a lightweight aircraft featuring long flight times. A third aerial platform is being developed in cooperation with an innovative partner: a new type of aircraft that will be capable of carrying out a wide array of different missions…
[We picked up this story from our network of ‘reliable sources’ – we hope to be able to publish more details very soon – Ed.]