has announced that it has been awarded a $25.6 million contract to develop a UAS sense and avoid capability for BAMS in support of the Navy and U.S. Air Force. The work will be carried out by the Aerospace sector’s Battle Management & Engagement Systems Division.
Airborne sense-and-avoid systems support the detection of, and safe separation from, manned and unmanned aircraft to an equivalent level of safety to the see-and-avoid capability of a human pilot.
UAS designers are putting substantial time, money, and energy to enable UAS to sense and avoid other aircraft so they can operate safely alongside commercial and general-aviation aircraft in civil controlled airspace.
With this kind of UAS sense and avoid capability, if certified by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), UAS such as BAMS not only could fulfil military surveillance and reconnaissance missions in war zones and outside of civil controlled airspace, but they also might be able to handle surveillance in and around large cities with complicated, congested airspace, as well as near sensitive border areas.
On this contract, Northrop Grumman will do the work in Bethpage, N.Y., and in San Diego, and should be finished by November 2012. Awarding the contract were officials of the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md.