The U.S. Air Force could start to use laser weapons in combat missions within five years, Ars Technica reported Friday. Air Force Gen. Hawk Carlisle told the Air Force Association Air & Space Conference this week he believes directed-energy weapons pods could be installed in a fighter plane “very soon,” Sean Gallagher reports. “That day is a lot closer than I think a […] More

NASA and three aeronautical technology firms have collaborated to demonstrate the collision avoidance functions of an Ikhana unmanned aerial system at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. Ikhana worked to alert a remote pilot or maneuvered itself to avoid approaching aircraft while it flew over California’s high desert region, NASA said Thursday. […] More

A Grand View Research report predicts the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for law enforcement and agricultural activities will put the commercial UAV industry on track to hit $2.07 billion in value by 2022. The research firm said Thursday it found that drone applications in the government sector accounted for more than 40 percent of […] More

General Atomics, Honeywell, NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration are conducting field tests on a sense-and-avoid system to support unmanned aircraft operations in the National Airspace System, Aviation Today reported Monday. Juliet VanWagenen writes that the government-industry team began the third series of flight tests this summer through the use of live and virtual environments to […] More

A new RnR Market Research report has predicted the unmanned aerial systems market’s value to increase almost seven-fold over the next six years to $4.8 billion by 2021. RnR Market Research said Monday that oil and gas mapping, utility line inspection, package delivery and agricultural applications would account for the majority of sales. The report […] More

NASA and its partners General Atomics, Honeywell International and the Federal Aviation Administration are conducting a series of tests under the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System program. The space agency said Tuesday the team will perform tests on several UAS at the Armstrong Flight Research Center through July. Previous tests under the first phase have […] More

The U.S. Army has used a new remote system to demonstrate a General Atomics-built MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, the Army News Service reported Wednesday. David Vergun writes F Company/227th Aviation soldiers managed the unmanned aircraft system’s payload with the One System Remote Video Terminal during a […] More

The U.S. Navy cannot issue a formal solicitation for the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System contract until the Defense Department has completed its review of military aircraft portfolio, Reuters reported Wednesday. Andrea Shalal writes Rear Adm. Mike Manazir, director of air warfare at the Navy, said the military service finalized UCLASS development requirements […] More

A new Strategic Defense Intelligence report projects the global unmanned aerial vehicle market’s compound annual growth rate at 5.66 percent from 2015 through 2025, with autonomous combat vehicles to dominate the market. The report predicts North America and Europe to account for more than 67 percent of the UAV market over the next 10 years, ReportsnReports […] More

Industry executives said they expect drone sales orders from Middle East nations to increase after the State Department loosened export rules for unmanned aerial vehicles, Reuters reported Tuesday. “With this new policy, we see a lot more activity, we are talking to a lot more countries in the Middle East,” Frank Pace, president of General […] More

Boeing could receive $15.6 billion over the next five years to fund the production of modified 767 jets for the U.S. Air Force‘s aerial refueling operations, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Tony Capaccio writes that the Defense Department is requesting $2.95 billion for fiscal 2016, $3.22 billion for fiscal 2017 and $3.1 billion for fiscal 2018 through 2020 for its KC-46 tanker program. […] More

Exelis will continue to manufacture pneumatic carriage and release systems for the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle under a $27 million contract from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. The follow-on contract for 619 units of the BRU-71/A ejector rack is the third such order from the California-based aeronautics firm, with work to occur in Amityville, New […] More