Lyon, France / Wilmington, North Carolina, March 8th, 2023 – Elistair is pleased to announce the launch of Orion Heavy Lift (HL), to support growing demand for variable height antennas from military, public safety and homeland security customers.

As tactical communications evolve to match the rapidly changing needs of operators on the ground, tethered drones offer significant benefits when flexibility and mobility are critical. With the need of highly effective ground units to have increased mobility, tethered drones are enabling the establishment and extension of secured mobile networks, thanks to their rapid deployment time and persistence in the air.

Leveraging the original Orion platform used by military forces and security forces in over 30 countries for ISR missions, the Orion HL benefits from the same level of automation, ruggedization and safety architecture as its parent. Able to carry payloads of 4 kgs at 90 meters and 5 kgs at 50 meters height, for flight durations of 50 hours, Orion HL is deployable in minutes and easily transportable.

“We have put the Orion 2 tethered UAV system, provided by Elistairs’ Norwegian partner Northcom,  through several tests during the last years experiment to test its limits. During these tests, the system has proven to be a flexible and reliable solution capable of handling the challenging operational environment and conditions above the Arctic Circle in Norway. The introduction of the Heavy Lift version also provides us with a very useful tool for lifting communication equipment to create temporary communication coverage in challenging areas of operation.” Experiment Manager “Tor” from the Norwegian Army Combined Arms Battle Laboratory.

Along with Elistair’s new Payload Development Kit, partners can now seamlessly integrate their payloads and sensors to widen the capabilities of the platform for the end-users. A beta-testing program with selected partners allowed the successful integration of a CORDIS Array II from Radionor, a 5G relay and a SIGINT payload.

First deliveries are planned for end of May 2023.

elistair.com

Selected by DARPA to Continue With Phase 2 of Program Development

SAN DIEGO – 06 March 2023 – General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) is pleased to continue supporting the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) LongShot program. LongShot changes the paradigm of air combat operations by demonstrating an unmanned air-launched vehicle capable of employing air-to-air weapons.

Current air superiority concepts rely on advanced manned fighter aircraft to provide a penetrating counter air capability to effectively deliver weapons. It is envisioned that LongShot will increase the survivability of manned platforms by allowing them to be at standoff ranges far away from enemy threats, while an air-launched LongShot unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) efficiently “closes the gap” to take more effective missile shots.

After a successful Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in February 2022 at the end of Phase 1, GA-ASI was selected by DARPA to continue into Phase 2 in March 2022. During Phase 2, detailed designs are being completed and ground tests conducted to decrease program risk.

A key test event completed early in Phase 2 was multi-body wind tunnel test, characterizing the LongShot air vehicle and air-to-air weapon separation. Critical Design Review (CDR) for the program is planned for early 2023, which will complete the Phase 2 portion of the program. GA-ASI is currently generating a proposal response for the third phase of the program.

“GA-ASI is committed to the successful flight demonstration of the LongShot air vehicle,” said GA-ASI Senior Director of Advanced Programs Michael Atwood.

Upcoming Phase 2 ground tests will demonstrate the viability of key subsystems. Phase 3 would initiate the prototype manufacturing and flight testing phase of the program. Flight testing would begin in 2024.