New Zealand boosts defence spend to US$6.6 billion and vows increased closeness with Australia
This budget will be spent over the next four years and nearly doubles the country’s defence spending as part of GDP to 2%.
FADA announces MOCHUELO project
The Andalusian Foundation for Aerospace Development (FADA) has kicked off a new project to apply UAS technologies to agricultural and farm monitoring applications.
The MOCHUELO project, which will be run from the ATLAS Flight Test Center in Andalusia, Spain, will aim to develop a system that can detect intrusions on agricultural farms at night using remotely controlled UAS and infrared payloads applying thermograpy technology.
The initiative began at the beginning of 2016 and will run through to mid-year.
The first application will be the olive farm industry in Andalusia – where theft is a significant issue - with a view to rolling out the solution across wider agricultural industry.
Joaquín Rodríguez Grau, general director of FADA, said that the objective is to ‘demonstrate that it is possible for an aerial fixed-wing platform to patrol agroforest terrain at night and that it can detect human presence when they should be none’.
The ATLAS Center runway will be extended for the project. The centre has segregated airspace certified for civil use by the Spanish Aviation Security Agency (AESA).
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