Jammer resistant drone designs spark search for countermeasures
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has driven another stage of evolution for drones and the counter measures to defend against them.
Lockheed Martin has completed a beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) pipeline and well asset inspection using the Indago 2 UAS, the company announced on 31 May.
The BVLOS inspection was carried out at the Foremost Testing Range in Canada, in collaboration with Canadian UAVs. Indago is Transport Canada compliant, which means Indago operators are approved for routine access to Canadian airspace.
At the testing facility, Canadian UAVs inspected pipelines and wellheads using Indago, outfitted with its 30x payload. The quadrotor’s camera captured high resolution inspection images and video with 30x optical zoom and enhanced digital zoom.
The Indago quadrotor UAS weighs 5lbs and has an endurance of around 45 minutes at a range up to five kilometres when using its handheld controller. The range can be an extended beyond ten kilometres with directional communications devices.
Indago 2 includes Lockheed Martin’s Hydra Fusion Tools that provide situational awareness during operations and real-time three-dimensional reconstruction during flight.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has driven another stage of evolution for drones and the counter measures to defend against them.
The new Amorphous software is a universal controller that would allow a single operator to control a swarm of “thousands” of uncrewed systems, from drones to underwater platforms.
India UAV supplier ideaForge has launched the Netra 5 and Switch V2 drones at Aero India 2025, boasting of enhanced endurance, AI-driven autonomy and improved operational capabilities.
The UAV market is experiencing unprecedented growth, with innovations in technology and battlefield applications driving demand across military sectors. From the battlefields of Ukraine to NATO exercises and beyond, drones are transforming how wars are fought and supported.
Launched at AUSA in October, the company’s multi-stream video codec is attempting to bring a new lease of life to drone technology through its AI accelerator.
Quantum-Systems has been upgrading its UAS family, with new versions of the Vector, Reliant and Twister drones set for release throughout 2025.