According to Army officials, the service will remain focused on the Hellfire unmanned aerial system variant as the weapon of choice in arming the Grey Eagle, as industry continues to develop smaller alternatives for the UAS fleet.

The Defense Department plans to deploy a cargo-delivering unmanned aerial system as part of a joint capability technology demonstration run by the Army's Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center and the Marine Corps, according to service officials.

The Army is seeking feedback from industry on plans to quickly field a robotic vehicle that would follow small groups of soldiers around on the battlefields of Afghanistan to carry their equipment, according to a notice published on the Federal Business Opportunities website today.

The Army has begun the second phase of an analysis of alternatives to the Armed Aerial Scout helicopter effort following a decision to proceed with a manned-unmanned capability requirement, according to service officials.

Oshkosh recently showcased its autonomous Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles Load Handling Systems truck, equipped with its patented TerraMax self-driving technology.

The Increment 3 version of the Navy's Broad Aerial Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aircraft is one of the options for the service's currently undefined EPX spy plane capability, BAMS program manager Capt. Bob Dishman told Inside the Navy Sept. 3.

The Federal Aviation Administration has approved the Army's ground-based sense-and-avoid system's "safety case," effectively expanding the service's available airspace for unmanned aerial system training, according to service officials.

The Army will begin taking delivery of 40 Block III gasoline-powered Micro Air Vehicles this month after transferring 14 older Block I gMAV systems to the Navy, according to service officials.

The Army has officially renamed its Extended Range/Multi-Purpose unmanned aerial system Grey Eagle, as the service gears up to deploy a second quick-reaction capability to theater, according to Army officials.

Less than six months after a Navy official said the MQ-8B Fire Scout's ground control station was facing some "reliability issues," Naval Air Systems Command announced it has suspended flight operations of the aircraft until early September after a software anomaly in the aircraft caused a vehicle to penetrate National Capital Region airspace.

Northrop Grumman's slate of "affordability initiatives" designed to drive down production and development costs for its Global Hawk unmanned aircraft will be closely aligned with recommendations in a yet-to-be released DOD report on the program, a senior company official tells Inside the Air Force.

Testing is underway on two vital upgrades to Northrop Grumman's RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned vehicle, which will put the program on track to meet a 2012 time line to take on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations from the venerable U-2 spy plane, according to a senior company official.

Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly last week touted the capabilities of MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted vehicles as additional sensors for detecting ballistic missile launches.

The Army will move one step closer to fielding a combat hybrid airship as contractor Northrop Grumman gears up for a mid-September preliminary design review of its Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle.

The U.S. Army is awaiting final approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to have the authority to fly unmanned drones at a California facility while relying on ground-based, sense-and-avoid technology.

The Army vice chief of staff has approved plans to reconfigure the service's fleet of unmanned aerial systems to increase the number fielded to brigade combat teams in theater, but final authorization for the initiative has yet to be given, according to service officials.

The Army plans to conduct a large-scale demonstration at the end of fiscal year 2011 to prove interoperability between its fleets of manned and unmanned aviation assets, according to a service official.

The next-generation jammer, an electronic warfare system slated for use on the EA-18G Growler and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, could eventually be placed on unmanned ground vehicles, an official told Inside the Navy recently.

The Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Administration are working on a plan to integrate unmanned drones into the national airspace by relying on ground-based, sense-and-avoid technology among other solutions, according to DOD sources.

Senior Pentagon officials are expected within the next month to give the green light to the development of a uniform training strategy for unmanned aircraft called for by the Government Accountability Office, according to an official with the Joint Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence.