NAVAIR Issues Sense & Avoid Radar Solicitation
4 November 2014 - Naval Air Systems command has issued a request for information for airborne radar/antenna capabilities that can serve to meet MQ-4C Triton Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Sense and Avoid (SAA) Radar capability requirements. According to the solicitation, previous developmental efforts to produce a SAA capability that met performance and manufacturing capabilities failed. The SAA should work in conjunction with ground-based radars and the SAA radar must be "capable of operating in a wide-range of natural, induced and air-traffic environments expected over the MQ-4C life-cycle, during all phase of flight." The radar should be capable of operating from 10,000 to 60,000 feet mean sea level and discriminating contacts in sea clutter of up to sea state 4.
Earlier this year, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division-Lakehurst in Lakehurst, N.J., awarded Dallas-based RDRTec Inc. a $3 million award to design a similar capability for the Triton and MQ-8C Fire Scout helicopter.
4 November 2014 - Marines from Cherry Point, North Carolina, take training into their own hands with the Ground Based Sense and Avoid Regional Interoperability Training system. The simulator teaches Marines how to safely integrate unmanned aerial vehicles into national airspace and reduces the need to travel to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, for training, which saves time, money and increases on-the-job learning.