HANGAR TALK UNMANNED
Leonardo Opens a New Facility in Pisa and Unveils its Enhanced AWHERO Rotary Unmanned Air System for Surveillance and Disaster Relief Missions
Leonardo opened its new facility in Pisa (Italy) dedicated to the development and production of the AWHERO Rotary Unmanned Air System (RUAS). During the official ceremony, also attended by national and local authorities and representatives from the industry, the first pre-production aircraft was also officially unveiled.
Alessandro Profumo, CEO of Leonardo said, “I am very pleased to open this new facility because it demonstrates Leonardo’s way forward: we invest in high-end technology and highly-skilled resources in order to respond to a fast-growing market. Unmanned systems are among the pillars of our growth strategy, and we plan to become a market leader in this field.”
The set-up of a brand new facility with a workforce of 60 people, and the unveiling of a more capable aircraft, mark two major milestones in the development of the AWHERO, a program that has been growing significantly in recent years. The program was originally launched in 2012 under a joint venture with Sistemi Dinamici S.p.A., which was acquired by Leonardo in 2016.
Leonardo’s unmanned helicopter portfolio also includes the SW-4 Solo, which like the AWHERO benefits from the company’s systems integration expertise and airborne sensors to make its unmanned systems more competitive in the fast-growing unmanned systems market. The opening of the new facility in Pisa also expands the presence of Leonardo in Tuscany, where the company designs and manufactures a wide range of products in the defense, security and space fields with more than 1,800 employees located at three facilities in Campi Bisenzio (Florence), Montevarchi (Arezzo) and Livorno.
Compared to the original variant, the pre-production 200kg class aircraft unveiled today features an optimized airframe and aerodynamics, new fuel system, new composite tail rotor drive shaft, and a new liquid cooled rotary engine. This aircraft performed its maiden 10-minute flight in Nettuno, close to Rome, in December 2018. The second pre-production AWHERO is
42 Mar/Apr 2019
expected to join trials and take to the air in the next few months in advance of Italian military certification, which is expected by the end of 2019.
AWHERO is a state-of-the-art unmanned helicopter (RUAS or Rotary Unmanned Air System) that brings together Leonardo’s experience in helicopters and system integration. The design of AWHERO responds to current and future market requirements for increasingly extended operational capabilities through the use of unmanned systems. Developed for land and naval operations, with maximum versatility in mind, AWHERO is the perfect solution in terms of cost and capability for tasks such as maritime and border surveillance, homeland security, pipeline and powerline monitoring, environmental monitoring, supporting search-and- rescue missions, disaster relief, and damage assessment during natural disasters.
With a maximum endurance in excess of 6 hours, the AWHERO is designed with high reliability and low operating costs, multiple redundancy of all main critical systems for maximum safety, and multiple payload capacity to meet a range of missions. Payload may include a radar (such as the Leonardo Gabbiano TS UltraLight), electro-optics, Electronic Support Measures, LiDAR, and advanced communication systems, among others. For maritime roles, the aircraft integrates a deck sensor and autopilot modes specially developed to allow fully automatic landing and takeoff from vessels. As operators look at future land and maritime airborne joint manned-unmanned missions, AWHERO will be fully integrated into those scenarios.
In 2019 the new AWHERO will be used for maritime surveillance capability demonstrations on ships in the framework of the OCEAN 2020 initiatives contracted to Leonardo, which will lead a team of 42 prime European aerospace companies. OCEAN 2020 is a European Defence Fund strategic research program for naval surveillance technology and maritime safety. AWHERO is also being thoroughly assessed by various potential customers worldwide.
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