AeroVironment joins DARPA program to develop long-range UAVs for launch from small ships

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) experts at AeroVironment Inc. in Monrovia, Calif., are joining a U.S. military research program to develop a medium-altitude long-endurance UAV for long-term maritime surveillance that can launch and recover from relatively small ships to provide airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike mobile targets anywhere, around the clock.

Scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have awarded a $2.3 million contract to AeroVironment for the initial phase of the Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program, which seeks to develop technology to enable small ships to serve as mobile bases for UAVs.

AeroVironment joins Maritime Applied Physics Corp. (MAPC) in Baltimore on the initial phase of the TERN program. MAPC won a $2.2 million DARPA contract for the program last month.

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