The European Defence Agency today signed a contract with a consortium headed by Patria Oyj to carry out the first Technology Study for the Agency’s work on Long Endurance Unmanned Air Vehicles (LE UAVs), covering “Digital Line of Sight & Beyond Line of Sight Data Links”.
LE UAVs, which are likely to play an increasingly important role in surveillance and intelligence, are one of the Agency’s four flagship programmes. A number of different national initiatives on UAVs are under way in EU countries, and the Agency has been tasked to encourage European collaboration in this field.
“Digital Line of Sight (LOS) and Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) Data Links” were one of the two technology areas selected from an initial listing of more than 10 critical technologies of interest to the participating Member States for technology demonstration studies funded by the Agency.
The success of the surveillance and intelligence missions conducted using LE-UAVs is extremely dependent on the availability of robust and reliable communication data links connecting the LE-UAV with the ground infrastructure. Those links are used to control the flight of the LE-UAV during the mission, to configure its on-board equipment and, most important of all, to transmit the collected intelligence data to the ground in near-real time.
As the operating scenarios of the LE-UAV include long-distance missions, the communication links must assure this connectivity independent of radio conditions that may vary from one geographical location to another. That means that the data links need to operate in direct Line of Sight configurations as well as in Beyond Line of Sight scenarios, using satellite or relay connections.
The Consortium led by Patria Oyj with co-contractor Instrumentointi Oy offers extensive combined technical background and experience in the area of the study, facilities for development, production, integration, testing and maintenance, and qualified personnel and completed project references.
The members of the Consortium have worked for more than 20 years with the Finnish Air Force Data Link Programme. They have also worked together within the Finnish Unmanned Vehicle Systems and Joint Network Centric Warfare Architecture technology programmes.
A procurement process for another LE UAV Technology Study, “on Sense and Avoid Technologies”, is currently under way.