News & Articles

Did you know that the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has a terrestrial sibling? It’s true — meet, Terry Earth Copter — specifically designed for research and educational purposes.
Recently, the AeroVironment Mars team embarked on an opportunity to connect with various YMCA summer camp groups in the Simi Valley, CA area as part of their STEAM program.

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The US Army plans to procure a Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) to replace the Textron RQ-7B Shadow tactical UAV currently in service with its Brigade Combat Teams.

One of the contenders for FTUAS is AeroVironment with its JUMP 20 system; in this video, the company's business development director Terry Stapleton discusses some of the features of this UAV and its progress to date in FTUAS assessments.

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One very rapid technology thrust in the unmanned vehicle market is in ground control stations – with good reasons, given the proliferation of such systems and the more demanding requirements being placed upon them. One ground control solution that caught MON’s attention is AeroVironment’s new offering, CRYSALIS, designed to replace the legacy, common-use GCS employed with the company’s existing RAVEN, WASP and PUMA sUAS. CRYSALIS responds to the pull of technology and the sophistication of today’s UAS operator.

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October 7, 2021, Sierra County, NM- AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) is expanding its footprint at Spaceport America bringing two new unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) projects to New Mexico for testing and training. Operations forJUMP 20 medium unmanned aircraft systems (MUAS) and tactical unmanned aircraft systems (TUAS) have begun out of the Spaceport’s Vertical Launch Area. AeroVironment first became a tenant of the spaceport with the HAPSMobile Sunglider project, which flew twice in 2020.

“We developed a great relationship with AeroVironment last year, which has now expanded with these two new UAS projects,” said Scott McLaughlin, Executive Director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. “We appreciate their confidence in us and what we offer with our employees, our facilities, restricted airspace, remote location, and great weather for flight. Spaceport America’s business continues to grow and bring value to New Mexico.”

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• Final contract option exercised under the sole source Flight Control Systems (FCS) domain of the Army’s multi-year small unmanned aircraft systems contract
• Total final value of contract is $54,632,776
• U.S. Army possesses largest fleet of Raven tactical unmanned aircraft systems in the world

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 6, 2021 – AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), a global leader in intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems, today announced the United States Army exercised the third and final option under the Flight Control Systems (FCS) domain of the Army’s multi-year small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) contract on Sept. 9, 2021. The value of the contract option is $11,731,740 and includes flight control system kits, ground control stations and tail booms for the Army’s existing fleet of Raven^® tactical UAS. Delivery is scheduled to be completed by September 2022.

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• Order includes tEODor EVO and telemax EVO HYBRID unmanned ground vehicles for Latvian National Armed Forces
• Telerob’s advanced unmanned ground robotic solutions safely and effectively perform a variety of dangerous missions using specialized precision manipulators with autonomous functionality and intuitive user operation

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 28, 2021 – AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), a global leader in intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Telerob Gesellschaft für Fernhantierungstechnik mbH (Telerob), received a multi-million dollar firm-fixed-price order from the Latvian Ministry of Defense (MoD). The order, received on July 8, 2021, encompasses the procurement of telemax™ EVO HYBRID and tEODor™ EVO unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and engineering support to the Latvian National Armed Forces. Delivery is scheduled to be completed in late 2021.

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Kratos has demonstrated the ability of its Airwolf unmanned aircraft to air-launch an AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munition, also commonly referred to as a "suicide drone." This test has opened up a significant new "opportunity space" for how Airwolf, which is derived from its MQM-178 Firejet aerial target, could be employed operationally. The company has only given out relatively limited details about Airwolf, which is the smallest and cheapest of its publicly disclosed tactical designs, in the past and just released its first picture of one of these drones earlier this month. You can read more about what we had already been able to glean about this drone here.

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• United States Pentagon Force Protection Agency receives Telerob, an AeroVironment Company, telemax EVO HYBRID unmanned ground vehicle system order, supported by training, spares and accessories packages
• Telerob’s advanced unmanned ground vehicle solutions safely and effectively perform a variety of dangerous missions, including explosive ordnance disposal, hazardous materials handling and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat assessment 

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 15, 2021 – AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), a global leader in intelligent, multi-domain robotic systems, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Telerob, successfully delivered the United States Pentagon Force Protection Agency’s (PFPA) telemax™ EVO HYBRID unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) order in July 2021. Designed to be operated by PFPA explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and hazardous materials handling (HAZMAT) technicians, the UGV was purchased for deployment by its Hazardous Devices Branch.

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Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) have been used in military settings for over a century. In 1915, French engineers developed the “Torpille Terrestre” (Land Torpedo) — a UGV loaded with explosives meant to breach enemy lines. In the 1930s, the Soviets began using UGVs based on the T-18 and T-26 tanks and were dubbed “Teletanks.” The Teletanks were controlled remotely from another tank about a mile away and were deployed in the Winter War against Finland in 1940. The UGV had a humble beginning as little more than a single-use detonation device, but today these vehicles feature state-of-the-art capabilities that work to protect and preserve lives.

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For a long time, excitement and potential drove the commercial drone industry in a way that could literally be calculated. Countless reports talked up the billions of dollars that commercial drone technology represented, but whether it was the $82 billion estimated by AUVSI or the $127 billion that PwC predicted, the hype associated with drones was mostly irrelevant to the actual users that wanted to adopt the technology to create value. Plenty have done just that in very defined ways over the past few years, but just as the drone industry was in the midst of fully transitioning from hype to reality, COVID-19 changed the paradigm.

As literal social distancing tools, the pandemic highlighted how drones could be utilized in ways that were never envisioned but nonetheless created real value. However, those new opportunities have been complicated by misconceptions that predate the pandemic. Additionally, the regulatory challenges with legally taking a drone into the sky that users have to sort through are just as relevant now as they were in the midst of that hype cycle. What has this evolution of the commercial drone industry meant to the people that are working to define the value of the technology in the present and future?

That very topic is a focus of numerous conference sessions at the upcoming Commercial UAV Expo, where professionals from across the space will come together for what is now recognized as the world's largest show for professionals integrating commercial drone technology. In preparation of the event, we connected with numerous experts across the space to capture their insights around how expectations associated with the technology will impact the market in the short and long term.

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