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75 and reliability can make a huge difference.” The 200 km data link will come from Radionor Communications, and it was developed in conjunction with Kongsberg. The system is slated to operate over a 5G wireless link and an electronically beamed antenna, and may be used as a back-up for navigation in the event of GNSS signal loss. Future developments on the FX450 will include environmental upgrades to withstand the Arctic climate in northern Norway. Methods for protecting the hull, servos avionics, and engine from icing up will be especially paramount, Nyroth said. The current version of the FX450 has a cruising speed of 68 knots, a maximum altitude of 4000 m and has a 7.2 m wingspan while measuring 4 m long. Leonardo Group had its latest UAS offerings, including the Awhero helicopter UAV, on display. The current prototype has an MTOW of 205 kg, an increase of 25 kg over the first prototype, to provide additional systems and functionality. “The empty weight of the aircraft is 120 kg, with 85 kg available for fuel or payloads. If a 35 kg sensor or package is equipped, six hours of flight endurance can be achieved,” said Roberto Pretolani. The engine can run on JP-5, JP-8 or Jet A-1 to save users conducting maritime missions having to stock different fuels from those used in their typical helicopter assets. The Awhero has the Gabbiano TS Ultra Light X-band radar integrated for surveillance missions such as maritime patrol, search and rescue, and environmental surveys. It weighs 24 kg, features a 28 V DC power input, and can be operated in high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) modes such as spot SAR, strip SAR and inverse SAR. The company was also showing the latest version of its Mirach-40 target UAV, which has a 15 kg payload capacity for such items as smoke generators and chaff dispensers. It measures 2.5 m long with a 1.5 m wingspan. Eli Airborne Solutions debuted its Drone Nest base station at the show. The solution has been developed to suit the requirements of the Estonian Border Guard and Police, who wanted to deploy and recover its Elix-XL multi-copters without needing a human operator or road vehicle. It also helped fund part of the development. “The Nest and control station work in unison with other forward-looking sensors, so a sensor reading can trigger the opening of the hatch and deployment of the UAV,” said Eli’s Karl Uibo. “The operational radius is roughly 5 km. The UAV takes off autonomously, conducts a survey of the pertinent area, and autonomously returns to its nest. We found it was easy to have the UAV return to a GPS point; it locks on to the infrared beacon on the Drone Nest’s platform with its camera.” Once the Elix-XL touches down on the platform, which has a concave shape with a rectangular crevice, motors installed beneath the platform trigger a vibration. This draws the UAV down the slant of the outer platform until it ‘slots’ into the crevice, and the legs are locked in as the lid comes down. This allows the UAV to be aligned precisely with the Drone Nest’s built-in battery changing mechanisms, which remove the battery from the vehicle and replace it with one of the five batteries charged and kept in storage inside the base station, within three minutes. The temperature beneath the lid is kept at roughly 18 C to maintain the health of the batteries against the environments in which the UAV generally operates. UMEX 2018 | Show report Unmanned Systems Technology | April/May 2018 Robot Aviation’s FX450 is destined for missions in the Norwegian Arctic The Awhero from Leonardo Group can run on a range of aviation fuels