58 Show report | Eurosatory autonomously maintain a constant survey ahead of defence squads’ advancements. “They will scan terrain for threats before they come within range, and stream back everything they see without the need for remote control, or even GNSS. Vehicle squads can then focus on preparing countermeasures for detected threats in advance of entering weapons range. That increases both general safety and advancement speeds for squads in the field.” The Launch and Recovery box features a single camera that tracks each UAV as it comes in to land, and a motorised landing pad that self-adjusts using six rotary servo actuators to ‘catch’ the UAV safely while compensating for inclination by the vehicle below. “The operator holds the decision over when UAVs come back to recharge or prepare for launch. Although we have constant radio comms between the box and the UAVs for both live streaming and command, users also have the option to operate in a radio-denied mode,” Jakobsen said. “The GNSS-denied navigation works using video, as it did on the Black Hornets 3 and 4, with the Black Recon picking up visual features and using them to triangulate its position and make navigational decisions.” An update to the Black Recon will enable it to be soldier-mountable and function as a personal reconnaissance system (PRS) in the future. Additionally, the Black Recon is interoperable with the smaller Black Hornet 4 UAS. Therefore, squads can use the same controllers and equipment to perform low-altitude surveys with the Black Hornet 4, while covering greater ground with the Black Recon by setting its UAVs to survey at higher altitudes. Italy-headquartered M.E.Rin attended the show to exhibit its solutions and capabilities in fuel tanks for various applications, including its bladder fuel tanks, based on a technology formulated after (and remaining a standout since) World War II. “When helicopters would undergo a low-speed drop during autorotation, the leading cause of injuries or deaths would be the fires that broke out after the crash, so we developed our bladder fuel tanks as a crash-resistant alternative to conventional tanks, such that they wouldn’t break and spill fuel outside of very high-velocity crashes,” said Andrea Maresca of M.E.Rin. “Today, we still test every bladder tank design for crash resistance, typically by dropping a unit from 50 ft while it’s filled with water, to validate that no fluid is released from the system during or after impact.” The flexibility of the company’s bladder tanks enables them to be installed inside airframes by folding them into compact shapes, and inserting them through maintenance hatches, payload bays and other openings. Once inside, they can be released, after which they naturally unfold into their regular shape, only filling the available space when fuelled. “We’re seeing that this quality makes the bladder tanks especially demanded among UAVs, because easier replacement of the fuel tank is highly desired by maintenance technicians – that, and their lightness over solid tanks, is important for the value derived from uncrewed aircraft operations,” Maresca said. “To make our bladder tanks, we start with a core of either cardboard or plaster, using that to lay one or more layers of fabric to achieve the shape and skin October/November 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Teledyne FLIR Defense’s Black Recon VRS UAS
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