UAS alliance

, Aerosonde North America, and Aerosonde Pty Limited have established a multi-national strategic alliance to provide Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for domestic and international markets.

As part of the agreement, Lockheed Martin and Victoria, Australia-based Aerosonde will build, integrate and test advanced unmanned aircraft systems for customer demonstrations and trials. Lockheed Martin will also purchase Aerosonde aircraft, mission systems and services to carry out customer demonstrations and trials.

Greg Holland, president of Aerosonde North America, also welcomed the alliance. “The Aerosonde small, long endurance, multi-role UAS is already the benchmark, operating on four continents. Our alliance with Lockheed Martin will ensure that we remain at the leading edge of small UAS solutions, which we predict to be one of the major growth areas within the UAS market over the next decade,” he said.

Aerosonde has developed a global data gathering business based on “The Aerosonde”, a small robotic aircraft designed for long range monitoring and surveillance.

Initially developed for meteorological and environmental reconnaissance and data collection over oceanic and remote areas, the Aerosonde’s unique characteristics have led to expansion into military and commercial markets.

The Aerosonde UAV has several records to its credit, including the first unmanned aircraft in its class to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1998, using only one and a half gallons of fuel. Additionally, the Aerosonde was the first UAV to operate routinely in the Arctic and the first UAV deployment by the Australian military.