Italian Army is evaluating a tethered hovering platform for convoy protection

Italian Army is evaluating a tethered hovering platform for convoy protection

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The Italian Army has been evaluating an unlimited aerial surveillance system for real-time convoy protection. The system named COBRA, developed by ERMES Technologies and delivered by Eurolink Systems, was finally accepted on April 2014 and is actually under evaluation by the Engineers Command.

According to sUAS, convoys are of crucial importance for logistics and operations. That’s why militaries invest time and money to counteract threats they could encounter during the trip. Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), attacks from insurgents and so on can slow down or even stop the convoy.

Some infantry vehicles have recently been updated with electronic gimbals that allows people to stay clear while having a survey of the area around.

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Unmanned systems conference 2014 – Israel

Those powerful cameras are still subject to some limitations: if located on vehicle’s top they suffer of a limited range and if mounted on a telescopic mast they cannot be extended while moving, requiring the vehicle to just stop.

The COBRA system consists of a micro UAV connected to the external landing box through an 8 feet cable, allowing an unlimited time mission even while the vehicle is moving at 22-25 mph. The UAV carries a small HD or IR camera letting the operator to stay clear while surveying a wide area in real time. The mission is completely automatic from take-off to landing and the control software runs on every windows based PC, thus reducing costs of logistics and training. The “vehicle-following” technology allows operations in GPS-denied environments. The wired communication let the system to be employed close to an active jammer, as it is in a standard military convoy.