Large UAV Collaboration 

Large UAV Collaboration 

050627-N-0295M-021 St. Inigoes, Md. (June 27, 2005) – A group photo of aerial demonstrators at the 2005 Naval Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Air Demo held at the Webster Field Annex of Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Pictured are (front to back, left to right) RQ-11A Raven, Evolution, Dragon Eye, NASA FLIC, Arcturus T-15, Skylark, Tern, RQ-2B Pioneer, and Neptune. The daylong UAV demonstration highlights unmanned technology and capabilities from the military and industry and offers a unique opportunity to display and demonstrate full-scale systems and hardware. This year’s theme was, “Focusing Unmanned Technology on the Global War on Terror.” U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Daniel J. McLain (RELEASED)

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The “largest-ever” research, design, development, demonstration, test, and evaluation collaboration between the US and Indian militaries has been signed, 

According to the Pentagon, the Air Forces of the US and India have signed a new agreement to cooperate on the development of Air-Launched Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (ALUAV),

The militaries will develop and demonstrate technologies including physical hardware such as small UAVs, avionics, payload power, propulsion, and launch systems through prototyping that meet the operational requirements of the Indian and U.S. Air Forces, as reported by breakingdefense.com.

The over $22 million deal falls under the aegis of the US-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative, or DDTI from 2012. 

The collaboration could in the future lead to the joint manufacture of artificial intelligence-enabled drone swarms capable of being launched from aircraft to overwhelm an adversary’s air defense systems, according to indiatimes.com. Basically, the ALUAV will be carried like a bomb on an aircraft. It will be launched from the air, instead of the ground-launched conventional UAV.