Aerosonde System To Introduce Future Officers To Unmanned Aircraft

Cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy will learn about Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) using AAI's Aerosonde Mark 4.7 system under a fee-for-service contract announced by AAI Wednesday. BOSH Global Services awarded the contract to provide an Aerosonde unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for use by the Academy. It includes an Aerosonde Mark 4.7 system; support personnel to launch, fly and recover the aircraft; and computer-based training and simulation software for Cadets to utilize in their training. The academy also will gain use of AAI's On-the-Move Command and Control (OMCC) capability, which allows the aircraft to be controlled by personnel in a moving command and control station. The contract is for a one year period with an option to extend for one additional year.

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"The fee-for-service arrangement provides the academy with a flexible, cost-effective, comprehensive system to train Cadets in the planning and executing UAS missions," says Stephen Flach, division vice president of AAI's Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems. "The academy will be able to draw upon the considerable assets of this AAI system as they train a core group of future U.S. Air Force leaders."

Tthe Aerosonde Mark 4.7 is part of AAI's modular fleet of small unmanned aircraft systems, and was jointly developed and produced by personnel at both AAI's Hunt Valley, Md., headquarters and Aerosonde Pty Ltd, the company's small unmanned aircraft systems business unit in Melbourne, Australia.

FMI: www.boshgs.com, www.aaicorp.com