Aerospace Diary

 Neelam Mathews   Aug 25, 2015 The FlyEye mini-UAV will be offered to the Indian army by Kadet Defence Systems in partnership with WB Electronics of Poland. (Photo: WB Electronics) An Indian Army requirement for approximately 600 sets of mini- UAV s is attracting interest from various manufacturers, who must partner with Indian companies to comply with the government’s “Make in India” industrial strategy. The Directorate General of Infantry has issued a request for information ( RFI ) that will be followed by a request for proposals by late 2016. Indian companies will make the bids. The   OEM s include two Israeli companies: Aeronautics, maker of the Orbiter mini- UAV , and Elbit Systems, maker of the Skylark. Aeronautics' partner is not yet known, while Elbit might team with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd ( HAL ). AeroVironment will   co-develop the Cheel —a version of the Puma—with Dynamatic Technologies. Boeing is with Tata Advanced Systems ...

by  Neelam Mathews  Aug 5 2015 The Cheel UAV to be co-developed in India by Dynamatic and AeroVironment will be a development of the latter’s Raven, seen here. (Photo: AeroVironment) Bangalore, India-based Dynamatic Technologies is co-developing a new generation lightweight unmanned aerial system (UAS) with AeroVironment of the U.S. It is named the Cheel (Hindi for Eagle) and will be based on AeroVironment’s proven expertise , with the design evolving from the 5 kg Raven and 12 kg Puma UAS. The project is one of the six “pathfinder projects” identified under the U.S.-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI)  earlier this year . “The first Cheel will fly eleven months after formal approval,” Udayant Malhoutra, Dynamatic CEO and managing director told  AIN . The Indian company is already a supplier to Airbus, Bell and Boeing and has built an advanced avionics and communications laboratory; payload developm...