At this year's Euronaval exhibition, the Italian defense giant Leonardo is putting the spotlight on its AWHERO Rotary Unmanned Air System. AWHERO is a state of the art unmanned helicopter ready to meet current and future market requirements for cost effective extended operational capabilities.
Leonardo's AWHERO RUAS at Euronaval 2018
The AWHERO is a tremendous asset for the modern digital battlespace and guarantees safe operations and significant savings in various mission scenarios. Developed for land and naval operations, with maximum versatility in mind, AWHERO is the perfect solution in terms of cost effectiveness for tasks such as maritime and border surveillance, homeland security, pipeline and powerline monitoring, monitoring the environment and critical infrastructure as well as supporting rescue efforts, disaster relief and damage assessment during natural disasters.
AWHERO has a maximum gross weight of 205 kg and a useful payload of 85 kg (fuel plus payload) with a maximum endurance in excess of 6 hours. The aircraft is designed to deliver high maintainability and low operating costs, multiple redundancies of all main critical systems for maximum reliability. With a multiple payload capacity the AWHERO is able to meet a range of mission and customization requirements and is ready for maritime operations. Payload may include radar, such as the Leonardo Gabbiano Ultra Light, electro-optics, LiDAR, advanced communication systems among others.
For maritime roles the aircraft integrates a deck sensor and autopilot modes specially developed to permit landing and take-off from ships and benefits from the established and extensive capabilities at Leonardo in the naval domain. As operators look at the future land and maritime airborne joint manned-unmanned missions, AWHERO will be able to be fully integrated into those scenarios. In 2019, the new RUAS will be used for maritime surveillance capability demonstrations on ships within the framework of OCEAN 2020 initiatives contracted to Leonardo which will lead a team of 42 prime European aerospace companies. OCEAN2020 is the most important project related to the first European Defence Found's initiative, and will boost technological research in the naval domain also by the integration of unmanned platforms in surveillance and interdiction missions.
AWHERO is laso being thouroughly assessed by various potential customers worldwide.
