Air Force Research Lab personnel from Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, last month evaluated the BAT 3 unmanned aerial vehicle at Camp Atterbury, Ind., to gauge its ability to detect objects in urban areas. The small-sized surveillance platform is built by MLB of Mountain View, Calif. It carries a stabilized, gimbaled video camera that provides live, streaming video and another camera for digital mapping, a company official told the Daily Report Nov. 10. AFRL is employing the slingshot-launched BAT 3 in the tests to survey potential threats and feed imagery back to a control station operator, who then determines whether further investigation is necessary by smaller micro air vehicles. The BAT-3 is reportedly unable to be heard when flying at 1,000 feet in altitude, meaning it could fly slightly lower than the Eiffel Tower and not be heard by persons on the ground. AFRL is examining the BAT-3 under the cooperative operations in urban terrain program, or COUNTER. (Camp Atterbury report by Army Sgt. Jessica Duncan)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.