Skyborne's UAV Performs First Aerial Firing Demonstration
17 November 2021
Cerberus GL UAV with 40mm grenade launcher (photos : Skyborne)
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First of type UAV aerial firing approval in Australia
Brisbane, QLD: Skyborne Technologies, a Defence Tech company specialising in smart aerial robotic platforms, have performed a "first of type" aerial firing demonstration of the company's weaponised 5-shot 40mm UAV, the Cerberus GLH. The demonstration was performed in Australia under Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) approvals. The approval/testing site is on a Queensland rural property, on which Skyborne has partially leased, to support ongoing testing and development.
Current Australian Civil Aviation Safety Regulation prohibits operation of a weaponised Remotely Piloted Aircraft on private land within civilian airspace. Skyborne first demonstrated the Cerberus GL UAV (single shot 40mm grenade) prototype in Georgia, USA near Fort Benning for a US Army Demonstration Program called Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment in December 2019. The demonstration was the first to fly and fire the unique tri-tilt rotor man-packable weaponised UAV with an aerial firing activity for a US Army audience.
The COVID-19 pandemic stalled all company plans to return to the US in 2020 to continue testing and customer demonstrations. Skyborne embraced the challenge to steer through red tape and regulation hurdles to perform aerial firing testing in Australia. The company first contacted the civilian aviation authority (CASA) in June 2020 to propose the aerial firing activity on private land for research and development purposes. Seventeen months later, in October 2021, Skyborne performed the “first of type” aerial firing demonstration. This is not only a significant achievement for the company and its technology development pipeline, but also for Defence Industry and Defence.
The company's aerial firing approval will allow Cerberus's technology development to continue from the design and prototype phase to field testing to mature and test the weaponised UAV’s targeting accuracy and reliability, achieving a higher Technical Readiness Level (TRL). This accelerates the Cerberus UAV towards delivery to Defence end users for Test & Evaluation.
Federal, State and Council regulatory stakeholders were involved with Skyborne's aerial firing approval including CASA and the Queensland Police Service.
The Cerberus GLH is the next generation tactical-level aerial fire support UAS. Designed to be the first man-packable multiple-shot UAV on the market, the Cerberus GLH provides operators with up to 30 minutes of flight endurance, 5 shots of 40mm rounds (selectable) and VTOL launch capabilities. The Cerberus GLH also has day/night optics, AI edge processing and an onboard target laser range finder for accurate targeting.
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