FLIR Systems, the manufacturer of the PD-100 Black Hornet Nano miniature UAS systems currently being rolled out by the Australian Army has launched a hangar system for the UAS at the 2018 Association of the United States Army (AUSA) exposition in Washington.

Designed to be mounted on a vehicle, the hangar allows four Black Hornet air vehicles to be housed and charged in a ruggedised housing on the exterior of a vehicle, and operated by soldiers from the safety of an armoured cab.

The bread box-sized hangar has four cassette-style housings for the air vehicles, each of which has a charger. The air vehicle flips out from the cassette and powers up while it searches for a GPS signal, and then launches on a pre-determined way-point course. Alternatively, the air vehicle can be launched and fly under the control of an operator inside the vehicle.

The system is supported by a screen mounted inside the vehicle which shows the system’s operating parameters and video feed from the air vehicle, and two Black Hornets can be controlled at once via a split-screen is required.

After a successful 2015 trial, the Australian Army has adopted the Black Hornet Nano UAS and is rolling it out across all of its combat units.

A video of a FLIR Systems representative explaining the hangar system can be found here.

A 2016 photo of an Australian Army soldier with a FLIR Systems PD-100 Black Hornet Nano miniature UAS at Lavarack Barracks in Townsville. (DEFENCE)