The Australian Defense Force has received an RQ-12 unmanned aircraft system from AeroVironment Inc. and has started training with the system.
AeroVironment, a U.S. company, said the delivery of the small RQ-12 Wasp AE system took place earlier this month under an order received last December from XTEK Limited on behalf of the ADF.
The order, a trial procurement, was worth about $5.9 million.
"The man packable Wasp AE unmanned aircraft system delivers powerful intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance on demand and directly to small tactical units or an individual warfighter," said Kirk Flittie, AeroVironment vice president and general manager of the company's Unmanned Aircraft Systems business segment.
"Increasingly, allied forces around the world are deploying our small unmanned aircraft systems for valuable, real-time situational awareness to help them operate more safely and effectively."
The Wasp AE weighs 2.8 pounds, has an operation time of 50 minutes and a range of 3.1 miles. The UAS delivers live, streaming color and infrared video from its pan-tilt-zoom Mantis i22 AE gimbaled payload.
