Italian army selects Shadow 200 UAV

FARNBOROUGH, England, 21 July 2010. AAI Corp. announced today that Italy's Ministry of Defense (MoD) - Directorate of General Aeronautical Armament has selected AAI's Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (TUAS) for the Italian army. Under this 51 million euro ($64 million) award, Italy will purchase four Shadow TUAS for deployment alongside NATO forces.

The Italian MoD's competitive procurement for TUAS identified several system requirements leading up to the selection of AAI's Shadow system such as: a small system footprint; easy transportation using small vehicles or C-130 Hercules aircraft; ease of use; interoperability with other NATO forces; and the ability to take off and land from small, semi-prepared airfields, AAI officials say. Shadow TUAS leverage AAI's interoperable One System ground control station architecture to receive and disseminate battlefield video. Its design also complies with NATO Standardization Agreement 4586, enhancing interoperability among international unmanned aircraft systems.

""he system's compact logistics footprint makes it easy to transport and operate under evolving battlefield conditions, as proven during more than 500,000 flight hours," says Steven Reid, vice president of Unmanned Aircraft Systems for AAI. In addition, the vast majority of Shadow TUAS flight hours have taken place in Iraq and Afghanistan, so our customers can see firsthand that our systems deliver the performance and robustness they need."