Intracom Defense (IDE) has signed a €42 million contract with the European Defence Fund (EDF) for the ACTUS project (“Advanced capabilities & Certification for Tactical UAV Systems”) as Coordinator of the European consortium that was selected as the winner after a competitive tender process involving leading European manufacturers.
The 48-month project aims to technologically advance the European Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), LOTUS and PATROLLER, to meet the common operational requirements of the Ministries of Defense of 6 European Union Member States (Belgium, France, Greece, Cyprus, Sweden, Finland) plus Norway.
The contract includes the study, design, prototyping, testing, evaluation, certification and improvement of the effectiveness of European-made Tactical Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (T-RPAS).
The ACTUS Consortium includes 23 partners from 9 EU Member States and Norway: Austria (AIT Austrian Institute of Technology), Belgium (ULPOWER AERO ENGINES NV), France (SAFRAN Electronics & Defense, THALES LAS FRANCE SAS), Germany (AES Aerospace Embedded Solutions, DIEHL DEFENCE, TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN), Greece (ALTUS LSA Commercial & Manufacturing, DIADIKASIA Business Consulting, Hellenic Aerospace Industry, IDE, ISD, University of Patras, REALISCAPE), Spain (EMBENTION SISTEMAS INTELIGENTES), Cyprus (CY.R.I.C Cyprus Research & Innovation Center, GEOIMAGING, SIGNALGENERIX), Sweden (SAAB AKTIEBOLAG), Finland (Patria, Robonic), Norway (SAFRAN Sensing Technologies Norway, UBIQ Aeropsace).
UAV LOTUS
The Greek-made “invisible” UAV Lotus, specially designed for effective border surveillance and threat identification, will in the future also cooperate with fighter aircraft in COMAO.
The new drone with stealth properties and interoperability based on NATO standards (ed. Link 16) will be a deadly weapon in the hands of the Armed Forces.
The stealth drone will send real-time images of targets to fighter jets, which will lock on to the targets and destroy them, flying at a safe distance from anti-aircraft guns.
UAV Patroller
The UAV Patroller is designed to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. It can be used for external operations as well as internal security and maritime surveillance missions, says manufacturer SAFRAN.
The Patroller is equipped with the high-resolution Euroflir 410 EO/IR pod, combined with a COMINT (COMmunication INTelligence) sensor or a moving target detection (MTI) synthetic aperture radar (SAR).
Based on this configuration, the Patroller contributes to the protection of troops on the battlefield. It provides data on tactical situations, while simultaneously conducting electronic warfare (EW) operations.
For maritime surveillance missions, the Patroller is equipped with a multi-mode surveillance radar, allowing the detection of maritime activity at long range over a large area. This version also includes an Automatic Identification System (AIS) to perform ship classification. Final identification is performed with the Euroflir 410.
