Janes Defense Weekly
Jane's Defence Weekly – June 28, 2007
Argentina, Egypt collaborate on unmanned systems
Jose Higuera Correspondent
Santiago
Egypt’s Ariesgsa Engineering Group and Nostromo of Argentina are jointly
marketing and developing a number of air, sea and land unmanned systems for the
Egyptian armed forces and other military customers in the Middle East.
The partnership, unveiled during the 12th Aerospace Sciences and Aviation
Technology (ASAT) international exhibition in Cairo at the end of May, is aimed to
promote Nostromo’s Yarara and Caburé unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs),
developed by Nostromo, and an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), developed by
Ariegsa with assistance from Nostromo.
An undisclosed number of Yararas were purchased by the US Department of
Defense in 2006 for training purposes.
The variant being promoted in Egypt has an extended range and endurance and
has been fitted with a datalink provided by US company Avalon RF.
Nostromo’s Caburé short-range electrically powered UAV was displayed on a Gemini
unmanned surface vessel (USV): an effort to promote the UAV as a ship-launched
platform to provide surveillance and reconnaissance support for amphibious assault
landings.
Sources close to the project said that an agreement has been reached with the
Egyptian Ministry of Defence to carry out a series of test and evaluations of both
Yarara and Caburé UAVs.
Also displayed at ASAT were a prototype UGV developed by Ariegsa, with a land
navigation system from Nostromo and non-line-of-sight capability, and a Ariegsadeveloped
USV fitted with Nostromo guidance equipment, Avalon RF datalinks and
UAV launcher.
The two companies also presented a prototype small rotary-wing UAV fitted with
gimbaled daylight camera and GPS guidance system, which is planned to lead to
development of an operational system.
Equipment displays at ASAT attracted military delegations from Sudan, Libya, Syria
and other African and Middle Eastern countries.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2007 Jane's Information Group