Bahrain Airshow: Skyranger UAS offers lightweight surveillance solution

It can also handle inclement weather and wind gusts of up to 90 km/h.

 

Skyranger's lithium-polymer battery pack gives it a duration of up to 45-50 minutes and can can be changed in seconds. Its GPS unit is built-in to the battery pack so that it, too, can be swapped in seconds in the event of failure.

 

Bilal Maadarani, director of sales, Middle East and Africa, for Datron (pictured), the Skyranger's manufacturer says that they are being used “all over the world”.

 

“Being virtually silent, it is especially useful to armies, special forces and other groups, but I can't tell you who has it or where it is being used,” Maadara teased. “Except that is being deployed all over the Middle East.”

 

The lightweight quad-copter can also whiz along at up to 35km/h, but that isn't its biggest surprise. It is totally autonomous, able to go to its pre-selected location, do its job, and then return and land with no intervention.

 

“You can also control it with the supplied tablet computer,” said Maadara. “Just click your stylus on the tablet's map to tell it where you want it to go, set the altitude you require and off it goes. And if it detects any attempt at jamming it is programmed to climb to its maximum altitude (to try and avoid the jamming signal) and return to its base.”

 

The live video feed can also be displayed on the tablet computer, making it a very portable solution

 

The manufacturers are confident that if any enemy forces do spot the Skyranger in flight over their location, it may well be the last thing they see.

 

Janada: www.janada.net