Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Thales, Skydweller Team on Solar-powered Surveillance UAV
Long-endurance drone adds artificial intelligence capabilities
Skydweller MAPS aircraft
© Skydweller

Thales is teaming up with Skydweller to equip the latter’s medium-altitude pseudo-satellite (MAPS), a large solar-powered drone, with a radar surveillance system designed for autonomous maritime patrol operations.

The Skydweller MAPS aircraft will feature Thales’ Airmaster S “smart” radar system, which combines artificial intelligence (AI) software with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) X-band radar. According to Thales, the AI capabilities have already been successfully demonstrated on Dassault Aviation ATL2 long-range maritime patrol aircraft operated by the French Navy.

In this article