Shipboard ISR Aircraft

[Kirkhill]

LBA Systems Debuts 'Astore Levante' at Farnborough Ahead of Italian Delivery - Naval News

At the 2026 Farnborough International Airshow, the newly operational Leonardo-Baykar joint venture, LBA Systems, unveiled its first product: the Astore Levante.

www.navalnews.com

GA-ASI Demonstrates Short Takeoff/Landing of UAS on UK Carrier

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) conducted a first-of-its-kind demonstration of its short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability on the HMS Prince of Wales, a Royal Navy aircraft carrier, using the Mojave Unmanned Aircraft System.

www.ga.com

Poland buys V-BAT surveillance drones in $16 million Shield AI deal

Poland has signed a contract worth approximately $16 million to purchase American-made V-BAT vertical takeoff and landing drones for its Navy, with the deal set to be completed before the end of 2026, Defence24 reported. The agreement, confirmed by Poland's

defence-blog.com

Canada Accepts First S-100 Uncrewed Maritime Rotorcraft for Royal Canadian Navy Halifax-Class Frigates

Canada has accepted its first Schiebel S-100 uncrewed maritime rotorcraft, designated CU179 Peregrine, for deployment from Halifax-class frigates. The system bolsters RCN ISTAR capabilities with persistent over-the-horizon surveillance.

thedefensewatch.com

New Leonardo UAS based on Bayraktar TB3 - ca 3 MUSD (280 kg and 5700 km / 24 hrs) - Turkish and Italian Navies
GA-ASI MQ-9 STOL - ca 30 MUSD (2200 kg and 11,000 km / 24 hrs) - Multiple shore-based users
Shield AI V-BAT MQ- ca 0.5 MUSD (18 kg and 1300 km / 12 hrs) - USN/USMC/USCG, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, India
CU-179 Peregrine - ca 0.5 MUSD (34 kg and 1000 km / 10 hrs)

 

[oldcpu]

I think developments such as this, are a reason why drones and unmanned vehicles are 100% essential, and also, I think such will not make the navies of the world obsolete.

Rather navies should do what you are doing, is review the technologies, consider their costs and capabilities, and embrace them, embrace the drone technology, where it makes sense, and ensure our future ships and maritime air efforts are structured/built to take full advantage of such.

I too find this interesting - even thou perhaps I differ slightly, where I believe sailors are still needed.

 

[Furniture]

I think developments such as this, are a reason why drones and unmanned vehicles are 100% essential, and also, I think such will not make the navies of the world obsolete.

Rather navies should do what you are doing, is review the technologies, consider their costs and capabilities, and embrace them, embrace the drone technology, where it makes sense, and ensure our future ships and maritime air efforts are structured/built to take full advantage of such.

I too find this interesting - even thou perhaps I differ slightly, where I believe sailors are still needed.

In 2012 I was deployed on HMCS Regina, we had UAS that had 12hr endurance... This stuff isn't new, and it isn't hard to make work.

Nobody at the time though UAS weren't useful... The government decided that CAF wasn't useful an cut budgets, so the CAF decided to preserve the high-cost, high-cost to re-establish skill over UAS.

UAS are awesome, but can we stop pretending they are "new"?

 

[oldcpu]

UAS are awesome, but can we stop pretending they are "new"?

I'm all for that viewpoint.

They IMHO are incredibly useful in a number of areas. In terms of surveillance they can useful with IR/Visual sensors, with R-ESM and possibly C-ESM interchangeable payloads. I also like that larger UAS could potentially both drop sonobuoys and relay sonobuoy transmissions back to friendly warships for signal processing of the sonobuoy reception.

Its hard to find out thou, in the unclassified press, the full extent to which the RCN is fully embracing such. My hope is the RCN will be given the funds such that the RCN can take full advantage of what is transpiring in the domain of UAS. I do fear that the current Canadian Armed Forces, and in particular the RCN manpower shortage, makes it very difficult for the RCN to adequately followup and man the project offices to properly procure such systems.

 

[Furniture]

I'm all for that viewpoint.

They IMHO are incredibly useful in a number of areas. In terms of surveillance they can useful with IR/Visual sensors, with R-ESM and possibly C-ESM interchangeable payloads. I also like that larger UAS could potentially both drop sonobuoys and relay sonobuoy transmissions back to friendly warships for signal processing of the sonobuoy reception.

Its hard to find out thou, in the unclassified press, the full extent to which the RCN is fully embracing such. My hope is the RCN will be given the funds such that the RCN can take full advantage of what is transpiring in the domain of UAS. I do fear that the current Canadian Armed Forces, and in particular the RCN manpower shortage, makes it very difficult for the RCN to adequately followup and man the project offices to properly procure such systems.

The RCN is going all-in on UAS/USV, and will push boundaries as much as they can be pushed.

From the outside it might appear that Ottawa is trying to hold things back, but in reality, Ottawa is trying to make the policy/process align with reality. Policy moves slowly, because policy requires consistency and vigor.

The commercial UAS that worked for HAL might not be the policy solution for the RCN...