Sentient Vision Systems Joins Team for Air 7003

On 4 September General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) announced the further expansion of Team Reaper Australia, the industry team first announced at Avalon 2017, to address the Project Air 7003 requirement for multi-mission remotely piloted aircraft (RPA aka UAS). The programme will provide the Australian Defence Force (ADF) with an armed medium altitude long endurance (MALE) RPA system that will include aircraft and ground control stations that will be fully interoperable with Australia’s allies.

Sentient Vision Systems, the newest team member, is the only Australian provider of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) solutions that has been an integral part of every Australian UAS programme to date. The inclusion of Sentient Vision further reinforces Team Reaper Australia as a highly competent solution to meet the Air 7003 requirement.

The team now consists of ten Australian companies providing a range of innovative sensor, communication, manufacturing and life-cycle support capabilities: Airspeed, CAE Australia, Cobham Australia, Flight Data Systems, Quickstep Holdings, Raytheon Australia, Rockwell Collins, TAE Aerospace, Ultra Electronics and now Sentient Vision Systems.

“General Atomics recognises the importance of having a robust team of Australian industry partners to support the Air 7003 requirements,” commented GA-ASI CEO, Linden Blue. “We continue to be committed to partnerships with Australian industry and to providing a capable, affordable RPA system to the Australian Defence Force.”

“Sentient is proud of our close collaboration with the Australian Government. From our foundations of the Defence Science and Technology Group’s Capability and Technology Demonstrator (CTD) programme to our proud history of deployments in support of the Australian warfighter, Sentient sees the inclusion of our ViDAR wide area motion imagery payload as a part of Team Reaper Australia in support of the Air 7003 requirement as a reinforcement of Australian leadership in advanced autonomy,” added Sentient’s Director of Business Development, Strategy and Partnerships, Simon Olsen.