Rotary UAS Achieves World’s First Military Certification in its Class

Leonardo’s leading-edge AWHero Rotary-wing Unmanned Aerial System (RUAS) has received basic military certification from the Italian Ministry of Defense’s Direzione degli Armamenti Aeronautici e per l’Aeronavigabilità (DAAA), the Directorate for Air Armaments and Airworthiness. This achievement marks the world’s first military certification for a RUAS in the 200kg class.

AWHero’s design, development, production and support meet military airworthiness authority requirements delivering the highest levels of mission safety, reliability and availability to Armed Forces. The military certification includes embarked operations and highlights the robustness of AWHero’s design criteria and approach, paving the way for further development, integration and validation of expanded capabilities designed and planned for the system. This military certification is also based on elements of the worldwide recognised STANAG4702 standard. 

Since 2019, the platform has been conducting maritime surveillance capability demonstrations on ships within the framework of the OCEAN2020 initiative, the European Defense Fund strategic research program for naval surveillance technology and maritime safety, comprising 43 organisations across Europe and led by Leonardo.

AWHero is also being evaluated in international tenders. Northrop Grumman Australia and Leonardo Australia’s team has been shortlisted to proceed to the next phase of the SEA129 Phase 5 program for the acquisition of a maritime UAS designed to deliver a deployable intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting capability to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The Northrop Grumman and Leonardo proposal will enhance capability effects and tactical decision-making during RAN maritime operations.

Leonardo is the only company in Europe which is able to provide complete solutions by designing and developing all the elements of unmanned systems: platforms, sensors, mission systems, control stations and offer customers a certified low risk, high effective, fully integrated capability.