Leonardo has inaugurated a new plant in Pisa dedicated to the development and production of the remote piloted helicopter AWHERO. During the ceremony, in the presence of national and local authorities including the President of the Tuscany Region Enrico Rossi and Deputy Mayor of Pisa Raffaella Bonsangue, and of industry representatives, the first pre-production helicopter was also officially presented.
Alessandro Profumo, CEO of Leonardo, said: "I am pleased to inaugurate this new structure because it is representative of the road Leonardo is going through: we invest in the latest technology and highly qualified resources to respond to a rapidly growing market. The unmanned aircraft sector is one of the pillars of our growth strategy and we want to become a market leader in this field".
The opening of the plant, with a staff of 60 people, and the presentation of the first helicopter with even more advanced capabilities are two important goals for AWHERO, a program that has grown significantly over the years. Launched in the 2012 as part of a joint venture with IDS SpA., Sistemi Dinamici SpA., this program was acquired entirely by Leonardo in the 2016.
With the AWHERO Leonardo has expanded the range of helicopters remotely piloted, which also includes theSW-4 Solo, and consolidated its capabilities as a systems integrator, developing platforms, equipment and sensors and thus becoming even more competitive in a rapidly growing market. The opening of the new plant in Pisa also expands the presence of Leonardo in Tuscany, where the Company designs and manufactures a wide range of products in the defense, security and space sectors with over 1800 employees in the existing offices in Campi Bisenzio ( Florence), Montevarchi (Arezzo) and Livorno.
Compared to the original variant and that has flown up to now, the AWHERO of pre-production presented today and weighing about 200 kg is the first with modified structure and aerodynamics, a new feeding system, a new rotor transmission shaft of tail and a new engine with liquid cooling. This helicopter made the first flight, lasting 10 minutes, in Neptune, near Rome, in December 2018. A second pre-production helicopter will fly in a few months while awaiting the Italian military certification expected at the end of the 2019.
Insights
AWHERO is a state-of-the-art helicopter (RUAS - Rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial System), which embodies Leonardo's experience in helicopter design and system integration. AWHERO responds to current and future market requirements for ever more extensive operational capabilities through the use of remote piloted systems. Developed for terrestrial and naval operations, under the banner of maximum versatility, AWHERO is the perfect solution in terms of cost / effectiveness for tasks such as monitoring of environmental assets and critical infrastructures, support for rescue operations and civil protection, assessment of damages in case of disasters and border surveillance.
With an autonomy of over 6 hours, AWHERO is designed to offer low operating costs and optimize maintenance activities, is equipped with multiple redundancies of all the main critical systems to ensure maximum reliability, a payload able to meet different requirements of mission and personalization and can carry out naval operations. The payload may include radar (such as the Leonardo Gabbiano TS Ultra Light), electro-optical systems, electronic protection systems, LiDAR, advanced communication systems. For naval tasks, the helicopter is equipped with control and autopilot systems developed specifically to allow the installation and take-off of ships in fully automatic mode. The AWHERO will be fully integrated into all scenarios where land and naval missions are planned with the use of a mix of various aircraft with and without pilot on board.
In the 2019 the new helicopter will be employed on ship for demonstrations of operational capability in the field of maritime surveillance in the context of the program's initiatives OCEAN 2020, in which Leonardo leads a group of 42 European aerospace companies. OCEAN 2020 is a strategic research program of the European Defense Fund for marine surveillance and security technology. AWHERO is also being evaluated by various customers all over the world.
Leonardo in the field of remote piloting systems
Leonardo is one of the few companies in the world to possess a wide range of technologies in the UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) sector: from aircraft like Falco, Sky-Y, SW-4 RUAS / OPH and AWHERO only, to small drones for surveillance and information gathering, to European collaborations in programs MALE RPAS and nEUROn. Leonardo is also the only European company able to provide unmanned missions technologies ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance), integrating platforms, radar and electro-optical sensors and control systems. The platforms Ruas Leonardo have amply demonstrated their abilities through programs of the Italian and United Kingdom Ministries of Defense and during international exercises and are able to respond to future requirements for joint operations between systems with and without pilot on board.
Leonardo, a global high-tech company, is among the first companies in the world in Aerospace, Defense and Security and the leading Italian industrial company. Organized into five business divisions, Leonardo has a significant industrial presence in Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland and the USA, where it also operates through subsidiaries such as Leonardo DRS (defense electronics) and joint ventures and participations: ATR, MBDA, Telespazio, ThalesAlenia Space and Avio. Leonardo competes on the most important international markets by leveraging its areas of technological and product leadership (Helicopters, Airplanes, Aerostructures, Electronics, Cyber Security and Space). Listed on the Milan Stock Exchange (LDO), in the 2017 Leonardo recorded consolidated restated revenues equal to 11,7 billion and invested 1,5 billion euros in Research and Development. The Group from 2010 is within the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices.