Raven's Digital Datalink Offers Advantages In Data Transfer

摘要

Aero Vironment's (AV's) RQ-11 B Raven, a hand-launched aerial drone that is widely deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, is about to become the first Class I unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to use a digital datalink for communications and image-sharing. The US Army has signed a USD16.8 million contract with AV to build 50 new Ravens with a digital datalink and to retrofit the new datalink on 206 existing systems. At present all Class I UAVs in service with US forces use an analogue datalink, which requires large amounts of bandwidth and radio frequency spectrum to transmit realtime intelligence. The Raven's new digital datalink will significantly reduce the amount of bandwidth required for information sharing, including bandwidth-saturating activities such as sending full motion video, according to AV's Raven programme manager, Scott Newbern.