INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: AeroVironment
John Grabowsky
Executive Vice President and General Manager,
Unmanned Aircraft Systems
AeroVironment
John Grabowsky joined AV in 2003 to develop and expand its small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Prior to AV, he served as vice president and general manager of Teledyne OptoElectronics. Prior to OptoElectronics, he was VP of Teledyne’s broadband communications division, where he was responsible for developing their wideband Internet service initiative for the commercial airline traveler. Since Grabowsky joined AV, the company has introduced numerous small UAS and has become the world’s largest manufacturer of man-portable electric SUAS.
Q: What's AeroVironment's background?
A: Founded in 1971, AeroVironment [AV] is a technology company focused on developing and commercializing advanced solutions in unmanned aircraft systems and efficient electric energy systems. AV and its founder, Dr. Paul MacCready, created a series of world’sfirst innovations, including the first humanpowered aircraft, the first solar-powered manned aircraft, the modern electric car, the highest flying propeller-driven airplane and the world’s first liquid hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft.
Today we are a world leader in the development, production, sale and support of hand-launched unmanned aircraft systems and fast charge systems for electric material handling vehicles. The company also continues to develop innovative new solutions to target large market opportunities.
Q: And some of your key products?
A: Our small, hand-launched unmanned aircraft systems are all electrically powered, provide real-time reconnaissance and surveillance directly to warfighters, are quickly assembled and easily operated. They carry video cameras that enable ground units to gather overhead, visual information quickly and easily by sending streaming video directly to a handheld controller.
Raven is a 4.2 pound, 48 inch wingspan aircraft that can fly for up to 90 minutes and 10 kilometers from launch. Wasp III is a 1 pound, 26 inch wingspan aircraft that can fly for up to 45 minutes with both electrooptical and infrared video imagers.
Operators fly our aircraft and view the imagery with a common, handheld controller that includes a small video monitor.
Q: In a competitive field, what makes AV stand out?
A: In 2005 the U.S. Army selected Raven as its small UAS, followed by USSOCOM. This year the Marines decided to adopt Raven leading it to become a truly joint solution. The U.S. Air Force selected Wasp III in December of 2006, and has recently begun taking delivery. These systems have become embedded into the training, tactics and procedures of U.S. armed forces, and have been incorporated into our customers’ programs of record. Some of the attributes that seem to differentiate our systems from those of our competitors is their reliability, durability and ease of use. We offer complete training and logistics support to our customers in order to ensure high levels of operational availability. We have delivered over 6,000 small unmanned aircraft and many of them are in active use in the most demanding environments around the world. With tens of thousands of recorded hours of operation, our small UAS are battleproven and relied upon by the warfighter.
Q: How long has AV been active in this market?
A: We have worked with the military for a number of years, both on unmanned aircraft programs and efficient energy technologies. Our small UAS business accelerated during the past five years as a result of the global war on terror and the unique capabilities these systems provide to support the efforts of U.S. and allied forces.
Our Dragon Eye small UAS was the first program of record established by the U.S. military for this class of system. As a result we supplied Dragon Eye systems to the Marine Corps from 2003 through this year.
Q: What’s the future look like for AV?
A: We believe that there exists significant additional potential for the deployment of our small and micro UAS to lower levels of use within U.S. military. We have trained thousands of operators and our customers have deployed thousands of these aircraft through their organizations. We remain focused on supporting existing systems to ensure their continued reliability, as well as developing new and enhanced capabilities to increase their utility in order to support our customers’ needs.
We are also developing new capabilities that have the potential to provide significant new value to military and commercial customers. We are developing a high altitude, long endurance UAS that we call Global Observer, which is designed to fly in the stratosphere— up to 65,000 feet—for as many as seven days without refueling. This liquid hydrogenpowered aircraft is being designed to carry a variety of payloads to enable remote imaging, data relay, or telecommunications service.
Switchblade is another development program that involves packaging a high explosive charge into a small, tube-launched unmanned aircraft to create a weaponized UAS. Upon launching Switchblade the operator would control the aircraft using the same handheld controller that operates Raven and Wasp. After identifying a target such as a sniper or mortar launcher, they could designate the target and the aircraft would become a self-guided munition designed to eliminate the threat with minimal collateral damage.
We believe that our capabilities and system solutions are well-positioned to help our customers address the current threat environment through network-centric communications and organic capabilities. ♦