The EADS stand itself is spectacular covering a range of technologies from civillian Airbus work to the successful launch of a 3rd Skynet Satellite to complete a multi-billion pound deal from the UK MOD. Selected foreign Ministries of Defence will be able to purchase bandwidth in a new kind of pay as you go deal. Its worked for EADS and maybe an interesting way forward for high capital projects in an era of poor availability of finance. Various Crypto solutions were on display at EADS including miniature rack units that allow all systems on fighter jets to be activiated using a single key storage facility that can be installed quickly by the pilot on entering the cockpit. Like a military grade USB token.
At both shows and at last year's DSEi UAVs were strongly represented. The awe of these devices maybe fading but Artificial Intelligence is making remote piloting redundant, as they are capable of running their own misssions, navigation and deciding what intel to send through em emissions (RF) and therefore risk detection or what to wait for download back at base on mission debrief. Many land based UAV solutions made successful representations at Exhibitions in 2008, whilst less impressive than their aerial counterparts there is clearly a heightened need for their implementation given the return to wide-scale deployment of land forces in recent theatres. Threat recognition remains a key objective in software for UAVs that fly, drive or dive. Interestingly, it's the Lola coccooned BAE minehunting UAV that carries the greatest amount of its own armaments. Overall UAV development seems to be progressing away from traditional vehicle forms as the need for pilot consideration diminishes and instead low energy control surfaces enable solar assisted flight and record unmanned expedition durations for days, even weeks in certain cases. Removing the need for human design considerations seems to open up new possibilites for UAVs also in the area of unmanned helicopter technology which has been widely displayed in novel configurations this year.
