Emerging Australian company reaches for the sky

An emerging Australian company is set to revolutionise the unmanned aerial vehicle battle space after landing a major deal with an American manufacturer.

Melbourne-based Recoilless Technologies International Corp Limited (RTI) will join UAV manufacturer, Tactical Aerospace Group (TAG), after signing a joint commercialisation agreement.

TAG has been operating for almost a decade and has made a name for itself in the marketplace. “Although TAG’s advanced tactical UAVs have been in high demand, this new agreement will redefine the level of their war fighting capabilities and the requirements for all UAVs,” said RTI chairman Mr Richard Giza.

“RTI has the skills and capability to develop a recoilless ballistic armament system for TAG’s UAVs that will not only satisfy the capability requirements of ‘Detect First’, but combine the much needed ‘Strike First’ capability without placing valuable human resources in harm’s way or disrupting the flight pattern of the TAG rotary wing UAVs,” said Mr Giza.

The global marketplace for UAV technology is expanding, particularly in the US. While UAV technology has played a key role in the US Future Combat Systems requirements, the development of a new Weaponised Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (WUAV), has the possibility of reshaping not only the capability requirements of the US, but other Allied countries, including Australia, by adding a valuable tactical advantage to existing ‘Detect First’ systems.

“This is simply the first step of the realisation of a larger capability enhancement for all Allied Forces,” said Mr Giza.

“With the effective elimination and control of recoil, in not only small-calibre systems, such as will be used in TAG’s UAV products, but also larger calibre weapons systems, defence capabilities will be significantly enhanced. The adoption of this revolutionary recoilless technology is now possible following the successful production of lightweight prototypes and independent ballistic testing,” he said.