Mark Russel, Business Development Director, Middle East/Africa and Milton S Quiros, Director of International Business Development, AeroVironment Inc. at EDEX 2023.
With over 50 years of expertise in the global defence arena, AeroVironment (AV), a US defence company focusing on autonomous solutions, is eyeing the Egyptian defence market to expand its operations in the African region.
Milton S Quiros, Director of International Business Development, AeroVironment Inc., told Arabian Defence that Egypt has been a customer of AV for the last 8 years and the company now focuses on marketing its latest Medium UAS- Jump 20. “Egypt has been a main customer of our products and the prime focus is to market Jump 20 to the Egyptian army followed by the Navy and the Air Force,” he said.
The Jump 20 is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), fixed-wing unmanned aircraft used to provide advanced multi-sensor intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) services. Delivering 14+ hours of endurance and an operational range of 185 km (115 mi), the Jump 20 is ideal for multi-mission operations. Runway independent, the system can be set up and operational in less than 60 minutes without the need for launch or recovery equipment.
With a reusable payload capacity of up to 30 pounds, the Jump 20 offers flexible payload options utilizing industry-leading imaging sensors such as ARCAM 45D, long-range EO/MWIR as well as onboard tracking, stabilization and video processing. In addition to the multi-mission payload bay and superior optics, the Jump 20 features a common autopilot and ground control system architecture providing a highly customizable, modular platform which can be custom-configured to meet operational or customer requirements.
Mark Russel, Business Development Director, Middle East/Africa, AeroVironment Inc. said that AV pushes the limits of what’s possible, creating game-changing autonomous technologies that broaden horizons, expand capabilities, and set new standards for performance.
“We are also marketing the Puma Long Endurance (LE) and Puma All Environment (AE) UAS in the African region. We are looking at other countries, for example, we bagged an order for Puma AE from Ghana. Puma AE is used in over 56 countries and Egypt has around 350 of them. We also offer our Unmanned Ground Systems in Egypt,” Russel said.
