Leonardo’s state-of-the-art AWHero RUAS (Rotary Uncrewed Aerial System) has obtained preliminary military certification from Italy’s DAAA (Direzione degli Armamenti Aeronautici e per l’Aeronavigabilità), the executive body for Air Armaments and Airworthiness. This landmark milestone represents the world’s inaugural military certification for a RUAS within the 200kg category.
The design, development, production, and support of the AWHero align with military airworthiness authority standards, ensuring unmatched levels of mission safety, reliability, and availability for armed forces. The military certification encompasses embarked operations and emphasizes the resilience of AWHero’s design principles and methodology, setting the stage for further evolution, integration, and validation of advanced capabilities intended for the system. This military certification also draws upon aspects of the globally recognized STANAG4702 standard.
AWHero’s design capitalizes on Leonardo’s strengths and vast expertise in rotorcraft development, system integration, and embarked helicopter operations. Since 2019, the platform has been performing maritime surveillance capability demonstrations aboard vessels as part of the OCEAN2020 initiative, the European Defence Fund’s strategic research program for naval surveillance technology and maritime safety, comprising 43 organizations across Europe, spearheaded by Leonardo.
AWHero is additionally under review in global tenders. The collaboration between Northrop Grumman Australia and Leonardo Australia has been shortlisted to advance to the subsequent phase of the SEA129 Phase 5 program, which aims to procure a maritime uncrewed aerial system designed to provide deployable intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting capabilities to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The Northrop Grumman and Leonardo proposal will strengthen capability results and tactical decision-making during RAN maritime operations.
Leonardo stands out as the sole company in Europe capable of delivering comprehensive solutions by designing and developing all components of unmanned systems: platforms, sensors, mission systems, control stations, and offering clients a certified low-risk, highly effective, fully integrated solution.
Leonardo is a vital partner and contributor to major European drone initiatives, with its expertise and capabilities in the field being significantly showcased during international exercises. Leonardo has innovated uncrewed systems and technologies, including anti-drone solutions and unmanned traffic management (UTM) systems.
The ongoing development and integration of cutting-edge solutions across all realms of remotely piloted and autonomous/semi-autonomous systems and technologies are central to Leonardo’s BeTomorrow2030 Strategic Plan.
