Once again the drones and pilots of the military corps are protagonistsAssociation of Italian Knights of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a special auxiliary military corps of the Army, with the interesting innovation given by the use of a fixed-wing UAS of entirely Italian construction and design, the "Guardian".
Together with the now tested quadcopters, this UAS was one of the main elements of the missing search and rescue exercise "Oculus Caeli 2023" developed in Pontecurone (AL) by the personnel of Special Aid Operational Unit (NOSS) of the body together with the local Civil Protection.
The objective of the activity was to consolidate the interoperability of the various UAS assets supplied with ground research carried out by dog trainers and civil protection personnel, also testing the fixed-wing UAS asset in long-duration missions.
The military corps of the Order of Malta has been operating with UAS since 2018 in support of the Army and local authorities throughout the national territory, in particular in the event of natural disasters. The Army competition involves the use of UAS assets in multiple modes. It is not limited to video-photographic shooting for public information purposes and aerial reconnaissance to increase the realism and safety of training activities but, above all, dedicated to training activities on the use of commercial mini UAVs both for the personnel of the operational units and of future executives of the Armed Forces. For example, this year alone, all the officer students of the 203rd and 204th courses of the Modena Academy were trained, and the officers of the 202nd course at the Application School of the Army in addition to designated personnel from several brigades.
Returning to the "Oculus Caeli" exercise, the professionals and enthusiasts of the subject present at the activity were particularly impressed by the brand new UAS Guardian supplied with the body. First of all for the long autonomy, further extendable thanks to the solar panel integrated into the wing, which in the demonstration on 28 October, with an autumn sun, remained in flight for 7 hours returning with still a decent battery charge.
The peculiarity of this aircraft is not given by its already excellent performance (weight 1,9 kg and the possibility of being dismantled and transported in any backpack) but by the combination of completely Italian software and structures. This completely eliminates the risks, even just potential, linked to the use of foreign products in terms of unwanted access to information and systems.
This indisputable advantage led the military corps of the Order of Malta to decide to combine its quadcopter UAS (whose software has already been reclaimed) with fixed-wing UAS of the "Guardian" type, allowing on the one hand to enormously expand the range of its capabilities and on the other to strengthen data security in operations.
Il Special Aid Operational Unit It currently already has four UAS in its possession Guardian, of which two dedicated to pilot training (equipped with a stabilized 4K EO camera with 10x zoom) and two dedicated to operational support (equipped with an EO+IR camera with 40x and 20x optical zoom).
