Autonomous Warrior 2022

The Silvertone team was thrilled to return to Jervis Bay for the Royal Australian Navy’s Autonomous Warrior exercise in May 2022.

With 40hrs of flight time over 6 days of operations, the Flamingo Mk3 proved a reliable platform as a communications relay, linking unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to other unmanned vehicles and back to EXCON command room. Operating between 3000 and 6500 feet AMSL, and up to 30km away, the Flamingo Mk3 was transmitting video feed and data from multiple USVs as well as it's own video feed from the onboard CM62 gimbal supplied by Ascent Vision Technology. All facilitated by carrying multiple Silvus mesh radios on the one platform.

It was a successful run for the team again following our last trip to this event in 2018. Especially pleasing was the reliability of the Flamingo Mk3 despite the weather, navigating around storm cells and remaining clear of cloud was a new challenge for the team and the entire system.

Some other great results for the Flamingo Mk3:

  • 30km Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS)

  • 6500' AMSL

  • 6 days, 40 hours flying

  • Operations around rain and above cloud

  • Service provider to RAN

  • Maritime surveillance

  • ISR live feed

  • Communications Relay to Offshore Unmanned Surface Vessels

  • Dual payload radios

Our team at AW ‘22:

  • Travis Downie

  • Sam Cowen

  • Steve Keep - Pilot

  • Jordan Kendall

  • Jeremey Randall

  • Wayne Girdlestone

  • Gerry Gerlach

We look forward to working with the Australian Royal Navy and other defence forces in the future.

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Cristy Houghton