AWHero achieves the world’s first military certification in its class

Leonardo’s AWHero unmanned aerial system (UAS) becomes the first rotary wing drone in the world to achieve military certification.

AWHero received basic military certification from Italy’s DAAA (Direzione degli Armamenti Aeronautici e per l’Aeronavigabilità). This achievement marks the world’s first military certification for a rotary wing UAS (or RUAS) within the 200 kg class.

Through a press release, Leonardo reports that AWHero’s design, development, production and support meet the requirements of the military airworthiness authorities and provide the Armed Forces with the highest levels of safety, reliability and mission availability.

Military certification includes airborne operations. This military certification is also based on elements of the globally recognized STANAG4702 standard.

The AWHero design leverages Leonardo’s strength and extensive experience in helicopter development, systems integration and embarked helicopter operations. Since 2019, the platform has been conducting maritime surveillance capability demonstrations on ships under the OCEAN2020 initiative, the European Defense Fund’s strategic research program for naval surveillance technology and maritime security, which comprises 43 organizations across Europe and is led by Leonardo.

The certification milestone is particularly important as AWHero is being evaluated in international tenders. Specifically, the Northrop Grumman Australia and Leonardo Australia team was shortlisted to progress to the next phase of the SEA129 Phase 5 program for the procurement of an unmanned maritime airborne system designed to provide a deployable intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) and targeting capability to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).