LUNA TUAS Reaches Operational Milestone

EMT has announced that its LUNA tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (TUAS) has completed its 50th flight sortie with an EASA certified Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) transponder in Afghanistan. The new ADS-B transponder ensures electronic visibility to the air traffic controller, enabling better coordination of unmanned and manned aircraft in air space.

The LUNA UAV has been in operation in Afghanistan with the German Army since 2003. According to EMT, the system’s growing capabilities, including IMINT, SAR, SIGINT, and CBRN are leading to further international operations. 

LUNA is a small-operational footprint, runway-independent TUAS. It can deploy a wide range of payloads such as EO/IR, SAR, SIGINT or CBRN sensors, and relay payloads. LUNA can stay aloft for 8 hours. It is designed for flexibility to respond to fast-changing mission requirements. The close and organic integration of the runway- independent LUNA TUAS in army units provides near real-time availability of ISR results at the tactical level. 

Sascha Lange, business development manager for EMT, said: ‘This is a big leap forward for us and our customer, the Bundeswehr. With the addition of the ADS-B transponder, flight operations of the proven LUNA tactical UAS are now even safer, because this option eases airspace integration.