Signus 35V, a multirole UAS designed by Autonomous Flight Technologies.

The Signus 35V is an advanced, long-endurance VTOL Small Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (STUAS) designed and manufactured by the Romanian company Autonomous Flight Technologies. It comprises three to five aircraft in a system, installed on a one ground vehicle or platform, be it a shelter or not. It can be operated by a team of three people with fixed or portable terminals.

Signus 35V, a multirole UAS designed by Autonomous Flight Technologies (Picture source: Army Recognition)

Autonomous Flight Technologies (AFT) has over ten years of experience in the unmanned aerial systemss (UAS) field. AFT has developed the UAS Hirrus family (Hirrus L and Hirrus XL) and the UAS Signus family (Signus 150 and Signus 35V). Of these, the Hirrus system has been tested and hologated with the Romanian ministry of Defense, and demonstrated by successfully participating to NATO Unified Vision 2014 and 2016 interoperability exercises organized in Norway.

The Hirrus and Signus families use the same command and control application, ground control terminal, autopilot, etc., which provide 100% interoperability between these systems, also in other NATO countries that require intel standardized data provided by UAS. AFT developed the autopilot, C2, EO/IR sensors, etc. and can produce the entire UAS system in its own factory.

The drone, motorized by an electronic fuel injection engine, has a take-off weight 25 and 45 kg following the payload that cannot exceed 4 to 6 kg for long-endurance missions. Precisely, the endurance varies from 12 hours (VTOL) to 24 hours (CLPAL). The range is around 80 km at a cruising speed between 90 and 120 kh/h, and the opoerational ceiling 4,500 meters.