- Rheinmetall said Germany’s Bundeswehr Aviation Authority granted provisional airworthiness certification for its LUNA NG unmanned reconnaissance system.
- Full type certification is still pending, the company said.
- LUNA NG completed about 150 flights totaling about 200 hours in trials under civil operating licences, Rheinmetall said.
DÜSSELDORF, Germany — Rheinmetall AG said the Bundeswehr Aviation Authority, known as LufABw, has granted provisional airworthiness certification for its LUNA NG unmanned reconnaissance drone.
The German defense company said in an emailed press release today that the decision completes a key step toward intended type certification. Work on obtaining full type certification is ongoing, it said.
Rheinmetall said the provisional certificate allows the military drone to be integrated into regular, restricted airspace and that LUNA NG meets civil safety standards, rather than being limited to purely military areas. The company said that compliance with civil aviation test procedures paves the way for regular flights over densely populated European territory. Those flights were not reported as having begun under the new certificate.
Mike Schmidt, chief executive of Rheinmetall’s Air Unmanned Space business unit, said: “Certification is carried out according to the same standards as for large aircraft, such as an A320. A particular challenge in this case was that critical components, such as the autopilot or safety-critical navigation systems, had to be developed and certified in-house. There are simply no certified systems for tactical unmanned aerial vehicles on the market.”
Trials and Bundeswehr Use
Rheinmetall said LUNA NG’s technical maturity had been shown in flight trials under civil operating licences, with about 150 flights and approximately 200 flight hours. It said the first Bundeswehr pilots and verifiers had been trained on the system and that qualified personnel are available for independent operation for training and testing.
The Bundeswehr is introducing LUNA NG under the designation HUSAR, or Highly Efficient Unmanned System for Medium-Range Reconnaissance, the company said. The system is designed for sustained airborne reconnaissance, classification, and real-time detection of objects, with a flight time of more than 12 hours.
Rheinmetall is a German defense and technology group headquartered in Düsseldorf.