Applied Aeronautics announced its flagship Albatross UAV is now available in an NDAA-compliant variant. Applied Aeronautics has released this latest upgrade for their popular Albatross platform in response to a growing demand for robust, low-cost solutions from the defense community.

Albatross-US will see all critical onboard avionics, including autopilot, GPS, C2 equipment, and payloads replaced with NDAA compliant technology. Applied Aeronautics CEO Ryan Johnston remarked, "We've been building out compliant platforms in recent years on an as-needed basis, but a recent surge in demand from the military space has made it necessary to standardise this offering to ensure we can respond rapidly to the needs of our customers with solutions that check all boxes both in terms of capability, and compliance."

By combining high performance with unparalleled low cost, the Albatross UAV is rapidly becoming a platform of choice for a wide range of military applications, including training, simulated warfare, surveillance, asset inspection, and research and development. In 2021, Applied Aeronautics was awarded multiple contracts from the United States Navy and several other branches of the United States Government. The company looks to expand its footprint with this and other soon-to-be-released defense-centric offerings in the coming months.

Albatross-US was explicitly designed to meet the needs of the warfighter and features the following specifications: 256 bit AES encrypted long-range C2 link; up to 4 hours of flight time; fully autonomous takeoff and landing; optional high definition EO/IR camera with AI tracking capabilities; target painting with MGRS target location; modular and redundant communication links; up to 4 kg available payload capacity; and one-man operable.