The U.S. space and defense business arm of Airbus has unveiled a new business line focused on helping the Department of Defense meet its demand for uncrewed aircraft systems to detect and counter threats.
Brian Zarchin, a retired U.S. Army aviator, will oversee Airbus U.S. Space & Defense’s UAS business line, which will operate with a team of former military UAS operators, industry experts, engineers, maintainers and stratospheric aviation professionals that will help DOD employ and scale unmanned platforms, the company said Thursday.
Rob Geckle, chairman and CEO of Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, said the business line and its team will work to equip warfighters with the technologies they need to make informed decisions in countering threats.
“And while the Zephyr stratospheric platform is our foundational UAS program, we envision multiple UAS solutions supporting a range of customer missions and operational needs,” added Geckle, a 2023 Wash100 awardee.
Zephyr is a fixed-wing stratospheric platform that recorded 64 days of continuous flight for over 30,000 nautical miles at an altitude of over 60,000 feet.
Airbus U.S. Space & Defense operates a stratospheric center of excellence in Huntsville, Alabama, to support collaboration with clients and facilitate payload integration and command and control for the solar-powered Zephyr platform designed to meet warfighters’ deep sensing and network extension requirements.
