AeroVironment has announced that the General Directorate for Aircraft Weapon Systems (MoD - Italy) has issued a Military Aircraft Type-Classification Certificate for the Raven B unmanned aircraft system, the first such certificate issued in Italy in the Micro-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle category.

This certificate permits Italian military personnel to fly Raven in Italy's national airspace.

Italian MoD sources indicated that this decision highlights two key advantages to the Raven B System: its high reliability, coupled with its semiautonomous behavior, which permits flights over highly populated areas without limitation; as well as its light weight and simple operation.

As a result, the Raven B System will greatly increase the protection of Italian land forces in operations requiring reconnaissance at short range.

"Receiving this certification not only validates the Raven's battle-proven capability and reliability, but also represents an important step toward the operation of our small UAS in the national airspace of Italy, as well as in other NATO and European nations," said Ilker "Ike" Bayraktar, vice president of international initiatives.

"There are a number of important non-military applications such as border patrol and asset monitoring that our small UAS can perform, and we now look forward to performing these missions with the Italian government's approval."

AV anticipates that other NATO countries will emulate the process employed by AV and the Italian Ministry of Defense to pursue similar Raven B certification within their respective countries.

In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration has chartered an Aviation Rulemaking Committee to provide recommendations as to how to safely integrate small UAS into the National Airspace System.

AV's Raven is a 4.2-pound, backpackable, hand-launched sensor platform that provides day and night, real-time video imagery for "over the hill" and "around the corner" reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition in support of tactical units. U.S. and allied armed forces use Ravens extensively for missions such as base security, route reconnaissance, mission planning and force protection.

In addition to Raven, AV's small UAS include Puma AE and Wasp, which are also hand-launched and controlled by AV's hand-held ground control station.

AV's UAS logistics operation supports systems deployed worldwide to ensure a consistently high level of operational readiness. AV has delivered more than 11,000 small unmanned aircraft to date. International purchasers of Raven include Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia and Spain.