EADS Military Aircraft has announced the successful first flight of the new Carapas high-speed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which took place earlier this month at the Biscarrosse missile test center in France.  

The new UAV is based on the Galileo Avionica Mirach 100-5 aerial target system and the test flight was used to check the system functions, as well as the operating procedures and technical installations at the test center.

This marks the start of a program scheduled to last until the end of this year and designed to demonstrate the Carapas’ mission sensors, data links and the associated ground link to facilitate mission planning, flight management, mission analysis and data fusion.

EADS claims the Carapas to be a world first in carrying two payloads in the form of an electro-optical and infrared sensor working in conjunction with electronic spectrum measurement. The company acknowledges that the test/demonstration program is to an extremely tight schedule but notes that the first flight is in line with the contract schedule.