Army to upgrade Raven UAV

The Army plans to bring a digital data link to its fleet of Raven UAVs so more aircraft can fly in a given combat area. The Army project manager says the service is buying 50 new Ravens and retrofitting 200 others. An executive with AeroVironment, a California company that makes the digital data link, says that with digitally compressed video more data can be put into smaller bandwidth. (Source: DefenseNews, 12/09/08). AeroVironment has a UAV training and support operation in Navarre, Fla.