The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has placed an order to buy a helium-filled aerostat, allied airborne equipment and operator training in Jacksonville, Florida, US from Drone Aviation Holding (DAC).

In August, EPA awarded a contract to DAC for a customised winch system and related equipment under the agency’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) programme for emissions sampling using tethered aerostats.

Drone Aviation Holding chairman Jay Nussbaum said: "With this purchase by the EPA, we have further strengthened our relationship with this important government agency and continue to demonstrate the value of our tethered aerostat systems.

"Furthermore, we are providing operational training ensuring that the new systems are used safely and effectively in the NRMRL’s aerial missions."

"We are providing operational training ensuring that the new systems are used safely and effectively in the NRMRL’s aerial missions."

Since 2010, NRMRL has been conducting aerial sampling of emissions using tethered aerostats, which carries gas and particle sampling instruments to an altitude of up to 400ft to capture emissions from various sources, including waste fires, burning oil plumes and forest fire smoke.

The NRMRL programme uses DAC’s helium filled aerostats, winches and related hardware developed on the technologies of winch aerostat small platform (WASP) aerostat systems.

A highly tactical and mobile aerostat system, WASP offers intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and communications range extension services mainly to the US Army.

The US Army owns and operates WASP systems and uses them in its battlefields to support ground soldiers in remote areas for days, weeks or months.

In October, DAC delivered two of its enhanced WASP XL aerostat systems to a specialised defence contractor customer.