StoneAerospace and New Vistas International (NVI) have formed a partnership called "Team StoneAerospace" (TSA) with the goal of jointly exploring the feasibility of prototyping a variety of lethal and non-lethal munitions for unmanned aircraft systems, especially small UAS. We feel that it is now time to work with the military user community to develop requirements and rapidly prototype small munitions as a new form of "personal protection" for troops directly engaged in battle. We do not envision developing UAS per se, but will act as weapons developers and initial system integrators for existing UAS deployed in the field. We are very interested in working with military planners, UAS developers and larger system integrators in making this exciting new form of weaponry a reality as a logical extension of UAS capability on the battlefield. What TSA brings to the table is a network of highly qualified and capable military planners, hardware and software designers and developers, and munitions experts all focused on rapid prototyping, test and evaluation leading to field acceptance and system acquisition by the Government. Our team is also reaching out to other companies to match this new capability to the operations and training needs of the military. This end-to-end service will provide the user with turn-key solutions born and bread with the soldier in mind from initial planning to final acceptance and eventual commercialization. If successful, StoneAerospace intends to become a world leader in small smart munitions.

Team attributes: security clearances available, explosive licensing in progress, facility clearances in progress, access to the finest hardware and software developers in the nation--those now designing and testing NASA's next generation of automated robots for planetary exploration.

NVI is highly experienced in high technology Government/Industry partnerships and technology development for business purposes, especially in aviation and space. Mr. Dale Tietz, NVI President, has over 35 years experience in working aerospace programs at the national and international level where cooperation and collaboration are essential elements to making large projects successful. Mr. Tietz brings years of executive experience to StoneAerospace in the areas of weapons system design, concepts of operation and program development leading to acquisition. NVI is also experienced in Washington, DC operations at all levels of Government including the White House, DoD, NASA, FAA, DoC and Congress. NVI also has network affiliations internationally. Like Dr. Stone in exploring the unknown, Mr. Tietz has provided leadership and inspiration in developing the world's first high altitude, solar-powered, unmanned "virtual eternal aircraft" known as Helios. With assistance from the Department of Defense, NASA, the State of Hawaii and AeroVironment, he was part of the team that envisioned fielding "atmospheric satellites" for a broad range of applications. In 2001, Helios set the world altitude record of nearly 100,000 ft in Hawaii for a solar powered aircraft.