Lt. Governor Rutherford Announces Maryland Company Will Join Effort to Fight Infectious Diseases in Ghana

First Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems for Humanitarian Efforts

ANNAPOLIS, MD – At the Paris Air Show, Maryland Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford joined Paul Ausley, president of Ausley Associates Inc., and Gavin Brown, executive director of the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association (MAMA), to announce that MAMA has selected Ausley as a partner in its Humanitarian Emergency Logistics Program (HELP), which provides routine and emergency medical care to the Republic of Ghana through a network of regional medical centers. Ausley will provide unmanned systems operations to distribute critical medical supplies in Ghana.

“This partnership is another example of how Maryland companies use their advanced technologies for the greater good,” said Lt. Governor Rutherford. “Founded in Maryland nearly 20 years ago to serve public, private, and government customers, Ausley’s unmanned platforms will now provide much-needed medical assistance to disadvantaged communities halfway around the world.”

Founded in 1997 and based in Lexington Park, Md., Ausley is a small business focused on unmanned aircraft systems and fighter aircraft acquisition and engineering. Through this partnership with MAMA, Ausley will provide an array of services including operations, logistics, management, airspace coordination, frequency management, and flying and scheduling of the unmanned cargo aircraft. The company will manage the export of donated materials and medical supplies through the Port of Baltimore and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

“For the first time, the world will witness a large-scale deployment of unmanned systems for humanitarian efforts,” said Mr. Ausley. “Our extensive experience in maturing operational concepts and fielding unmanned systems positions Ausley as the best option for operating these systems with MAMA in this groundbreaking effort.”

“As we saw recently following the outbreak of Ebola, the countries of West Africa are susceptible to severe medical emergencies and need MAMA’s HELP to contain them,” said Mr. Brown. “We are committed to working with Ghanaian officials to ensure their country is in a position to fight and eliminate infectious disease outbreaks in the future.”

The Ghana effort is the first proof-of-concept deployment of MAMA-HELP and will deploy in Ghana within two to three years.

Ausley was recently selected by the Alliance for System Safety of Unmanned Aircraft Systems through Research Excellence (ASSURE) as a teammate to operate the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (COE UAS). The team includes more than a dozen of the top UAS universities throughout the world and over 100 government and industry partners. Ausley will work with the FAA and the ASSURE team to integrate new technologies and advance the use of UASs in the areas of precision agriculture, mining, and construction.