Textron’s Remote-Controlled Flying Bomb

Textron Defense Systems has a new flying drone that’s designed to explode on contact with enemy positions.
The compact BattleHawk Squad Level Loitering Munition is armed with a 40mm high-fragmentation charge. It has a video camera built into its nose, so ground troops can remotely pilot it over rooftops or hills to attack hiding enemy forces.
The BattleHawk weighs about five pounds when it’s packed inside its special launching tube. A spring propels the drone into the air and the electric motor starts up the tiny, rear propeller.
“Once it’s launched, it’s armed,” Mick Guthals, director of Business Strategy & Capture at Textron, said while displaying the BattleHawk at the Air Force Association’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. Sept. 17–19.
Using a small remote control, ground troops can fly the BattleHawk at speeds up to 60 miles per hour for approximately 30 minutes. The BattleHawk is designed to attack dismounted enemy and light-skinned vehicles, Textron officials said.

One hundred U.S. drones destroyed in 5 years

According to the website Drone Wars UK , the U.S. military has lost at least 100 UAVs since 2007 (15 in 2012). The latest is a Predator that pilots of the National Guard of Ohio (162nd Reconnaissance Squadron) had to crash against an Afghan mountain (click here to read the official press release).

The world’s leading combat UAVs

As the typical demands of a conflict evolve, air forces across the world are examining the possibility of carrying out attacks without endangering the lives of servicemen. Unmanned combat UAVs, having been developed from their reconnaissance predecessors, offer just that solution.

Although aircraft such as the MQ-9 Reaper have seen substantial action in conflicts within Iraq and Afghanistan, a whole raft of new UCAVs possessing new and emerging capabilities are beginning to come to the fore.

Perhaps the most notable of which are the European duo of BAE's Taranis and Dassault's nEUROn programme.

A recent memorandum of understanding signed between the governments of France and the UK have outlined a future collaboration on the development of a UCAV, combining the strengths of both the Taranis and nEUROn projects. Any subsequent vehicle promises to more than match the current family of UCAVs.

Taranis

        The Taranis air vehicle is approximately the same size as the BAE Systems Hawk advanced jet trainer

BAE System's Taranis UCAV, unveiled in July 2010, is the culmination of a £143m joint programme to design an unmanned air vehicle demonstrator.

Once fully developed, the Taranis will be capable of delivering weapons to a battlefield in another continent with a high level of autonomy, filling capability gaps in the RAF's future fleet.

Navy carriers prepare for X-47B unmanned aircraft arrival next year

The Navy is one year away from landing its first unmanned jet aircraft aboard a carrier after completing the most recent round of surrogate tests aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).

In early July, members from the Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration (UCAS-D) carrier integration team engaged in extensive software testing aboard Truman to validate the concept of autonomous UAV operations around an aircraft carrier and prepare for the X-47B unmanned aircraft’s arrival on a carrier next year.

“Demonstrating our concept of operations and making sure the Carrier Segment is performing as advertised is a huge milestone for the program,” said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, Navy UCAS program manager. “The crew, equipment, and program team performed exceptionally well during all planned test events and the Harry S Truman is ready for our next phase of X-47B testing.”

Last year, the team conducted surrogate testing aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) with a manned F/A-18 to evaluate ship systems, avionics systems and early versions of the unmanned vehicle software. The team is now back at sea aboard Truman with the F/A-18 aircraft, testing precision landing performance with the latest X-47B software and hardware configuration.

Where The UAVs Go After Afghanistan

When the U.S. pulls most of its forces out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, over a hundred large (Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk) U.S. Air Force UAVs will go with them. Most of these will not go back to the United States. There is great demand for these UAVs in South America and the Pacific.
In Colombia, American intelligence advisors are eager to have these large UAVs to track drug gang and leftist rebel operations. Colombian troops see the UAVs as a way to track down the remaining leftist rebel leaders and locate well hidden cocaine operations. The U.S. Air Force has new sensors they believe can detect hidden camps and drug operations hidden in tropical woodlands. These sensors have been successful in forested areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In the Pacific, American advisors in the Philippines want to bring the same kind of surveillance to seek out Islamic terrorists and leftist rebels there. In South Korea UAVs can fly just south of the DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea) and see many kilometers into North Korea. Global Hawk UAVs fly at 20,000 meters altitude and can see into most of North Korea, for hours at a time. Even though all these UAVs will stay out of North Korean air space, the North Korean have an extensive (although antiquated) air defense system and a well-deserved reputation for aggressiveness. For the U.S. Air Force, this would be an opportunity to test UAV defensive measures for operating in more hostile environments.
Meanwhile, Afghan security forces are not looking forward to losing all their UAV support. Some of the large American UAVs will remain behind, including the CIA ones that hunt down and kill terrorist leaders across the border in Pakistan. But the current plan is to remove over a hundred of these UAVs from the region. A few will return to the United States to assist in training airmen who operate and maintain these aircraft. But most will continue on to other overseas hotspots where their services are needed.

India's Secret Unmanned Stealth Bomber

U.S. Navy to install Linux on VTOL drones

The U.S. Navy will begin installing the Linux operating system on its vertical take-off (VTOL) drones. For now, the military branch only has one VTOL drone, but will eventually have 168.

The new deal is with military contractor Raytheon, worth $28 million, and will cover a "Linux transition on the tactical control system software for vertical take-off (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle ground control stations."

K-MAX Makes First Flights In Afghanistan

Pakistan’s first domestically produced armed drone: The Burraq UCAV

Since the war on terror started in Afghanistan back in 2001, the United States Air Force has employed various different UAV platforms to target insurgents and the Taliban. Both on Afghan soil as well as in Pakistani territory, with the covert approval of the Pakistan government. Observing the efficacy of UAV platforms like the Predator, the Pakistani military establishment requested the United States to equip it with UAVs so that the war on terror could be prosecuted with more efficacy on the part of the Pakistani military. However these requests were denied repeatedly and America cited the potential use of these UAV platforms in military theaters outside the Afghan Pakistan border (i.e. India) as a flimsy excuse. Faced with these denials, but unwavering in its resolve to achieve its objectives, Pakistan undertook a domestic UAV development program. Even prior to Predator requisition requests being turned down, the Pakistani military had already invested in various autonomous target drones, built both by the private and public sectors. Here at TechLahore, we covered Pakistani drone developments a couple of years ago. In fact, we pointed out that the level of sophistication was such that – in a rather ironic twist -private Pakistani drone  manufacturers were exporting UAVs even to the United States homeland security department for oversight applications on the US-Mexico border.
 
Since then, much has happened. Pakistan entered into a deal with the Italian firm, Selex-Galileo, for the licensed production of fairly capable UAV aircraft at the Kamra Aeronautical facilities. In addition, the Pakistan Navy also acquired rotorcraft drones from foreign sources. Separately, the Pakistan Army has pursued partnerships with China and has incented local manufacturers to continue to develop more advanced platforms within the country. One of the more promising UCAV projects currently in progress in Pakistan is the Burraq armed drone. Burraq is envisioned as a high endurance, long-range, over the horizon, armed UAV aircraft. For the last four years it has been under development and rumors are now surfacing that it may be ready for deployment. At the recent Zhuhai airshow in China, in which the Pakistan Air Force participated with its JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft, Chinese manufacturers also displayed miniaturized lightweight missiles that were particularly suited for carriage on a drone. Various parts of this sprawling Pakistani drone development program are coming together, in partnership with China – weapons development, control systems development, propulsion, airframe, ground stations and much else. The Burraq will only the first in a line of capable, armed Pakistani drones.
 
And soon. The Burraq, it seems, will be flying in early 2012.

The Pakistani UAV program is a wonderful example of the breadth of technological capability that exists in the country, its ability to collaborate internationally without relying on problem-ridden dealings with America, and the benefits of investing in local development and local manufacturing as opposed to wiring a ton of money to a foreign country and importing somebody else’s equipment (Saudi Arabia style). As with the JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft, Pakistan will discover that the flexibility of owning and running a domestically developed military platform allows unending customization, full control of capabilities, and absolutely no worries with regards to security or someone else knowing its true performance, or even inhibiting the capabilities by doctoring the IFF system or other internal electronics. Not only that, but for private technological firms based in Pakistan a program of this nature creates tremendous economic opportunity. A variety of different inputs, ranging from materials to software to optics to electronics and propulsion technologies are required to build a high-tech UAV. A sophisticated military program such as the Burraq will lead not only to an improvement in Pakistan’s defensive and offensive military capabilities, but also in significant benefits for the economy and local industry.
 
We hope that in future, with military programs such as Burraq, the continued development of the spectacularly successful JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft and its various space technology ventures, Pakistan will continue to create domestic research and development capabilities which will ensure a brighter future for its people and a credible defense against any would-be aggressor.

Elbit Systems Ltd's G NIUS advantguard unmanned ground system

Elbit system Ltd

Building on the autonomous capabilities developed by G-NIUS for the Guardium UGV system, as well as the TAGS inherent maneuverability in harsh terrain, AvantGuard UGCV expands the applications envelope of unmanned vehicles to encompass Counter IED (CIED) and ground maneuvering combat missions.

The autonomous vehicle configuration utilizes advanced robotics and sensor technologies, allowing it to "think", avoiding obstacles and communicating with the operator or other vehicles. The AvantGuard is controlled by a mobile or portable Operational Control Unit (OCU), and can also operate with dismounted or mounted combat teams.