Feral Jundi

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Podcasts: Drone Archer Weapons–AeroVironment Talks About The Switchblade

Filed under: Podcasts,Weapons — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 3:26 PM

The price for these things has yet to be determined. I was also interested to hear that these are ‘one time use’ SUAV’s. Which leads one to think did they purposely make them one time use so that the military would have to buy more of them, or is it just technically impossible to re-use the device if it has been flown?

As for further thoughts about the Switchblade, I personally think that this system should be launched out of pre-existing launchers in the US inventory. Something like the SMAW or the M-3 MAAWS would be excellent launchers to sling SUAV’s out of.  I also know that a few companies have experimented with launching SUAV’s out of artillery or from rocket pods on helicopters. To me, it just makes sense to use anti-tank/bunker buster teams as drone archers of a company/unit and utilize the tools they are already familiar with and carrying.

If there was a Switchblade that could be launched out of a M 3 MAAWS, then AeroVironment could take advantage of a global market that uses those weapon systems. Or even develop a SUAV that could be launched from a RPG launcher? The market for both of those launchers would be massive, just because they are used all over the world.

The other thing that must be looked at is control and situational awareness.  I am particularly interested in the RQ 14 Dragon Eye system, because it uses a video goggle. That is a great path to go for control and there has been some movement towards this, and especially in the civilian world. Vuzix is one company that makes a monocular that could help the soldier on the ground maintain situational awareness, and yet still fly the drone. Or you could have the gunner wear this, and the targeting specialist wear 3D or panoramic goggles. You need one guy to be on the lookout as the other guy’s attention is on flying the drone. And of course the computer used in all of this would be a smart phone or similar sized device.

What I really like about this set up is that if a team runs out of drones, they could switch back to standard munitions for their weapon system. They could put away their goggle and smart phone, and go back to being anti-tank or anti-material bunker busters if need be.  Just some thoughts on the matter, and just a recap on what I have talked about in the past. –Matt

Listen to it here.

 

‘Backpack-able drones’ could soon be deployed to troops on ground
10/28/2011
By Jack Moore
Drones — officially known as unmanned aerial systems — have patrolled the U.S.-Mexico border and targeted terrorist leaders halfway across the world. Someday fighters and bombers will likely even be unmanned.
And now one company has learned how to downsize the latest weapon of war to a size small enough to fit in a soldier’s backpack.
Steven Gitlin, vice president of Aerovironment, which creates the backpackable drone — formally known as the Switchblade Agile Munition Systems — joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris to discuss how it works.
The Switchblade air vehicle launches from a small tube that can be carried in a backpack. It also transmits live color video wirelessly.

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Thursday, September 1, 2011

Weapons: Drone Archer Weapon–US Army Awards AeroVironment $4.9 Million Contract For Switchblade Drone

Filed under: Aviation,Video,Weapons — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 12:56 PM

To quote the Joker, ‘Now You’re Talking’. lol It’s about time the Army invests in this weapon. Like I mentioned before, every contact with the enemy could produce tons of intel using drone archer weapons, and most of all, produce some kills. Or hey, if we really get good at this game, use the drones for non-lethal means and stun the prey so we can capture and get even more intel.

Weapons like this will also allow competent drone archer teams to take advantage of the chaos of a battle. As soon as the battle starts, these things go up and the hunters begin to hunt from a flank (the air) that most enemies are not prepared for. Not only can we see from the air with these devices, but we can kill, and that puts a lot of capability in the hands of small unit leaders.

Having a drone that can not only watch enemy movements during the battle, but could actually track the enemy as they try to escape is a tool that can be used for ‘relentless pursuit‘. (h/t to Eeben for that) And this also gives a squad leader choices. They can either watch with the drone and call it back if they can’t get a kill, or use the drone as a kamikaze weapon.

This weapon also helps in the ‘locate, close with, and destroy’ mission. Because as you close with that enemy, you need to be able to see if they are staying put while maneuvering upon their elements. You can also use the drone to see any terrain or enemy positions that a ground based observer could not see. This information is vital for a squad’s decision making loop (OODA) as they are trying to gain advantage in their fight and get a win.

Which by the way….. Something we can take from the insurgents here, is their methods for suicide assaults.  Swarming is what they are depending upon–or to do a breach with one suicide bomber, then swarm in with multiple suicide assaulters fighting their way into pockets of human concentration to detonate. A drone archer team could probably take some interesting ideas from this process, as well as learn from the old Japanese Kamikaze attack strategies. I also like the idea of including these weapons within the strategic planning for an assault. Much like how you would use a SMAW team for initiating an assault, a drone archer team could have similar utility.

I also like the idea of being able to fly this thing across a canyon or to the tops of hills during a fight. I am sure most combatants have no respect for small drones at this time, thinking that they are not armed. I would love to see the expression on a booger eater’s face when they see that little thing slam right into their team and blow up. lol Or how about ten of those little drones swarming like some bees, and just plowing into targets of opportunity during a fight? And meanwhile the infantry is pouring on the lead and any other munitions to keep the enemy busy. That chaos, will provide plenty of opportunities for a drone archer team. Lots of ideas here….

I guess my intent is that I would like to see this weapon used to defeat hit and run tactics. These tactics are what insurgents depend upon for success against infantry units, and I would like to see drone archer tactics contribute to countering hit and run. In other words, if the enemy wants to expose themselves with a ‘hit’, then I want to deploy a weapon that will get them during the ‘hit’ and/or during the ‘run’ portion of that fight. We will see….-Matt

 

 

U.S. Army Awards AeroVironment $4.9 Million Contract for Switchblade Agile Munition Systems and Services
September 01 2011
AeroVironment, Inc. announced that it received a contract on June 29 from the U.S. Army Close Combat Weapons Systems (CCWS), Program Executive Office Missiles and Space (PEO MS). The $4,907,840 contract for the Switchblade agile munition includes engineering services and operational systems for deployment with the U.S. Army.
This award represents the culmination of years of development, testing, demonstrations and customer evaluations. The prototype Switchblade system previously received Safety Confirmation and underwent Military Utility Assessment with the U.S. Army in the fall of 2010. The award is for rapid fielding of this capability to deployed combat forces.

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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

DIY: Printable UAV’s, DIY Drones, And Dronepedia

Filed under: Aviation,DIY,Technology — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 1:03 PM

This is a quick one, and falls under the Opensource Military Hardware concept.  Imagine this–building a weaponized drone using open source maker’s sites like DIY Drones and Dronepedia and utilizing a 3D printer to make hundreds if not thousands of them? That is where all of this stuff is going, and the possibilities are endless.

The other reason why I wanted to bring this up is that this kind of thing is definitely competition for the defense industries that specialize in UAV sales. Why buy an expensive drone from a company when you can just print out a bunch of them? And because anyone can access the information on how to build these things, then now you have the ability to continuously improve your drone program based on the input of the crowds.

My last point to bring up with this is that as this technology becomes cheaper and more available, then the odds of these things being used by criminals or terrorists increase. The other day, a DIY crew made a drone that could hack into computers via Wifi, and it is only a matter of time until we see the bad guys use this stuff to do all sorts of interesting things. Or even today’s terrorists/enemies, and all of the possible deadly uses of drones.  Cartels or pirates could also get into the game of making and using drones. Especially for pirates, because drones could help them to find vessels to take down. Perhaps having shotguns for site security will be a required weapon in the near future? Or some kind of grenade launcher outfitted with special rounds to counter drone attacks?

Now what I would be interested to see is a drone that could be launched by an RPG launcher, and either used for surveillance or as a flying missile. A drone that you could quickly get into the air and use it as a ‘bird of prey’ for a fire fight.  Or something that you could launch and have it fly farther than any of your unit’s weapon’s effective ranges, and have the ability to locate and destroy an enemy across the canyon or up in the hills. Something like that could end one of these DShK cross canyon ambushes, and especially if you did not have CAS on deck to deal with the attackers. While everyone is returning fire, this drone could be launched and flown above enemy positions so precise targeting data could be collected, or targets of opportunity could be taken out by the drone itself. –Matt

 

Friday, July 29, 2011

Aviation: Drone Archer Weapon–The Vanguard Defense Shadowhawk UAV

Filed under: Aviation — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 1:59 PM

Thanks to Mad Duo over at Kit Up for posting this one. I am always on the lookout for potential drone archer weapons, or UAV’s that are small and lethal. I believe tools like this can enhance the lethality of a small unit. The more we can put that capability of small lethal drones in their hands, the more options a small unit has on the battlefield.

The specifics that interested me about this UAV is that they are able to equip the thing with a 40mm grenade launcher and FLIR. Although for a platform like this, I would much rather see a precision weapon system. It would be the ultimate aerial sniper platform, and especially if they can get the stabilization game down. In this case, you could use the drone archer more like a sniper team on the battlefield, and less as a hammer that is armed with just explosive drones.

The down side with this UAV is flight time and it’s durability. If an enemy sniper is able to get one shot on this thing, they could take it out. A shotgun or drone hunter UAV would be some tools that could counter such a weapon. So the thing with this weapon is it might be best served for aerial surveillance/tracking and helping with targeting. Who knows, and what is required is to get weapons like this into the hands of the troops, and let them find it’s utility. –Matt

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Technology: Using Hyperspectral Satellites To Find IED’s, Tunnels, Caves And Other ‘War Stuff’

Filed under: Afghanistan,Aviation,Technology — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 1:20 PM

     Exactly what sorts of objects and substances ARTEMIS is able to pick out of its region-spanning hyperspectral cubes is a military secret. However this briefing pdf given in 2006 by US airforce lab officials suggests that it was expected to pierce overhead camouflage that would deceive optical or thermal sensing; that it would be able to spot disturbed earth and “concealed adits” (that is cave or tunnel entrances invisible from above) and generally “detect and identify” unspecified “targets”.

     Evidently the TacSat-3 can do at least some of this, as we now learn that following a year as an experiment it has proved so successful that it is now being handed over to US air force Space Command to become a full-time operational asset – America’s first hyperspectral spy sat.

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   If true, this could be pretty significant.  A satellite like this could also be used to identify minerals in certain areas, enemy emplacements, tunnels, you name it.  I am sure there will be an army of analysts going over the information, as well as super computers, all with the focus of uncovering the battlefield secrets of our wars. That is pretty cool if it can work as advertised.

   It also looks like a commander in the field who has a AN/PRC 117F, can actually tap into the feeds of this hyperspectral satellite, and get some close to real time information on his battle space.  I am sure the satellite can identify all sorts of stuff that might be valuable to a commander out in the field, and give him the heads up on targets and things of interest. There might even be some non-military applications for this thing, that could help out the commander as well. (farming, road construction, etc.)

    Also, a satellite like this might help to find Osama Bin Laden.  I mean if it can find caves or tunnels, then we could conceivably find the coordinates of every tunnel in our areas of focus in Pakistan or Afghanistan. You could also probably fine tune the satellite to pick up the signatures of any of the tools of warfare that these guys would have.  Sat phones, bombs, gun metal, etc. Who knows, but I do know that this project was given top priority and fielded at a break neck speed. Interesting stuff.

   For this industry, the one thing that this satellite could do, to help out the enormous contractor logistics battle we are fighting, is to watch the roads for us, and somehow get that information out to the masses if there is an IED hole or whatever.  Stuff like this could not only save the lives of military folks, but contractors as well, and increase the success rate of cargo delivery.

    Finally, one idea for this thing is to use bomber drones who can drop sensor drones on top of these targets identified by the satellite.  The idea being is that you could use thousands of sensor drones (that are also equipped with warheads), and land them on these targets identified by the satellites.  If these sensor drones actually had sniffers or small cameras to identify wires or whatever, the sensor drone could report that to the operator and they could determine the course of action. What is great about sensor drones like this, is that you could use them to detonate the IED, or to kill the enemy if they try to destroy the drone.(use it drone archer style)  If it is a child or innocent that is just curious, just fly the sensor drone away to keep it out of their hands. Or give commands through the thing, and tell them to stay away. If you cannot recover the drone, then just blow it up or use a safer self destruct ‘elephant chisel’ mechanism. And the way things are going now, drones that could perform this task are getting cheaper, smaller, smarter, faster, and more feasible for this kind of mission. –Matt

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New prototype US spy satellite rushed into active use

‘Hyperspectral cube’ eye can spot buried bombs, tunnels

By Lewis Page

June 11, 2010

An experimental “hyperspectral” spy sat which is able to detect buried roadside bombs and concealed cave or tunnel entrances has been handed over to the US forces for operational use in the Wars on Stuff.

The TacSat-3 was launched aboard a Minotaur-1 rocket along with several other small satellites from Wallops Island, Virginia, in May 2009. The TacSat was designed to prove the US concept of “operationally responsive space”, where a military user can make a request and a small inexpensive satellite can be in a suitable orbit within days rather than months or years.

Thus the TacSat is designed to be fitted with a variety of different payloads as required by an operational commander. TacSat-3, as a prototype, carried one in particular known as the Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer, or ARTEMIS. This is a “hyperspectral” sensor able to detect not just visible light but infrared and ultraviolet as well.

The idea of hyperspectral sensing is not, however, merely to “see” in the usual sense of optical telescopes, infrared nightscopes and/or thermal imagers. This kind of detection is used on spy satellites and other surveillance systems, but it suffers from the so-called “drinking straw effect” – that is, you can only view a small area in enough detail to pick out information of interest. It’s impossible to cover an entire nation or region in any length of time by such means; you have to know where to look in advance.

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