UAVs and UCAVs

DMF

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"¢ Found some control room comparisons, the upper one is the USA predator drones' control platform, the down is a Chinese surveillance UAV control.
 

Galaxy

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Rustom-1completes 8th successful flight with gimbal payload assembly: DRDO

Rustom-1completes 8th successful flight with gimbal payload assembly: DRDO


FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2011




Indigenously-designed and developed Rustom-1 completed its 8th successful flight on December 8. It flew at an altitude of 6000-feet (max) and at a speed of 90 knots (max) during its 30 minutes flight near Hosur, claims DRDo. The highlight of the flight was that Rustom-1 was test flown with the 'gimbal payload assembly carrying daylight TV & Infra-Red camera for the first time. Good quality pictures were received from the camera in gimbal payload assembly.

P.S. Krishnan, Aeronautical Development Establishment Director said the flight was successful as all the systems worked well. He said all parameters were achieved by the aeroplane, which weights 661 kg and the total performance was satisfactory.

Tarmak007 -- A bold blog on Indian defence: Rustom-1completes 8th successful flight with gimbal payload assembly: DRDO
 

agentperry

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drdo is serious about rustom but dead for tejas. nothing like this is coming up for tejas. they just show it one ceremony every year and thats it. if this time drdo present tejas in republic day parade loaded over the trailer then they are gone- they will lose every bit of respect earned or what is supposed to be earned in the future
 

LETHALFORCE

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The ethics of unmanned vehicle warfare

The ethics of unmanned vehicle warfare

The U.S. military has faced criticism over the ethics of the use of the unmanned aerial vehicles as the number of strikes carried out with drones skyrocketed in recent years.

The premise for the criticism is that the robotic technology, formally called unmanned aerial vehicles, is a new type of weapon that has killed thousands of people in recent years, so it needs an entirely new ethical framework.

But others see it as a new style of weapon, not a new style of warfare.

"I think these questions would be more relevant if there had not been a human in the loop," said Guy Ben-Ari, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic International Studies, a Washington think tank. "Until we have the debate about whether or not to make these systems autonomous, I think that the ethics issue doesn't really come into play."

The way Ben-Ari sees it, as long as a human -- regardless of where that human is located -- is making the decisions behind a weapon's actions, the ethics should be viewed through the same lens that's used for other weapons.

"Just by virtue of keeping a human in the loop," he said. "You are self-insuring -- the military is self-insuring -- against any sort of misuse of these systems."

From 2004-07, the United States launched a total of nine drone strikes, followed by 33 in 2008, 53 in 2009, and 118 in 2010, and 70 in the first 10 1/2 months of 2011, a study by the New America Foundation, a non-partisan Washington think tank, stated.

This rapid increase can be attributed to a variety of factors, including technological advances and non-traditional wartime enemies.

UAVs, like the one that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric who called for attacked against U.S. interests, in a September drone strike in Yemen, are controlled remotely -- often from thousands of miles away -- and can launch strikes on specific targets. Despite their precision, they have been criticized for their potential to cause collateral casualties.

In 2010, 748 militants were killed by drone attacks and 46 non-militants were killed collaterally, the New America Foundation's recent report "The Year of the Drone" concluded.

Dan Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a conservative think tank in Virginia, argues that drones are more precise and careful than other alternatives.

"We can talk about SEAL team or a CIA paid assassin," he said, "but honestly, in terms of aerial munitions [drones are] just about the most discriminate capability we have."

Goure pointed to drones' ability to loiter and wait for the absolute best time to launch an attack, as well as the precision of the weapons drones carry. This "makes them much more discriminate and therefore moral, ethical, effective than what we had before," he said.

Asked to expand on drone policy, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, Pentagon spokesman, pointed reporters to a speech by the U.S. State Department legal adviser as the representation of the U.S. government's position.

In a speech, delivered March 24, 2010, at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law, Harold Hongju Koh said the United States, when engaged in war, isn't required to provide its targets with legal process before the use of lethal force.

"In U.S. operations against al-Qaida and its associated forces, including lethal operations conducted with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles," Koh said, "great care is taken to adhere to these principles in both planning and execution to ensure that only legitimate objectives are targeted and that collateral damage is kept to a minimum."

But because there's no question that drones are unprecedented weapons. And other experts -- such as Peter Singer of the non-partisan Brookings Institution in Washington -- say they warrant a new set of ethics.

"New technologies are game changers," Singer said. "And we should be asking tough questions about them. These are all sorts of questions that we haven't had to ask before."

While drone technology has advanced quickly, Singer said the ethics have moved at a "glacial pace."

"We can't develop a technology, put it out in the real world and decide after the fact that there needs to be laws and ethics attached to it," he said.

Drones are operated by pilots sitting in front of computer screens, which look similar to a video game, in locations such as New Mexico and Nevada. As distant as these controls are from the death and destruction they cause, the psychological impacts on the operator appear to be similar to those that combat pilots over the skies of Afghanistan experience.

Any discussion of drone ethics would be remiss to ignore this. To think that drone strikes are so remote that they don't affect an operator's psyche isn't wise, Singer said. Drone operators, despite carrying out a strike and then going home to their families all in the same day, still suffer from trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

"It's only the last few years that people have been even willing to talk about PTSD and it's still not something understood," Singer said. "So to think we have a handle on this new kind of experience of fighting from afar and its stresses after just a few years would be really arrogant of us."

Whether drone strikes will play a major role in the future of the U.S. military isn't in question -- they will.

If Singer had his way, the government would be designing official ethical guidelines for the use of drones but little formal action has been taken in this direction.
 

LETHALFORCE

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India to develop solar-powered UAV, scouts for partner

India to develop solar-powered UAV, scouts for partner - The Economic Times

BANGALORE: India is planning to develop a solar-powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and scouting for a foreign partner for collaboration.

The proposed solar-based UAV would have much longer flight duration - as high as 15 days - compared to conventional UAV, according to sources in the Bangalore-based Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a lab of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

"We are looking for collaboration with a foreign partner to develop this UAV", an ADE official said.

ADE has also developed Mini UAVs of two kg class, which is undergoing flight trials, and micro UAVs of 300 mm size. Both of these UAVs have been demonstrated to the users which included police from various states, paramilitary forces in addition to the three services. The orders in bulk are expected, sources said.

ADE has successfully developed Pilotless Target Aircraft Lakshya-I which can fly at a speed of 300 km/hr for 45 minutes. Three services have already placed order for more than 50 aircraft. Later, Lakshya-II was developed which flies at higher speed of 700 km/hr at altitudes as low as 25 metres with complete digital electronics. User trials were completed and this would be inducted shortly into the service.

Nishant UAV was developed with payload capacity of 60 kgs and endurance of four hours. This was accepted by the services, which have placed the orders for more than ten aircraft, the sources said.

"ADE has now developed modified and advanced Lakshya which has undergone trials with the users and we are working with the users for their applications," the official added
 

LETHALFORCE

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Aerostats: So that Indian Army can watch from above.

Aerostats: So that Indian Army can watch from above - Bangalore - DNA

Realising the importance of securing its own eyes in the sky India is developing two more aerostats The aerostats which would be designed and developed by the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment ADRDE will be an add-on to the tried-and-tested Akashdeep aerostat After Akashdeep�which was successfully tested up to 1-km altitude at Agra�the target altitude for the upcoming aerostats will be 3km and 6km The proposed aerostats which can be used as gap-fillers for radars are likely to have the capability to carry out surveillance up to a radius of 450km-500km Akashdeep has a surveillance capacity of up to 100km Apart from the armed forces the paramilitary forces too can use the aerostat for surveillance activities during night and in low-visibility conditions apart from having the capability to intercept a variety of communications Akashdeep which was demonstrated at Aero India 2011 is capable of carrying electro-optic and communication intelligence system COMINT payloads for surveillance The aerostat�s gimbals with 360� azimuth freedom can carry out steering scanning and tracking with high precision The ADRDE a Defence Research and Development Organisation laboratory based in Agra would also be making improvement on Akashdeep by improving its fabric and a few other features India requires about a dozen aerostats to act as gap-fillers on the border areas and had bought two Israeli EL M-2083 aerostat radars One of them was damaged in 2009 and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had pulled up the Indian Air Force for the mishap This damaged aerostat would be made operational only by 2012.
 

sesha_maruthi27

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Yeah, we are going in the right direction to secure our country from our mysterious neighbors...........:thumb:
 

Singh

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Aerostats: So that Indian Army can watch from above - Bangalore - DNA

Realising the importance of securing its own eyes in the sky India is developing two more aerostats

The aerostats which would be designed and developed by the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment ADRDE will be an add-on to the tried-and-tested Akashdeep aerostat After Akashdeep which was successfully tested up to 1-km altitude at Agra

the target altitude for the upcoming aerostats will be 3km and 6km The proposed aerostats which can be used as gap-fillers for radars are likely to have the capability to carry out surveillance up to a radius of 450km-500km

Akashdeep has a surveillance capacity of up to 100km

Apart from the armed forces the paramilitary forces too can use the aerostat for surveillance activities during night and in low-visibility conditions apart from having the capability to intercept a variety of communications

Akashdeep which was demonstrated at Aero India 2011 is capable of carrying electro-optic and communication intelligence system COMINT payloads for surveillance

The aerostat�s gimbals with 360� azimuth freedom can carry out steering scanning and tracking with high precision

The ADRDE a Defence Research and Development Organisation laboratory based in Agra would also be making improvement on Akashdeep by improving its fabric and a few other features India requires about a dozen aerostats to act as gap-fillers on the border areas and had bought two Israeli EL M-2083 aerostat radars

One of them was damaged in 2009 and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had pulled up the Indian Air Force for the mishap This damaged aerostat would be made operational only by 2012.
Which radar is being used in Akashdeep ? and why should we not use more Elta Aerostat radars ?
 

venkat

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Airforce officials operating aerostat Radar have screwed up the Radar slated for operation in punjab..The aerostat got extensively damaged and costs a lot to repair!!!! Aerostat Radars are luxury items as they are extremely vulnerable to high velocity winds and inclement weather!!!
 

nitesh

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India developing UAV like US's drone


Rustom-2 would have a wing-span of 21-odd metres and an endurance of 24-hours-plus, as against seven-odd metres and 12-15 hours of Rustom-1, which has already completed five flights. ADE is the nodal lab for these projects. Rustom-2 would have new payloads such as synthetic aperture radar, maritime patrol radar and collision avoidance system, among others, he said.
Asked if India is also developing unmanned aerial combat vehicles, DRDO's chief control (Controller) A Subhanando Rao said "we are thinking of that one. Some plans will be there".

Meanwhile, Rustom-1, the Medium Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (MALE - UAV), would be integrated with payloads by next month, Krishnan said. "We have demonstrated all the flying characteristics of the Rustom more or less in the final form".
India has also started working on solar-powered UAVs but is still at the R&D stage.

DRDO's Chief Controller (Aero) A Subhananda Rao said this solar-powered UAV would have an endurance of "almost one week".

"Solar power will have to be harnessed and energy converters of higher efficiency will have to be designed," Rao told reporters.

"A lot of technological challenges are there. But definitely we will be getting into that. We are making a case for project sanction," he added
 

LETHALFORCE

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Aerostat system detects cruise missiles and supports engagement

Aerostat system detects cruise missiles and supports engagement



Raytheon recently established a test site at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., for its cruise missile defense system - the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS).

Brig. Gen. Ole Knudson, the U.S. Army's Program Executive Officer for Missiles and Space, along with representatives from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala.; White Sands Missile Range; prime contractor Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems; and TCOM, the aerostat's manufacturer located in Elizabeth City, N.C., attended the test site's activation.

"JLENS provides an incredible capability," BG Knudson said. "It is strategically important in a lot of places in the world."

"This new test site will enable us to accelerate testing, training of soldiers and integration with Army and Navy air and missile defense systems," said Mark Rose, Raytheon's program director for JLENS.

"With JLENS testing going well at the Utah Training and Test Range, we will continue to put it through its paces to meet test and evaluation requirements demonstrating the system's readiness for deployment."

Detects, Tracks and Integrates
Testing is focusing on the JLENS' ability to detect, track and integrate with U.S. Army and Navy intercept systems to engage hostile targets, including cruise missiles and other air breathing aircraft, and stay aloft and operational for extended periods.

The system is also designed to detect surface threats on land and sea.

JLENS systems, each consisting of a tethered 74-meter aerostat, can be elevated to 10,000 feet. One aerostat elevates a surveillance radar that provides 360-degree coverage out for long distances over land and sea.

The other aerostat elevates a fire-control radar. Each of the aerostat platforms has the capability to integrate other communications and sensor systems.

Because JLENS is a tethered aerostat, it can remain airborne for long periods - up to 30 days at a time - providing persistent surveillance for extended periods at significantly less cost than surveillance aircraft performing the same mission.

JLENS is one of several radar systems that Raytheon designs and builds for applications such as situational awareness, air and missile defense, and air traffic management.
 

Poseidon

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US mulling sale of armed drones to allies including India.

15 Dec, 2011, 01.04PM IST, PTI
US mulling sale of armed drones to allies including India.

WASHINGTON: .US is eyeing to sell its battle proved armed drones to key allies, including India, but the move is being opposed by lawmakers who don't want the technology to be exported.

"The Pentagon wants more North Atlantic Treaty Organization members to have such pilotless aircraft to ease the burden on the US in Afghanistan and in future conflicts like the alliance's air campaign in Libya this year," Obama Administration officials were quoted by media reports.

It is believed that India would be one of the potential target countries for the US to sell its drones.

India has been purchasing drones from Israel for quite some time now, and has been developing its drone capabilities, but does not have armed drones like the Predators and Reapers used by US security agencies with devastating effect against al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan.

"The Pentagon's proposed sales have set off a behind-the-scenes debate between the administration and some members of Congress over whether the US should speed the spread of a technology that will allow other countries to carry out military strikes by remote control," the report said.

Drones have been highly successful in the war against terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan and also in countries like Yemen and Somalia.

However, the report some lawmakers are resisting to such a move from the Administration.

"There are some military technologies that I believe should not be shared with other countries, regardless of how close our partnership," said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein
 

nrj

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This is pending for almost year now.

US companies want to eat Indian marketshare currently dominated by Israelis.
 

Yusuf

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Same ones thats dropping from the skies? LOL.

I hope we get the next gen of it and not some old ones that they are contemplating to replace!
 

nitesh

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For use against maoists, and to shower love on the ones waiting near borders?
 

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