UAVs and UCAVs

[LETHALFORCE]

Next generation of military aircraft will be unmanned

Next generation of military aircraft will be unmanned

The role of unmanned aerial vehicles in future will increase, Russian Air Force Commander-in-chief Maj. Gen. Viktor Bondarev told Interfax. "The trends for weapons of armed struggle, including combat aviation, give reason to believe that sixth-generation military aerial vehicles will be mostly unmanned. This concerns fighters, bombers and strategic bombers," the commander said.

"The technical progress and information technology development is occurring at such a pace that a man, pilot, operator already has to stretch himself to the limit of his physical and psychological abilities," Viktor Bondarev said.

"And what will happen tomorrow, at the next stage of scientific and technological development? Man simply cannot keep up, he cannot realize all the potential of new next-generation aircraft. Involuntarily, he has already delegated some of his duties to the machine, be it an artificial intellect or an on-board supercomputer," the commander said.

Both Russia and other countries "are working on the drone theme, work on strategic drones is going at full speed," he said.

"They are keeping low profile. But we know that such work is being carried out. And it has already yielded some results. Every now and one can see from stories on military operations in any particular region the results of unmanned aviation.

Many drones are involved in operations conducted by the U.S. and their allies in the Middle and Near East. It will suffice to recall how one U.S. drone recently became a trophy of the Iranian air defense force," the Air Force commander said.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Drones, UAV: what is better?

Drones, UAV: what is better?


Recently Russia has celebrated 100th anniversary of establishing of Russian air force. While celebrating 100th anniversary I have noticed a very important statement which was made by our President Mr. Putin which I welcome. I was insisting on that for the last ten years, more than ten years.

What I mean - Mr. Putin said - the Russian air industry and the Russian air force are going to develop in a broad way the unmanned aerial vehicles, said Gennady Yevstafiev - retired Lieutenant General of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service in an interview to the Voice of Russia.

Meaning the drones?
Some people say that these are drones. No, it is not absolutely correct because drones have their place in the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) but if we look into the terminology drone is a prepositioned unmanned vehicle which is flying along a certain line, according to certain air plan and it is not manipulated from the ground, it has been made to fly and after flying it comes back without really changing its air plan.

And the UAVs?
The unmanned aerial vehicles are so sophisticated that there is a new term and it is called remote piloted unmanned aircraft (RPA). And this is the latest stage of development of this sphere. Mr. Putin made a point that we are going to have the attack unmanned vehicles and reconnaissance - these are two different lines of development of unmanned vehicles.

And it is closely connected with what I have said before - RPA opens a broad sphere of implementation of Russian technological knowhow which exists but which was under some suppression because there was a theoretical discussion whether we need this or we don't need this. Now the discussion is over.

Are you saying the US had no such discussions?
For a number of years there was a discussion in American military circles, at the end of the last century exactly, whether the American forces needed the unmanned aerial vehicles or not. During the conflicts they were taking part, they came to a definite conclusion that it is a very important line of development of air force.

But as I've been talking to some pilots, they seem to be somehow looking down to those UAVs.

It is natural that air force people who are the pilots of the air force, they don't like those people sitting with the joysticks and manipulating the aerial vehicles. But mind you in the States there is a special base which is the Holloman Air Base in New Mexico and up to now they have already trained about 1300 people to pilot aerial vehicles, and most of them are not only reconnaissance but most of them are attack vehicles which are really piloted online and they could attack the target any time you want them to attack, every time you see the enemy on the ground you can immediately attack.

But that what makes them look like blind killer things, you know. But then their use has been growing.

The American society cannot allow big losses of real pilots from the air force and that's why the unmanned vehicles allow to really exclude big losses in pilots' lives. Of course the unmanned vehicles, including the attack vehicles are very vulnerable, there is no doubt. They are used in special situations because in the countries which have strong anti-aircraft system this comparatively slow-moving air vehicles are very vulnerable.

So, they are vulnerable and as far as I understand they are expensive, but like we said their use has been growing. Why?

In the conflicts with the American participation now there is no any real counterforce to American unmanned aerial vehicles, that's why they are using them broadly in the Afghan war, in the Iraqi situation and during the attack on the territory of Pakistan.

Frankly speaking of course it is not a sure fact that unmanned aerial vehicles are not vulnerable, yes, they are vulnerable and technically there are quite substantial losses but there is no human loss. Technical loss could be really recuperated whereas the human loss is really irretrievable.

Of course the main function of those devices, of course we know it is a military function, but do you think that they could also be used outside of the military sphere?

Yes, that's the main factor which is very disturbing because the US has created a number of bases specifically for unmanned aerial vehicles. There is one base in Yemen, there is another base in Africa and given the fact that African air defense is very weak we are going to see extremely broad use of aerial vehicles on the African subcontinent.

But there is another field of use of these vehicles, for example there are vehicles which could sustain about sixty hours in the air and these vehicles can pick up huge payload.

And for the reconnaissance purposes they are loitering along the Russian border, they could loiter sixty hours and really work very effectively in the reconnaissance area having on board special equipment.

So, the fact that Americans are using, and they are leaders in this field, mind you, they are effectively using these vehicles in the fight against the terrorists, it is the established fact. And we also fight the terrorists and we also need this kind of thing. Maybe sooner or later we will come to a conclusion that we also need some abroad bases for this kind of vehicles but we are still far from that. Let's wait and see how it is going to develop.

Do you remember Sir, there's been some discussion in the US of whether they could be used to monitor the situation in the streets or perhaps to monitor the situation during major demonstrations, for policing etc. And the public was not exactly enthusiastic about being monitored from somewhere up in the skies.

That's true. Let me put it this way - in the West there was a very long and rather tedious discussion on whether it is good or not to have this kind of thing. And many air force men who were accustomed to the piloted aircraft were against this kind of thing because they couldn't imagine that there are people sitting on the ground with the joysticks that operate remote air craft.

They considered that the art of piloting is disappearing because it was considered that this art was a human exercise but now it has become really sort of technical gadget.

But it totally coincides with the idea of the distanced war. That is the kind of theory which was propagated by American military people that it is very important to have the so called distanced war in which even pilots of the aircraft should not come into the contact with the enemy's air defense.

This is some sort of further development of the idea of fire and forget. This was a theory and it's been practiced, and especially in Yugoslavia conflict when they fired at the Yugoslav air defense without coming into the area of the air defense of Yugoslavian army.

So, this is some sort of another line of development of the military strategy and we should not be behind that. By the way the conflict with Georgia which happened four years ago clearly showed that we at that concrete period lacked the necessary amount and quality of unmanned aerial vehicles and that's why we were really forced to send the airplanes for even reconnaissance purposes which were not really the type which should have been used at that time.

So, I'm absolutely clear that the discussion and arguments which were on both sides of the barricades have effectively ended. And the statement of the President clearly shows that this is something we are going to develop and this effectively puts an end to this kind of discussion.

So, in this sense I really look forward to see a major breakthrough in the Russian military attitude towards unmanned aerial vehicles, their use in the military operations and a very serious breakthrough in the industry of producing this kind of important military equipment of the 21st century because this technology was considered one of the two technologies which would define the face of air force and the air force related fields in the 21st century.

Sir, thank you so much. And just to remind you our guest speaker was our expert Gennady Yevstafiev - retired Lieutenant General of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

Source: Voice of Russia

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Benefits Of Nuclear UAVs

Benefits Of Nuclear UAVs


In March, Sandia National Laboratories released a summary of research it had conducted with Northrop Grumman's unmanned systems division concerning an "ultra-persistent propulsion and power system" for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The conclusion was that UAVs could be built with longer endurance and lower operating cost than with hydrogen or hydrocarbon fuel, creating "unmatched global capabilities to observe and preempt terrorist and weapon of mass destruction activities."

An earlier Sandia study concluded that such a UAV could be tested within a decade. It will not be, because it is nuclear-powered, and politics make it impossible. But the technical and operational case is powerful.

Non-solar-powered UAVs, such as Boeing's hydrogen-fueled Phantom Eye and Aurora Flight Sciences' Orion, are expected to deliver multi-day endurance. But they cannot carry large payloads or provide much electrical power, and are slow, so have to be forward-based. They are also restricted to propeller propulsion, which makes stealth unattainable.

The Sandia-Northrop activity is linked to studies of nuclear-powered UAVs in the U.S. Air Force that started in the mid-1990s, not long after the Advanced Airborne Reconnaissance System, a conventionally powered long-endurance stealth drone planned in the 1980s to track Soviet mobile nuclear missiles, was terminated.

Sandia was heavily involved by 2001. A paper from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments noted that Sandia's Special Projects Department had proposed an "extremely long-endurance vehicle (ELEV)" or "air-breathing satellite." The ELEV could fly at 70,000 ft. and stay on station for six months to a year with up to a 5,000-lb. payload. According to Sandia, building a modern nuclear-turbojet engine "would not be an R&D project," the CSBA report stated, "but rather an engineering development effort that could culminate in a flight test within a decade."

Boeing's Phantom Works was involved with the design of the nuclear UAV, a high-subsonic, blended-wing body. Propulsion was based on concepts that emerged from the Airborne Nuclear Power (ANP) program of the 1950s, which was intended to lead to a strategic missile carrier that would remain on continuous airborne alert for a week or more. It combined two turbojet engines with a reactor. ANP looked at two designs: "direct cycle," in which the engine airflow cooled the reactor; and "indirect cycle," in which a liquid-metal coolant carried heat from the reactor to the engine.

The 2000-era UAV enjoyed three advantages over ANP, which struggled to reach a performance level where the aircraft could fly. Two stemmed from the fact that it was a UAV, which could take advantage of the propulsion system's endurance. Planners envisioned features such as magnetic engine bearings to eliminate oil. Importantly, more than half the weight of the ANP propulsion system was radiation shielding, which could be reduced in a system that would not run at full power near humans. (In the Sandia studies, the engines burned jet fuel for takeoff and landing.) A USAF study of a Global Hawk with a nuclear engine indicated it might need only 2,700 lb. of shielding.

The third advantage was improved reactor technology. Air Force interest in ELEV coincided with the winding-down of the Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion technology program, in which Sandia was also involved. SNTP started in 1987 as the Strategic Defense Initiative Office's Project Timberwind, aimed at producing a nuclear-thermal rocket (developing thrust by superheating hydrogen) for a missile interceptor, but was canceled after the Cold War. A Timberwind rocket engine would have incorporated a particle bed reactor (PBR), with some designs weighing as little as 2,000 lb., using carbon-carbon and ceramic-matrix composites.

New reactor designs are safer. They "would only hurt you if they fell on you," it has been suggested, because of specially fabricated and shielded fuel elements and robust "poison" systems to perform an emergency shutdown. It is not known whether a PBR or a different modern reactor technology was the basis for the ELEV concept or the Sandia-Northrop Grumman study, which covered eight heat sources, three power conversion systems, two dual-cycle propulsion systems and an electrical generation system. However, it was stated in 2001 that the propulsion system would power the aircraft while delivering several hundred kilowatts to onboard radar, communications and electronic attack systems. Conventional turbine engines optimized for range and fuel consumption and sized for typical UAVs struggle to deliver 50+ kw at altitude.

 

[H.A.]

Pakistan Defense Minister Syed Naveed Qamar said Pakistan intends to build unmanned aerial vehicles. Qamar made the statement in discussions with Pakistani media, the News International reported Thursday.

Pakistan's indigenous UAV industry is centered on the state-owned defense enterprise Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra, east of Islamabad.

PAC has begun manufacturing Falco UAVs in collaboration with the Italian company Selex Galileo. While initially the Falco UAV system is designed purely for aerial reconnaissance and information gathering, PAC intends the vehicles eventually to be upgraded to be equipped with weapon systems to carry out offensive operations, similar to U.S. UAVs.

Pakistan originally wanted to buy UAVs from the United States but Islamabad was rebuffed in its requests, leading PAC to attempt to develop an indigenous variant. However, technical issues have slowed development of the Pakistani program.

Pakistan's aviation firms have been involved in manufacturing smaller UAVs for years, with Pakistan's Integrated Dynamics firm producing small UAVs for the government and commercial market since 1997.

Other Pakistani companies working on UAV issues include Surveillance and Target Unmanned Aircraft (Satuma) and East West Infiniti, while state-owned aviation firms produce UAVs include the Air Weapons Complex National Development Complex as well as the PAC.

But the PAC complex is the main driver behind Pakistan's UAV development. The massive PAC facility, the world's seventh largest assembly plant, is in Kamra in Punjab province, and assembles and manufactures aircraft for Pakistan's armed forces.

"PAC has acquired the capability to produce Falco XN UAV in collaboration with Selex Galileo (SG) of Italy," PAC's website states. "The UAV is a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV designed for area reconnaissance and point surveillance.

"It has the capability to reveal targets of interest, classify them, calculate their coordinates and determine the distances between them."

In describing the Falco XN UAV, the website added: "The UAV has a high-wing monoplane connected to the central fuselage. The wing assembly is equipped with flapperons to control the lift and lateral dynamics. Tail-planes comprising two rudders and two elevators provide control for directional and longitudinal dynamics and are connected to the wing assembly through the tail-booms. "¦

"The payload is mounted on the stabilized platform of the UAV and is managed through an advance Payload Management System and an Electro-Optical suite. The Electro-Optical suite includes E/O Camera, IR sensors, Thermal Imaging Systems, Laser Designator and a Surveillance Radar."

While the PAC website makes no mention of possible exports plans for the Falco XN UAV's it nevertheless touts the UAV's characteristics, noting that it is "capable of carrying wide variety of payloads; easily adaptable to meet mission requirements," has an "effective guidance and control system, suitable for both civil and military roles, mission pre-planning, re-tasking, simulation, rehearsal, and play back" and "can be flown in manual and automatic modes."

 

[LETHALFORCE]

UAV proliferation worries security experts

UAV proliferation worries security experts

The commonplace technology behind improvised unmanned aerial vehicles has brought home to defense and security experts and scientists the dangers for the global proliferation of iUAVs.

The vehicles can be adapted to offensive purposes using toys, off-the-shelf components and a basic or rudimentary knowledge of the science behind a simple device that can be programmed for a destination or manipulated from a remote control.

UAVs that depend on an outside control, increasingly dubbed Unmanned Airborne Systems, are no longer the preserve of multimillion-dollar military establishments.

Several recent surveys identified countries hostile to the West among those possessing UAVs of different capabilities. Neither the numbers nor the names of countries that own UAVs or UAS are reliable or complete, analysts said.

U.S. MQ-1 Predator UAVs armed with Hellfire missiles are increasingly used in combat operations against suspected terrorist targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

"iUAVs come in all shapes and sizes, and though not a threat at the level of a fuel-laden airliner, they can be used as an effective surveillance platform and weapon of terror against a variety of targets," Florida website uavthreat.com said.

London's Guardian newspaper surveyed the global UAV scene, concluding with data columns where key information was still missing because it wasn't known. UAV makers now include Iran and other countries whose policies are at odds with U.S. and allied nations in the West, Asia and Europe.

In Latin America, UAV development has been driven by the need to secure borders against organized crime, narcotics and people smugglers and poachers.

Brazil is in the forefront of technology transfers from Israel and Europe aimed at developing its own UAV manufacturing capability.

A $358 million U.S. Army project aims to upgrade 45 RQ-7B Shadow UAVs to work in tandem with AH-64 Apache helicopters to enable a combat capability involving little direct human interaction.

An Apache crew flying in relative safety should be able to engage a hostile target by firing a small missile from a UAV cruising some distance away, without having to put the crew in danger, Defense News reported on its website.

AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems, manufacturer of RQ-7B Shadow, said the upgrade would aim to weaponize the UAV by increasing its wing span. AAI, a unit of Textron Systems, has headquarters in Hunt Valley, Md.

Weaponization of UAVs has followed recent combat experience.

U.S. forces in Afghanistan complained they lost track of at least 90 insurgents who were observed emplacing improvised explosive devices because the UAS that was tracking them didn't have a lethal component.

Armed Shadows "might have engaged the enemies who were exploiting existing sensor-to-shooter time," the U.S. Navy wrote in a funding request.

As modifications in UAVs increase, the specter of hostile elements doing the same while seeking to deploy UAVs and UAS -- UAVs backed by ground controls -- geared toward terrorist acts.

UAVs weighing as little as 5 pounds could be airborne very soon, with larger models allowed in the next two years, Air Facts Journal, which reflects pilots' concerns, said on its website.

The growth in the number of UAVs sharing the same air space as passenger airlines has raised major security questions.

"America's wars of the last decade have vaulted the UAV from novelty to workhorse. Yet too little is being done to prepare for the inevitable day when our enemies turn these weapons, which are growing cheaper, more powerful and more ubiquitous, against us," Darin L. Gaub said in an article on armedforcesjournal.com website.

 

[EzioAltaïr]

Pakistan Defense Minister Syed Naveed Qamar said Pakistan intends to build unmanned aerial vehicles. Qamar made the statement in discussions with Pakistani media, the News International reported Thursday.

Pakistan's indigenous UAV industry is centered on the state-owned defense enterprise Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra, east of Islamabad.

PAC has begun manufacturing Falco UAVs in collaboration with the Italian company Selex Galileo. While initially the Falco UAV system is designed purely for aerial reconnaissance and information gathering, PAC intends the vehicles eventually to be upgraded to be equipped with weapon systems to carry out offensive operations, similar to U.S. UAVs.

Pakistan originally wanted to buy UAVs from the United States but Islamabad was rebuffed in its requests, leading PAC to attempt to develop an indigenous variant. However, technical issues have slowed development of the Pakistani program.

Pakistan's aviation firms have been involved in manufacturing smaller UAVs for years, with Pakistan's Integrated Dynamics firm producing small UAVs for the government and commercial market since 1997.

Other Pakistani companies working on UAV issues include Surveillance and Target Unmanned Aircraft (Satuma) and East West Infiniti, while state-owned aviation firms produce UAVs include the Air Weapons Complex National Development Complex as well as the PAC.

But the PAC complex is the main driver behind Pakistan's UAV development. The massive PAC facility, the world's seventh largest assembly plant, is in Kamra in Punjab province, and assembles and manufactures aircraft for Pakistan's armed forces.

"PAC has acquired the capability to produce Falco XN UAV in collaboration with Selex Galileo (SG) of Italy," PAC's website states. "The UAV is a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV designed for area reconnaissance and point surveillance.

"It has the capability to reveal targets of interest, classify them, calculate their coordinates and determine the distances between them."

In describing the Falco XN UAV, the website added: "The UAV has a high-wing monoplane connected to the central fuselage. The wing assembly is equipped with flapperons to control the lift and lateral dynamics. Tail-planes comprising two rudders and two elevators provide control for directional and longitudinal dynamics and are connected to the wing assembly through the tail-booms. "¦

"The payload is mounted on the stabilized platform of the UAV and is managed through an advance Payload Management System and an Electro-Optical suite. The Electro-Optical suite includes E/O Camera, IR sensors, Thermal Imaging Systems, Laser Designator and a Surveillance Radar."

While the PAC website makes no mention of possible exports plans for the Falco XN UAV's it nevertheless touts the UAV's characteristics, noting that it is "capable of carrying wide variety of payloads; easily adaptable to meet mission requirements," has an "effective guidance and control system, suitable for both civil and military roles, mission pre-planning, re-tasking, simulation, rehearsal, and play back" and "can be flown in manual and automatic modes."

Pakistani UAVs? In 2008, NESCOM made a UCAV called Burraq. Can anyone enlighten me on this? Pakistan touts as being similar to Predator, but I can't get a single source proving that it is even operational.

BTW how many of these UAVs are operational? That's a big arse list, but I can't find any info on 90% of these.

 

[H.A.]

I harboured the same doubts however this news comes from a commendable source...

Defense Minister: Pakistan Intends to Build Unmanned Aerial Vehicles | Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) News | Unmanned.co.uk

 

[H.A.]

EADS Cassidian reports positive results from a third flight-test campaign conducted recently from Goose Bay, Canada, with the second prototype Barracuda UAV. Five flights during June and July each lasted up to one hour and proved various new mission modes, including autonomous 4-D navigation and cooperative flying with a second UAV. Unlike the previous two campaigns in 2009 and 2010, the latest flights were funded entirely by the company. EADS believes that it is leading the development of such operations in Europe, pending the first flights of the BAE Systems Taranis and multinational Neuron UCAVs.

A Learjet was the surrogate second UAV in the recent trials. It carried a Cassidian AESA radar, while the Barracuda was equipped with a Thales EO turret. The ground station fused downlinked imagery from these two sensors. The datalink was provided by Patria and Insta of Finland; together with Ruag of Switzerland, they are participating in the associated Agile-NCE (Net Centric Environment) program being funded by the Finnish and Swiss governments, as well as the German defense ministry (BwB).

"The Barracuda is a multi-purpose UAV test bed and systems demonstrator," explained Thomas Gottmann, EADS Cassidian senior program manager. He said that developing autonomy, new actuation systems and mission management techniques has been the most important goal. However, he told AIN, the size of the Barracuda is close to that of a likely operational UCAV, with a two-meter-long payload bay. "It is a stealth design, although we have not done any signature measurements," he added.

Gottmann said that EADS is now discussing with the BwB a possible fourth flight-test series in 2014. By that time, of course, EADS and BAE Systems might be the same company, sharing UCAV technology instead of developing it in competition.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Europe tipped to spend $14B on drones

Europe tipped to spend $14B on drones

 

[cobra commando]

A dangerous new world of drones

A model of of the European "Neuron" UAV at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, France in 2005. The UAV is an European Research project led by Dassault Aviation.

Washington (CNN) -- A decade ago, the United States had a virtual monopoly on drones.

Not anymore. According to data compiled by the New America Foundation, more than 70 countries now own some type of drone, though just a small number of those nations possess armed drone aircraft.

The explosion in drone technology promises to change the way nations conduct war and threatens to begin a new arms race as governments scramble to counterbalance their adversaries.

Late last month, China announced that it would use surveillance drones to monitor a group of uninhabited islands in the South China Sea that are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan.

In August 2010, Iran unveiled what it claimed was its first armed drone. And on Tuesday, the country's military chief, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, disclosed details of a new long-range drone that he said can fly 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), which puts Tel Aviv easily in range.

Study: Drone strikes kill, maim and traumatize too many civilians

But without an international framework governing the use of drone attacks, the United States is setting a dangerous precedent for other nations with its aggressive and secretive drone programs in Pakistan and Yemen, which are aimed at suspected members of al Qaeda and their allies.
There has been virtually no substantive public discussion about drone attacks among policymakers at the international level.
Peter Bergen, Jennifer Rowland

Just as the U.S. government justifies its drone strikes with the argument that it is at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates, one could imagine that India in the not too distant future might launch such attacks against suspected terrorists in Kashmir, or China might strike Uighur separatists in western China, or Iran might attack Baluchi nationalists along its border with Pakistan.

This moment may almost be here. China took the United States by surprise in November 2010 at the Zhuhai Air Show, where it unveiled 25 drone models, some of which were outfitted with the capability to fire missiles.

It remains unclear just how many of China's drones are operational and how many of them are still in development, but China is intent on catching up with the United States' rapidly expanding drone arsenal.
Drones in Action
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Barack Obama's 'lethal presidency'

When President George W. Bush declared a "War on Terror" 11 years ago, the Pentagon had fewer than 50 drones.

Now, it has around 7,500.

As Bush embarked on that war, the United States had never used armed drones in combat. The first U.S. armed drone attack, which appears to be the first such strike ever, took place in mid-November 2001 and killed the military commander of al Qaeda, Mohammed Atef, in Afghanistan.

Since then, the CIA has used drones equipped with bombs and missiles hundreds of times to target suspected militants in Pakistan and Yemen.

CNN Radio: Drone debate -- who can you trust?

Only the United States, United Kingdom and Israel are known to have launched drone strikes against their adversaries, although other members of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, such as Australia, have "borrowed" drones from Israel for use in the war there.

Drone technology is proliferating rapidly. A 2011 study estimated that there were around 680 active drone development programs run by governments, companies and research institutes around the world, compared with just 195 in 2005.

In 2010, U.S.-based General Atomics received export licenses to sell unarmed versions of the Predator drone to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. And in March, the U.S. government agreed to arm Italy's six Reaper drones but rejected a request from Turkey to purchase armed Predator drones.

An official in Turkey's Defense Ministry said in July that Turkey planned to arm its own domestically produced drone, the Anka.

Israel is the world's largest exporter of drones and drone technology, and the state-owned Israeli Aerospace Industries has sold to countries as varied as Nigeria, Russia and Mexico.

Building drones, particularly armed drones, takes sophisticated technology and specific weaponry, but governments are increasingly willing to invest the necessary time and money to either buy or develop them, as armed drones are increasingly seen as an integral part of modern warfare.

Sweden, Greece, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and France are working on a joint project through state-owned aeronautical companies and are in the final stages of developing an advanced armed drone prototype called the Dassault nEURon, from which the France plans to derive armed drones for its air force.

And Pakistani authorities have long tried to persuade the United States to give them armed Predator drones, while India owns an armed Israeli drone designed to detect and destroy enemy radar, though it does not yet have drones capable of striking other targets.

The Teal Group, a defense consulting firm in Virginia, estimated in June that the global market for the research, development and procurement of armed drones will just about double in the next decade, from $6.6 billion to $11.4 billio

States are not alone in their quest for drones. Insurgent groups, too, are moving to acquire this technology. Last year, Libyan opposition forces trying to overthrow the dictator Moammar Gadhafi bought a sophisticated surveillance drone from a Canadian company for which they paid in the low six figures.

You can even buy your own tiny drone on Amazon for $250. (And for an extra $3.99, you can get next-day shipping.)

As drone technology becomes more widely accessible, it is only a matter of time before well-financed drug cartels acquire them. And you can imagine a day in the not too distant future where armed drones are used to settle personal vendettas.

Given the relatively low costs of drones -- already far cheaper than the costs of a fighter jet and of training a fighter jet pilot -- armed drones will play a key role in future conflicts.

Opinion: When are drone killings illegal?

While the drone industry thrives and more companies, research institutes and nations jump on board the drone bandwagon, the United States is setting a powerful international norm about the use of armed drones, which it uses for pre-emptive attacks against presumed terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen. It is these kinds of drone strikes that are controversial; the use of drones in a conventional war is not much different than a manned aircraft that drops bombs or fires missiles.

According to figures compiled by the New America Foundation, drone attacks aimed at suspected militants are estimated to have killed between 1,900 and 3,200 people in Pakistan over the past eight years.

While there has been considerable discussion of the legality of such strikes in a number of U.S. law schools, there has been almost no substantive public discussion about drone attacks among policymakers at the international level.

The time has come for some kind of international convention on the legal framework surrounding the uses of such weapons, which promise to shape the warfare of the future as much as tanks and bombers did during the 20th century.

A dangerous new world of drones - CNN.com

 

[cobra commando]

KAI developing 'suicide combat UAV'

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is developing a new long-range guided weapon that can cruise to a location before loitering and attacking when a target is identified.

The system is called "Devil Killer" and has a maximum speed that ranges between 189-216kt (350-400km/h), says KAI. It navigates using GPS and a data link, and the company refers to it as a "suicide combat unmanned air vehicle".

"After [the Devil Killer] moves to the target point along the pre-programmed route, which is designated with navigation points, the operator can identify targets through the forward-looking camera image and then commence either a manual or automatic strike," says KAI.

The system is powered by an electric motor and weighs 25kg (55lb), with a length of 1.5m (4.92ft). Details of its explosive payload, endurance and range are confidential.

If a target is not identified, the system can be retrieved and re-used. At present, the company is focusing on a surface-launched version, but eventually, it hopes to develop an air-launched variant.

The company aims to pitch the system to the South Korean armed forces and foreign buyers.

KAI'S "DEVIL KILLER," THE SUICIDAL DRONE

KAI developing 'suicide combat UAV'

 

[LETHALFORCE]

US weighing drone strikes in north Africa: report


US weighing drone strikes in north Africa

The White House may extend its campaign of drone strikes against Al-Qaeda to target the desert bases of the group's north African arm, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

A spokesman for President Barack Obama's National Security Council would not confirm details of the debate, which The Post said involved officials from the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department and the Pentagon.

But NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor told AFP: "The president has been clear about his goal to destroy Al-Qaeda's network and we work toward that goal every day.

"It shouldn't come as a surprise that the White House holds meetings on a variety of subjects, including a number of counterterrorism issues," he added.

A Pentagon official confirmed to AFP that discussion of Al-Qaeda's north African wing had gained greater urgency since a deadly assault last month on a US consulate in Libya killed four Americans including the US ambassador.

There is growing concern among American policymakers that Al-Qaeda's African franchise has gained in influence and strength since taking control of large swaths of Mali and gaining control of weapons from post-revolutionary Libya.

Northern and eastern Mali has been overrun by several rebel factions, including Islamist rebels linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa.

Last week, Mali, France and west African nations urged the United Nations to approve the creation of an African-led force to help Mali recapture the land it lost in March after the government was overthrown by frustrated soldiers.

The top US diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, told journalists on Monday that the United States would only support a "well planned" and "well resourced" African-led force to help oust Islamist rebels in northern Mali.

Unmanned planes -- some operated secretly by the CIA, some by the military -- already carry out near daily strikes against alleged extremists operating in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

fullstory

IAF to induct first killer drones

New Delhi, Oct 4 (PTI) The Indian Air Force is planning to induct its first self-destructing combat drones from Israel by next year for enhancing its firepower.

The Israeli-made Harop unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) will give IAF the capability of hitting high value targets such as enemy missile and radar sites without sending its manned fighter aircraft.

 

[cobra commando]

fullstory

IAF to induct first killer drones

New Delhi, Oct 4 (PTI) The Indian Air Force is planning to induct its first self-destructing combat drones from Israel by next year for enhancing its firepower.

The Israeli-made Harop unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) will give IAF the capability of hitting high value targets such as enemy missile and radar sites without sending its manned fighter aircraft.

Ahhh..FINALLY!! better late then never i guess

 

[cobra commando]

Military Test: Drones Could Refuel Themselves Mid-Air

Two Global Hawk drones carry out a mock aerial refueling test.
CREDIT: DARPA

U.S. military flight tests have shown how drones could handle midair refueling by themselves, without human pilots. That raises the possibility of automated "flying gas stations" topping off robotic aircraft over future battlefields.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently flew two modified RQ-4 Global Hawk drones in close proximity to simulate midair refueling. The Global Hawks, huge drones with 131-foot wingspans used for high-altitude surveillance, flew in formation with less than 100 feet separating the refueling "probe" on one and refueling "receiver" on the other during a two-and-a-half hour flight test.

"The goal of this demonstration was to create the expectation that future [High Altitude Long Endurance] aircraft will be refueled in flight," said Jim McCormick, program manager at DARPA.

[video=youtube_share;Bjyv16ha-Uc]http://youtu.be/Bjyv16ha-Uc[/video]

Neither Global Hawk drone needed human guidance during the final flight test at the high altitude of 44,800 feet (8 miles). The drones also maintained their tight formation despite turns and wind gusts of up to 23 mph.

DARPA had kicked off its two-year Autonomous High-Altitude Refueling (AHR) program with the expectation that just one out of six aerial refueling attempts would prove successful. But the final analysis suggested drones could achieve a much better success rate of three out of five attempts.

The results from the AHR program that ended on Sept. 30 mean the U.S. military has a good chance of extending the duration and range of its drone swarms. Manned fighter jets and bombers already do midair refueling from standard tanker aircraft, but many drones can't match the speed, altitude or performance of existing tanker aircraft.

McCormick suggested that the drone flight-testing could lead to "non-traditional tanker concepts," perhaps a reference to automated drone tankers. Such an idea could work very well for the range of midsize or large drones that depend on jet fuel.

The U.S. military has also played with other refueling ideas for drones. Lasers could do midair recharging for smaller, battery-powered drones, such as the Stalker drone flown by U.S. Special Forces. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy has plans for its aircraft-size X-47B drone, — designed to take off and land on Navy aircraft carriers — to autonomously handle aerial refueling with standard tanker aircraft.

Military Test: Drones Could Refuel Themselves Mid-Air | DARPA Autonomous Aerial Refueling | TechNewsDaily.com

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Israel's IAI 'wins $958M India drone deal'

Israel's IAI 'wins $958M India drone deal'

Israel Aerospace Industries, flagship of the Jewish state's defense sector, is reported to have secured a $958 million contract from India's military to upgrade its IAI-built Heron and Searcher unmanned aerial vehicles.

UAVs are one of the biggest money-spinners for Israel's defense industry and India, which is engaged in a massive multiyear rearmament program, is a key customer.

Israel's Globes business daily cited Indian media reports that the deal covers some 150 UAVs acquired from IAI since the 1990s that are operated by India's army, air force and navy.

The Indian army deploys around 100 Searchers along the country's western, eastern and northern borders. The air force employs Searcher IIs and Herons for reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

"Once the upgrades are complete, the air force will be able to use the aircraft for long-range missions and control them through satellite communications systems," Globes reported.

Israel is one of the world's leading arms exporters, with most of its key customers in the developing world.

The U.S. Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress reported in August that from 2004-11, Israel signed arms transfer agreements worth $12.9 billion. That ranked it as the eighth largest arms supplier in the world, behind the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany, China and Italy.

IAI has had major dealings with India in recent years.

In early 2006, IAI and the Indian Defense Research Development Organization signed a $480 million contract on missile development. Israeli business sources said the deal was a major boost to IAI's orders backlog at a time when Israel's defense industry, a key revenue earner, had to grapple with a big dip in the global market.

IAI won a $1.1 billion deal with the Indian navy in 2009 to provide advanced Barak-8 tactical air-defense missile systems for its warships. The Indian army is jointly funding a project to adapt the Barak-8 into a multipurpose weapons system.

Also in 2009, Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems secured a $1 billion contract with New Delhi for 18 Spyder surface-to-air missile systems by 2012.

IAI sold the Indian air force three Phalcon early warning aircraft worth $1.1 billion in 2004.

All told, Israeli companies have sold India weapons and other military systems worth more than $10 billion over the last decade or so. In 2007, the Jewish state replaced France as India's second largest arms supplier after Russia.

India has also expressed interest in Israel's Arrow-2 anti-ballistic missile system jointly manufactured by IAI and the Boeing Co. of the United States.

But the technology transfer involved could impede any sale since U.S. approval would be required.

With a significant slowdown in the growth of high-tech exports to the United States and Europe, Israeli defense exporters are shifting their marketing focus to Asia.

In 2010, Israeli defense sales reached $9.6 billion, with the three largest defense-oriented companies along employing 30,600 people.

In March, India blacklisted Israel Military Industries, a major arms manufacturer, for 10 years because of a 2009 bribery scandal that has dogged links between the Jewish state's defense industry and one of its biggest customers.

State-owned IMI is the main supplier of defense platforms for the Israeli military and is a significant exporter in the defense field. This sector that has become increasingly crucial to maintaining production lines and developing new systems at a time when the government is slashing Israel's defense budget.

The decision by the Indian government "is expected to significantly impact IMI's activities in India, as well as that of other Israeli defense firms," the liberal Haaretz daily reported following the announcement of the blacklisting.

"However," Oxford Analytica observed in a December analysis, "these industries are now facing a problem similar to the one they faced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when they reacted quickly to the lessons learned during the 1973 war and the spate of airline hijackings.

"Systems invented at that time included UAVs and sophisticated airport security networks but for a while it was hard to sell these products.

"Both systems have since been adopted by the security forces of many countries and form the core of Israeli defense exports."

 

[p2prada]

Re: Israel's IAI 'wins $958M India drone deal'

What's so great about "winning" a "single" tender deal?

 

[Armand2REP]

Re: Israel's IAI 'wins $958M India drone deal'

Why isn't IAI going on the blacklist after the corruption scandal but everyone else does?

 

[p2prada]

Re: Israel's IAI 'wins $958M India drone deal'

IAI wasn't blacklisted because we are depending on them.

 

[Armand2REP]

Re: Israel's IAI 'wins $958M India drone deal'

IAI (Aerospace) had nothing to do with OFB which makes infantry, artillery and tank ammo. IMI was the one that was blacklisted.

I was referring to corruption over Barak.