Unmanned Warfare

A compact yet powerful laser weapon developed by Raytheon will soon be integrated on a HMMWV, to demonstrate its ability to defeat enemy drones, as part of the enhancement of current US Marine Corps ground-based air-defense capabilities.

Cherbourg based CMN (Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie) has unveiled the C Sword 90 stealthy corvette at the Euronaval naval expo in Paris this week. The stealth vessel is one of three new ship designs the company is launching, all positioned to address the growing needs of world navies to support increasingly demanding missions encountered at the high sea and littoral waters.

Weapons specialists at the US Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) at China Lake, CA. have recently tested the capability of guided missile to defeat an unmanned aerial vehicle in flight. Two Spike 'forward-firing miniature missiles' were used to defeat two Outlaw UAVs, employing both proximity and contact activation (in separate tests)

In the next 10 years about 30 percent of the Russian combat power will consist of remotely controlled and robotic platforms. Uran-9, unmanned BMP-3, obstacle breaching and demining flail robot are among the new systems covered here.

The US Army is seeking to field a new air defense system comprising two types of missiles, capable to protect military forces against cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), Rockets, Artillery and Mortars. The truck mounted system called ‘Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 Intercept (IFPC Inc. 2-I) is designed for rapid deployment on contingency operations.

Could a stealthy, fast going corvette-sized 'super Ghost' vessel take on the US Navy Littoral Combat Ship and win? The people at Portsmouth' Juliet Marine Systems believe it can. They are proposing that, at a cost of a single LCS, the navy take six of Ghosts which will be able to assume many of the LCS' littoral operations either independently, or operating with oceangoing naval vessels as motherships, providing a more affordable, agile and survivable naval strike force.

IAI MBT has designed as a small, quad-rotor based loitering weapon called ROTEM, that is uniquely built to support dismounted combatants and special operations in urban warfare, offering effective, indirect observation and engagement of targets from an elevated position.

A small, submersible drone developped at John Hopkins' research institute's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) can stay submerged for months, and instantly surface and launch on command without leaving a trace.  Watch this video describing APL's Corrosion Resistant Aerial Covert Unmanned Naval System (CRACUNS). The drone is...

The US Navy is testing a fish like robot designed to carry out stealthy, silent and secure underwater surveillance missions - from intelligence gathering to hull inspections, where its silent operation and mission endurance would provide great advantages to sailors and marines.

The US Navy plans to deploy hundreds of ‘Blackwing’ drones on manned submarines and unmanned underwater vehicles; the new, low cost, submarine launched unmanned aircraft system is optimized for Anti-Access/Aerial Denial (A2/AD) environments.

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is unveiling two new loitering weapons at the Singapore Airshow this week. The Green Dragon - a compact loitering man-in-the-loop guided weapon and the Harpy New Generation (NG), an autonomous anti-radiation Loitering weapon, are both based on the HARPO family and technology.

the Air Force has now selected the stealthy, long-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM-ER) as the optimal air vehicle to carry the CHAMP weapon.

China has tested a new version of the CH-4 "Rainbow" drone equipped with satellite control and improved EO payloads supporting HD standards. During the test last month, the weaponized drone launched AR-1 missiles which struck their targets at high precision, under operator command launched over a distance of 1,000 km.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA‑ASI), successfully performed the first flight of the Avenger Extended Range (Avenger ER) remotely piloted aircraft (RPA). With wingspan increased to 76 feet and 2,200 pounds of additional fuel, the ER extends the legacy Avenger’s endurance from 15 hours to 20 hours.