Tag: lmams

Aerovironment announced today expanding its loitering weapon family, as it introduced the Switchblade 600 – the largest weapon in the family announced to date. The new weapon employs the tube-launched, collapsible wing, electric propulsion architecture as Switchblade 300, and its Blackwing variant. With longer range, extended mission endurance, and multi-purpose warhead Switchblade 600 expand the warfighter’s capability engaging larger, hardened targets at greater distances.

Although Loitering Munitions (LM) have been introduced decades ago, these weapons have gained general acceptance and maturity in recent years, following their operational debut in battlefields in the Caucasus and the Middle East. While several manufacturers already offer various types of ‘suicide drones’, only a few are committed to this category as Israel’s UVision Air, the developer, and producer of the Hero line of loitering missiles that unveiled a range of new members of its Hero family of LMs this week at the recent Paris Air Show. Uvision has already sold Hero LMs to multiple customers, including the Israel Defense Forces, and leading NATO countries.

AeroVironment is working with General Dynamics Land Systems to tighten the integration of its unmanned aerial systems (UAS) with GDLS’ combat vehicles. This integration will enable mounted forces to employ small drones and loitering weapons on demand and on the move.

Recent reports from Iraq and Syria indicate that Jihadis are increasing the use of drone attacks after exploring the use of drone weapons for several years. A recent attack employed a small surveillance drone, rigged with a bomb to become a booby trap. The attack killed two Kurdish fighters and badly wounded two French special forces.

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.

Some of the interesting new systems our team has spotted at this years AUSA 2014

The U.S. Army has awarded AeroVironment a contract worth almost $5 million for the first deliveries of Switchblade agile munition, the company announced today....

 

UVision has introduced the WASP - a personal, mini UAV that has performance characteristics of a missile, with versatility, user control and reusability of a UAV.

The U.S. Air Force Rapid Acquisition Cell launched a urgent procurement program for lethal mini-drones, aiming to field such weapons with Special Operations command...

Following the conclusion of DARPA's Close Combat Lethal Recon (CCLR) project the U.S. Air Force has embarked on a rapid acquisition program for a Lethal Miniature...

Another system unveiled by MBDA Inc is the Tactical Grenade Extended Range (‘TiGER’), a loitering weapon built around a small warhead weighing 1 pound,...