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As tech changes, battlefield loitering bullets are becoming more common.
ND photo-graphics from Elbit Systems, iStock Images
PARIS – If there was a one-stop shop for everything an army needs as far as weapons, it’s back in Hall 6, Aisle F, at the Eurosatory trade show in Paris in June.
There, attendees will find a Uvivision booth and a complete set of so-called “kamikaze draggers”, including controllers and training systems, with all accessories available in six sizes.
A quadcopter drone is also hung from the roof of the booth.
“And is that a trick shot?” The reporter asked a company representative who had never seen a drone equipped with a warhead that took off and landed vertically.
“No, just for monitoring,” said the agent.
But it may be armed. Is it possible?”
“Everything is possible,” he replied.
Whether they are called weaponized or kamikaze drones, the weapon system could be deployed in recent conflicts, particularly against Russian invaders in Ukraine, during the week of the trade show.
Their origins are in World War II tactics. Their basic technology was developed for hobbyists and its evolution was inspired by the use of improvised explosive devices by terrorists in Iraq.
National defense In the year At the 2009 IDEX trade show, the first “unmodified” flying bullet, created by an Eastern European contractor, was shown.
Twelve years later, the technology is spreading both at defense exhibitions and on battlefields. Vendors from all over the world come to Eurosatori to show off the latest weapon technology that – as the name suggests – can fly in patterns like a reconnaissance platform until it hits a target. If an operator decides to attack, the drone can maneuver the warhead towards the target while hitting it while detonating.
Although explosives are not always necessary.
Yaniv Ben-Itzhak, director of marketing and business development at Elbit Systems, showed a video of medium-sized Skystriker drones being thrown at a tactical wheeled vehicle at 200 kilometers per hour, essentially cutting them in half without the use of explosives. .
“It was just a show.” He said the warlord was removed for security reasons.
The Israel-based company is looking to create integration between mobile rocket launchers and SkyStriker ballistic missiles, allowing operators to select one or the other and fire from the same tube.
“In terms of firepower, you have a complete supply from the same platform,” he said. The SkyStriker has a range of about 400 kilometers, he said. A high-quality target finder said the camera and a 5 kg warhead.
Like all other ammunition, it has a dual purpose as a recon platform. If the operator wants to use a rocket instead, he can transmit target data back to the mobile platform. If no target is selected, it will autonomously return to its home base and parachute back to the ground for reuse.
Such methods have been used on Russian combat vehicles in Ukraine, but military analysts specifically noticed the hybrid weapon during the Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in September 2021, said Jorge de Leon Rivas, director of the Department of Robotics and Autonomous Systems. Madrid-based defense contractor SDL, which markets Uvision’s drone in Spain
“The battlefield has changed,” said Rivas, a lieutenant colonel in the Spanish army reserves.
Azerbaijan effectively deployed artillery that destroyed hundreds of Armenian tanks. “That made the difference in the fight,” Rivas said. According to several news outlets reporting during the conflict, the drones were made by Israel and Turkey.
The advantages of Rivas shotguns are obvious. A missile is “launched” the moment it is fired. It might hit the target and there might be collateral damage that might cause an unnecessary death.
An operator can use live ammunition more selectively and even stop operations if he sees civilians at the last second.
“You only hit what’s needed, and you don’t kill people for nothing,” he said.
The smaller versions are also said to be quieter and harder to detect with modern air defenses.
The U.S. Marine Corps, in Rivas’ estimation, is far superior in developing strategies, techniques, and procedures to intercept ammunition.
US forces – and now Ukraine – have been using Aerovironment’s switchblade weapons. At Eurosatory, the American company launched two models: the Switchblade 300, a 2.5-kilogram drone with an endurance of 10 kilometers and 15 minutes, and the 54-kilogram 600 model, with 40-plus kilometers and 40-minutes. Endurance. Both are fired from mortar-like tubes placed on the ground.
Turkey’s Rokesan also used the exhibition to promote the MAM family of “smart micro-munitions,” according to Furkan Zeki Ayhan, a specialist engineer at the Ankara-based ammunition manufacturer.
MAM-T is a new 95kg fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle with a range of over 30km, he said. MAM-C and MAM-L – both introduced in 2016 – are 8 and 15 km long respectively.
Unlike other tube-launched systems, Rocketsan’s three models are designed to be launched from medium-sized drones or light attack aircraft, he said.
A would-be customer at Eurosatory said he was sold on weapons equipment.
Col. Arnaud Gojun, chief of plans at French Army headquarters, said the service is looking to add Lottery ammunition to its stockpile later this year.
“You need something different than a mortar or an artillery shell,” Goujon said. “If a mortar round flies three kilometers for 15 minutes and costs the same, it’s interesting,” he said. If it has 10 times the range of a mortar or a cannon with the same range, it’s not that interesting, he added.
If it can fly 30 to 50 kilometers and last two to four hours, “then it’s a different animal,” he said.
Gojun indicated that the French army would begin by acquiring the small Switchblade.
Peter W. Singer, a senior fellow at the New America think tank and the author of several seminal books, says that in the near future, there will be more drones on the battlefield – and in the skies over the sea – than ever before.
What do I want to check out of my flight? Is it a single guided bullet or hundreds or thousands of projectiles?” He said in an interview.
“The future of the battlefield is not just a few bullets, but an airspace full of airspace,” he added.
At the Uvision booth, the company’s chairman, Yair Ramathy, wasn’t shy about calling the technology a “battlefield changer.”
The series of six models range from the HERO-30 weighing 7.8 kg with its canister launcher and the 15 km range HERO-1250 weighing 155 kg from rail to 200-plus range. Kilometers.
Israel-based Tira Co. has sold its models on nearly every continent to NATO countries and to U.S. customers such as the Marine Corps, he said.
As for Ukraine, he said the technology is proving its worth every day.
Attacks on Russian convoys serve as an example. Anti-tank missiles such as the Javelin, the Switchblade and other stealth munitions have gained a lot of popularity, but those require soldiers to be close in line of sight, perhaps 3 to 5 km away, he said.
“You know where a convoy is 20 to 30 kilometers long – maybe 50 – you have to get close to it to hit it,” he said.
A rifle is a good choice of weapon when the user knows there is a target to hit but does not know its exact location, such as when receiving mortar or indirect fire. The ability of the seeker to find the target.
A more common scenario is that the information knows that there is a convoy on a road that stretches 50 or 100 kilometers. You can search for and find the stray bullets at a safe distance.
Then there’s the accuracy: “Want to hit a lead return vehicle? Do you want to hit him before he gets to the bridge, on the bridge, or after he crosses the bridge? Ramathy asked.
“That’s why there is a huge demand for such weapons these days,” he added.
Training is also an issue. A medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle like the Predator cannot take six to nine months to learn how to fly.
Uvision aims to train the basics of flight in just a few hours, Ramathy said. It offers HERO Simulator to get trainees started.
There are finer points that take more time to learn, such as whether to attack using a high, medium or low angle, depending on the target and the type of fight, he said.
And while the company has yet to offer quadcopter vertical takeoff and landing shots, a Sofia, Bulgaria-based company at the Eurosatory conference did.
Hades Defense Systems was showing off a “Spark vertical attack programmable kamikaze quadcopter” that climbs 5 meters per second and flies at 47 km/h at 7 km.
The company has introduced quieter propellers, a low-reflective surface to avoid radar and anti-jam capabilities. It also carries a fragmented warhead.
“He places himself above the target at the right height, changes the direction of movement, accelerates. [as it goes] It will attack from below and from above,” the company notes.
Maya Pangarova, Hadis business director, said the company has big ambitions beyond hand-picked lottery tickets. It is also developing a jet-powered kamikaze drone.
The “Nemesis Kamikaze Attack Jet Drone” is being developed using internal research and development funds and can only be seen in the company’s fact sheet.
Heads is expected to fly at 600 km/h, using terrain mapping and various anti-jamming devices and radar spotting systems to avoid detection, company literature said.
It has a range of 190 kilometers, a maximum altitude of 4,500 meters, and is remotely piloted or operated by autopilot.
The company’s engineers were still working out how big a warhead it could carry, she said.
The company He hopes to have something physical at the IDEX conference in Abu Dhabi in early 2023, Pangarova said.
Singer said there’s no doubt Hades or any other company could convert the aircraft intended for the commercial market into some sort of loitering missile.
He said of jet-powered drones that turn themselves into bombers, “they’re really getting into a confusing line of interpretation when they’re actually moving ammunition and cruise missiles.”
Along with the military use to do so, there are questions about international laws banning the sale and trade of missiles capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction.
Meanwhile, military strategists have a lot to think about as assault rifles proliferate. Singer said there is no connection between drone warfare and the major military programs the U.S. military has been pursuing for the past decade.
“What does the future of a large number of weapons mean for the main military platforms? [service’s] Centers? That is land, air and sea. Such relationships are not fully established. “
Topics: New technologies, robotics and autonomous systems, munitions technology
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