Saturday, March 31, 2018

Terminator Times #43

Drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles):

The Predator kicked off the unmanned revolution.

The Predator has been officially retired.  The USAF might have been the end user (and who retired the Predator), but the US Army started the Predator program.

DARPA awarded Raytheon a contract for its OFFSET program to write software to control drone swarms.

The New York National Guard has been evaluating the DB-110 recon system on the Reaper.

DIUx, the pentagon's silicon valley branch, is looking for sub launched UAV proposals.

The US Army wants drones for the infantry.

The USAF is looking at equipping Reaper UCAVs with air to air missiles.

The USAF is pushing Global Hawk upgrades.

The USAF conducted its first drone strike against al Qaida in southern Libya.

The first USMC infantry battalion has received mini drones.

The USMC has released an RFI for the MUX VTOL ISR/EW/strike drone.

The USMC is experimenting on delivering supplies, in small amounts, via drones.

The US Navy is purchasing 8 Firescout VTOL UCAVs.

Afghanistan is getting ScanEagle UAVs.

Australia has cleared the heavy fuel variant of the S-100 VTOL UAV for shipborne tests.

Britain is preparing for its Protector UCAVs.

Britain's Watchkeeper drones are having serious reliability problems.

The Canadian Navy has selected the Puma II UAV.

China's Xianglong UAV has been spotted on Hainan.

Egypt is buying the Puma UAV.

An Indian Heron crashed shortly after takeoff.

The Japanese are testing to see whether or not the RQ-21 and the Firescout UAVs can work from the Izumo.

Latvia is getting the Puma UAV.

The Philippines received six ScanEagle UAVs from the US.

The Russians are using drones to improve the accuracy of their artillery.

Serbia has shown off its two new UAVs.

South Korea's KUS-FS UAV continues flight trials.

Qatar has ordered Bayraktar UAVs.

Russia unveiled the first high resolution picture of its Orion UAV.

A new version of Turkey's Anka UAV has emerged.

AeroVironment has updated the Puma UAV.

Boeing's entry into the MQ-25A tanker UAV competition for the US Navy has been mostly unveiled in Aviation Week.

Kratos has been given clearance to export its UTAP-22 Mako UCAV.

Lockheed's X-44A flying wing UAV has broken cover.

Lockheed has unveiled its MQ-25A UAV tanker competition entrant.

Unmanned Ground Vehicles:

The US Army wants a prototype robotic combat vehicle by 2019.

The US Army wants a robotic combat vehicle to be paired with its Next Gen Combat Vehicle and both ought to be optimized for urban combat.

How can the US Army have a functional robotic combat vehicle by 2024?

The USMC has contracted with Launch Forth for its new unmanned cargo vehicle.

The USMC has contracted Endeavor Robotics for a followup contract for small UGVs.

China is testing unmanned tanks derived from their T-59 tank.

Russia's plans and developments for UGVs are discussed.

Russia is supposedly developing a remotely operated anti helicopter/anti drone weapon system.

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles:

A Polish team is developing stealthy autonomous underwater vehicles.

Software Bots:

China has developed a driver assistance program for military vehicles.

Dassault has teamed with Thales to develop AI.

Google is helping the US military train AI to watch its drone feeds.

META:

The USMC doesn't want tech to weigh down its soldiers.

The USMC is also experimenting with what robopocalyptic warfare might be like in an urban setting.

What happens when robots fight our wars?

Roboteam is working on software that allows for control of multiple unmanned platforms simultaneously.

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