Saturday, April 04, 2020

Terminator Times #70

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones):


DARPA's AlphaDogFight final demo is imminent.

The USAF is planning when to buy Loyal Wingmen drones.

The USAF has taken over a remote Mojave airstrip and turned it into a drone air base.

The USMC has realized they were asking for too much with the MUX drone and are going to redo the program.

A comparison of the F-35 and the XQ-58A Valkyrie.

Attritable UAVs have defense contractors rethinking their approaches with the probable lost of the lucrative MRO contracts.

Elon Musk told USAF fighter pilots the era of the manned fighter has passed and that the F-35 should have an unmanned competitor.

The USN exercised a clause in the contract for the MQ-25A to get 3 more by 2024 and Boeing is refusing to add extra capabilities to keep costs low.

How the MQ-8C is helping the USN with its surveillance gaps.

Argentina has produced the Asteri RUAS 160 VTOL UAV.

Australia has accepted the new engine for the CamCopter VTOL drones.

Australia has selected four companies to compete to replace its Shadow 200 UAVs.

The British have stood up a group to develop swarming drones.

China showcased its BZK-005 UAV.

Russia has integrated the Orlan-10 UAV into its 2s5 artillery units.

South Korea is considering its KUS-FS UAV for ground command operations.

South Korea expects their RQ-4 to begin initial operations by year's end.

Taiwan has decided not to buy the MQ-9B VTOL UAV.

Turkish UAVs are playing an important role in the battle of Idlib in Syria.

Turkish drones killed 19 Syrian government soldiers.

Turkey sold UAVs to Tunisia.


(above) Ukraine unveiled its Thunder suicide drone.

Ukraine has unveiled the RAM suicide drone.

Boeing is leveraging its relationships with Australian business to work on its Loyal Wingman tech.

General Atomics has unveiled its Defender Loyal Wingman to protect tankers and other like assets.

General Dynamics' first production quality MQ-9B has started flight tests.

Meet Northrop's XRQ-72A Great Horned Owl.

UAVOS & KACST unveiled the Saker-1B UAV and demonstrated progressive flight control.

UMS Skeldar has unveiled an enhanced V-150 VTOL UAV.

Unmanned Ground Vehicles (Bolos & Ogres & Terminators, oh my!):

Britain's DSTL has ordered its first autonomous UGVs.

IrvinGQ has developed an airdrop platform for the MilRem UGV.

Unmanned Surface Vehicles (Ro Boats):

GeoSpectrum has developed a scaled down traps sonar for USVs.

Zycroft has updated its Dolphin USV.

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (Robo subs):

DARPA is expanding its Manta Ray autonomous UUV program.

The USN is combining two UUV programs.

The USN conducted an exercise with UUVs equipped with SONAR and suggests that is the future of ASW operations.

China's latest Haiyi underwater gliders have been deployed to the Indian Ocean.