Saturday, December 16, 2017

Terminator Times #39

Drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/UAVs):

The US Air Force is incorporating the laser guided small diameter bomb on its Reapers.

Two dozen Reapers are being sent to be based in Florida.

Niger approved armed US drones in its country.  Some think this is a bad idea.

The US Army along with the British demonstrated unmanned resupply capabilities using UGVs & UAVs.

The USMC is testing the potential of unmanned gliders delivering up to 700 lbs of supplies to troops.

The USN will only initially buy 4 MQ-25A tanker drones to see if the contractor can meet the requirements.  That contractor might be selected by the end of this coming summer.

The USN is looking at plugging in its ground based control system for the MQ-25A into the carriers.

The USN has taken delivery of its first Northrop MQ-4C Triton.

The USN is going through the final testing of the FireScout this spring before declaring initial operating capability.

The USN will use the FireScout as a forward spotter, amongst other roles.

A Reaper was used in a sub hunting (ASW) exercise.

China's AVIC demonstrated some impressively flexible UAVs but they (currently) have short endurance.

China has been testing VTOL UAVs in Tibet.

China has shown its Cloud Shadow UAV as a potential naval strike asset.

China's Beihang has shown off its TYW-1 strike capable UAV.

China claims an Indian drone violated its airspace and crashed.

Czech's will be buying ScanEagle UAVs.

India has extended the deadline for bids on the naval UAV system procurement.

India's army has issued an RFI for 60 short range UAVs.

Kuwait is seeking UAVs.

Turkey's special forces have received their first batch of loitering munitions.

Airbus has teamed up with Facebook on high altitude drones.

Antonov has demonstrated a new UAV, the Horlytsia.

Bell is considering whether or not to make the V-280 tilt rotor able to fly autonomously.

Elbit has expanded the Hermes UAV system with the Hermes 45.

General Atomics and Intelsat demonstrated a UAV moving from one satellite radio spot to another.

Lockheed is looking at extending the range of its Fury UAV.

Leonardo is showing off the Evo Falco UAV.
Skeldar has enhanced the R-350 VTOL drone.

Teal predicts $100 billion market (or is it $80 billion?) for drones & UCAVs.

Bolos & Ogres (Unmanned Ground Vehicles):

The US Army is looking at the Remote Combat Vehicle program: a mix of manned and unmanned vehicles with the punch of an M-1 Abrams.

Robo Subs (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles):

US Navy's unmanned assets were being used in the hunt for the missing Argentine submarine.

US Navy sent its deep dive recovery UUV for the hunt.

US Navy is implementing a continual improvement program for UUV.

A Houston based company is attempting to build a UUV designed for deep dives without an umbilical.

Exoskeleton:

The US military is testing exoskeletons to help US troops carry their heavy loads.

Counter Drone:

China has tested a laser based anti drone weapon system.

BAe has been given a contract to modify shipborne machine guns to be anti drone weapons.

META:

Russia has made it plain it will NOT adhere to any treaty banning autonomous weapon systems.

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