lucklucky Posted December 19, 2022 Author Share Posted December 19, 2022 (edited) https://defense-update.com/20220903_rheinmetall-and-uvision-awarded-first-order-for-hero-30-loitering-munitions.html Quote Rheinmetall and its partner UVision have won the first order from a major European NATO military force for HERO loitering munitions. The customer, a special forces unit, placed an initial order for Hero-30 combat and training munitions, simulator, training courses as well as integrated logistics equipment and support. This first order is worth a figure in the single-digit million-euro range with possible additional orders that might be expected. The exact number of munitions to be supplied is classified. The order was placed in July 2022, with delivery scheduled to take place by 2023. Hero 30 has been in service with the Israel Defense Forces, US Special Operations Command, and several international military forces. The weapon has recently been selected by the Marine Corps. Edited December 19, 2022 by lucklucky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucklucky Posted January 5, 2023 Author Share Posted January 5, 2023 https://news.usni.org/2023/01/03/iran-building-drone-aircraft-carrier-from-converted-merchant-ship-photos-show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWB Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 Italian special operations forces have ordered the Israeli Hero-30 loitering munition. This is the first European country to choose Hero-30 rather than the American Switchblade. Both these lightweight man-transportable systems are troops favorites in general but especially useful for special operations units. That’s because special operations troops have to travel light and put more emphasis on reconnaissance and surveillance than combat. Hero-30 is reusable while Switchblade is not. Special Operations: Italy Chooses Hero Over Switchblade (strategypage.com) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shep854 Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB Posted April 19, 2023 Share Posted April 19, 2023 RAF Jackal drone. It's carrying two Martlet tubes, and test fires one from a captive hover. Quite interesting test environment, nothing like as sanitised as one might expect. Thales PR: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/defence/news/new-drone-completes-first-firing-missile-significant-unmanned-air-combat Video (Paywall, but you can still watch the video if you cancel the dialog): https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/raf-missile-octocopter-jackal-drone-2023-8q5jsjlwc Peripherally related, Martlet loadout on Wildcat (!) https://www.navylookout.com/the-martlet-missile-wildcat-helicopter-gets-its-claws/ Also, picture at the bottom of this article shows the "family tree". https://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2022/11/martlet-lightweight-multirole-missile/ The unlabelled one is the "other" Javelin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted April 19, 2023 Share Posted April 19, 2023 Great news. But why is it the RAF trialling it, and not the Army? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrustMe Posted April 19, 2023 Share Posted April 19, 2023 3 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said: Great news. But why is it the RAF trialling it, and not the Army? The Armies experience with the Watchkeeper drones is probably the reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucklucky Posted April 19, 2023 Author Share Posted April 19, 2023 Turk naval drone fires first missile remotely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted April 19, 2023 Share Posted April 19, 2023 1 minute ago, TrustMe said: The Armies experience with the Watchkeeper drones is probably the reason. Yeah, in light of pretty much everything the Army has screwed up, it was a pretty stupid question on my part. Good luck to the RAF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucklucky Posted April 19, 2023 Author Share Posted April 19, 2023 Watchkeeper is the Hermes 450, what they have done to screw that? As of January 2014, British Hermes 450 air vehicles flew over 86,000 hours over Iraq and Afghanistan. Up to nine aircraft operated from Camp Bastion and conducted five flights per day, accumulating a combined 70 hours of surveillance coverage.[35] When the Watchkeeper WK450 entered service in Afghanistan in mid-September 2014 and the ground-based radar coverage at Bastion was switched off, the British Army stopped using the interim leased Hermes 450. from wiki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrustMe Posted April 19, 2023 Share Posted April 19, 2023 (edited) 6 minutes ago, lucklucky said: Watchkeeper is the Hermes 450, what they have done to screw that? As of January 2014, British Hermes 450 air vehicles flew over 86,000 hours over Iraq and Afghanistan. Up to nine aircraft operated from Camp Bastion and conducted five flights per day, accumulating a combined 70 hours of surveillance coverage.[35] When the Watchkeeper WK450 entered service in Afghanistan in mid-September 2014 and the ground-based radar coverage at Bastion was switched off, the British Army stopped using the interim leased Hermes 450. from wiki It's not due to the hardware. Rather the Royal Artillery pilots have operational control over the drones not the Army Aviation or the RAF. The Artillery branch doesn't seem to have figured out how to pilot them safely hence they have crashed over half the drones they bought. It's been a steep learning curve for them. Edit. Going off topic slightly but since the Royal Artillery have invested so much money in buying these drones that the other commands of that branch have been starved of funding. Edited April 19, 2023 by TrustMe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucklucky Posted April 19, 2023 Author Share Posted April 19, 2023 Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB Posted April 19, 2023 Share Posted April 19, 2023 WK differs from Hermes by having slots for two payloads, rather than one. This makes it a bit larger. The problems with it were legion, and I wouldn't blame the RA for all or even most of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWB Posted April 26, 2023 Share Posted April 26, 2023 The U.S. Army Won’t Buy Any More Switchblade 300 Kamikaze Drones (msn.com) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucklucky Posted April 28, 2023 Author Share Posted April 28, 2023 (edited) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WZ-8_(drone) Quote A 2023 leak of classified U.S. government documents made public a January 2023 report by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) which stated that China has "almost certainly” established its first supersonic UAV unit operating the WZ-8 at Liu'an Airbase, in Dushan County, outside Lu'an. The base falls under Eastern Theater Command, the unit charged with conducting operations against Taiwan and in the South China Sea. The document stated that the drone's sensors, including electro-optical imaging and synthetic-aperture radar (SAR), could gather intelligence on Taiwan and the western side of South Korea.[1] The drone was reportedly deployed at Anqing Airbase in 2021.[8] In 2023, US intelligence reported the drone and its H-6 mothership are currently operated by the Eastern Theater Command Air Force out of Liu'an Airbase in Anhui province.[1] The H-6M bombers are reported to belong to the 10th Bomber Division.[1] Edited April 28, 2023 by lucklucky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistral Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 Private enterprise apparently, launching a 2.75” rocket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucklucky Posted May 2, 2023 Author Share Posted May 2, 2023 Seems to be too near envelope edge . A bit of wind an that does not go so well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strannik Posted May 24, 2023 Share Posted May 24, 2023 Quadcopters: Why Russia, Ukraine And America Have Different Drone Strategies By 2027, the U.S. will have a tiny fraction of the drone force that Ukraine is fielding today. https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/05/different-military-approaches-to-drones/ “I don’t have Mavics in my budget,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Ukrainian Pravda at the end of 2022, referring to the DJI Mavic series of quadcopters widely used by both sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “The military does not accept them, our generals call them ‘wedding drones.’” * U.S. Army: Waiting, and Paying, for the Best Quadcopters Meanwhile, the U.S. Army recently acquired its first ever quadcopters, which it directed to its Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) requirement. The drones are Skydio RQ-28As developed from the company’s civilian models. The first batch of 30 was handed over at Fort Benning in Georgia in December. “I am so proud of my team for delivering an innovative solution in just under three years from prototype to delivery,” Carson Wakefield of the U.S. Army Unmanned Systems Office told The Defense Post. The Skydio RQ-28A boasts features not found on the civilian version, including a thermal imager for night operations and software to automatically pass data to military systems. It also features a 35-minute flight time. The Army might have further required upgrades to meet requirements for high and low temperatures and for electronic interference. The changes come at a cost. According to the Army’s current procurement budget EditSign one SRR set — comprising two drones, a ground control unit, digital communications and a day/night sensor package — costs $39,806. That’s roughly $20,000 for each drone in the air. However, the RQ-28A is already slated for replacement by a more advanced system, SRR Tranche 2, that will meet the Army’s full requirements. Three vendors are in the running for the contract: Teal Drones with their Golden Eagle MK2, Vantage Robotics’ Swift, and Skydio with a new R47 drone. SRR Tranche 2’s extra features will include night-time obstacle avoidance, advanced autonomy, military grade (M-Code) GPS, and more jam-resistant communications, plus a flight time extended to 45 minutes. The new drones will not be in service until 2026, and the extras come with a price. According to the Army, a new SRR set will rise in price to over $240,000, or around $120,000 per drone. SRR Tranche 2 may produce the most sophisticated tactical quadcopter in the world, but it will not be expendable. The price tag also means that relatively low numbers will be acquired — 1,100 Tranche 2 sets over the four years’ procurement. There needs to be a balance between affordable systems and more capable ones. A new report by British thinktank RUSIEditSign says that Ukraine is losing 10,000 drone a month. That would take out the entire U.S. SRR fleet is one week. Some will argue that this shows consumer quadcopters are too vulnerable for the modern battlefield, and drones that are more robust to jamming are needed. Others will argue that drones will be consumed like ammunition, so they need to be cheap and expendable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted May 25, 2023 Share Posted May 25, 2023 If jamming is the primary low level UAV killer, then numbers seem like a poor way of countering that. If physical attacks are killing more UAVs, including high powered microwave emitters, then numbers are the only answer. I’d suspect ECM is the bigger problem but I have no data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrustMe Posted May 25, 2023 Share Posted May 25, 2023 US Microwave anti-drone weapon. I wouldn't like to be infront of it when it discharges. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-air-force-used-microwave-energy-to-take-down-a-drone-swarm/ar-AA1bB0MC?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=24d0ae90458b44d8ba8787cbf4e98b3a&ei=65 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucklucky Posted May 25, 2023 Author Share Posted May 25, 2023 US Marines and Hero 120 https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-best-look-yet-at-the-marines-new-loitering-munition-toting-drone-boat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunday Posted May 25, 2023 Share Posted May 25, 2023 After Grumman's demise, there is at last a weapon system whose name will please @urbanoid U.S. Air Force Tests ALQ-167 Angry Kitten ECM Pod On MQ-9 Reaper Quote The 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron completed the first round of MQ-9A Reaper ground and flight testing with the Angry Kitten ALQ-167 Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) Pod at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada Apr. 10-28, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Mr. Robert Brooks) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanoid Posted May 25, 2023 Share Posted May 25, 2023 Just now, sunday said: After Grumman's demise, there is at last a weapon system whose name will please @urbanoid U.S. Air Force Tests ALQ-167 Angry Kitten ECM Pod On MQ-9 Reaper ❤️ Angry? Exactly like the only cat we've seen in the Netherlands (was making an angry face at me from under the car). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunday Posted May 25, 2023 Share Posted May 25, 2023 Could be a Russian cat... 😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted May 25, 2023 Share Posted May 25, 2023 (edited) The name is some kind of in joke. Angry Kitten was actually a flexible pod in numerous payloads and versions used to mimic enemy ECM, and at some point the pilots having to fight against it were just like "can we just add this to *our* inventory of ECM?". Edited May 25, 2023 by Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now