Apr 23, 2013 19:40 UTC
Latest updates[?]: Article improvements; What now for the drone fleet - are future Reaper buys in danger?; Pentagon testing report; GAO program review; MQ-9 deliveries suspended; FY 2014-2018 budgets and program dashboard.
Reaper, ready…
The MQ-9 Reaper UAV, once called “Predator B,” is somewhat similar to the famous Predator. Until you look at the tail. Or its size. Or its weapons. It’s called “Reaper” for a reason – while it packs the same surveillance gear, it’s much more of a hunter-killer design. Some have called it the first fielded Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV).
The Reaper UCAV will play a significant role in the future USAF, even though its capability set makes the MQ-9 considerably more expensive than MQ-1 Predators, whose price benefits from less advanced design and volume production orders. Given these high-end capabilities, and expenses, one might not have expected the MQ-9 to enjoy better export success than its famous cousin. Nevertheless, that’s what appears to be happening. MQ-9 operators currently include the USA and Britain, who have both used it in hunter-killer mode, and Italy. Other countries are also expressing interest, and international deployments are accelerating. Then the US Air Force’s FY13 President Budget cut its requested order pipeline, all of a sudden.
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Apr 22, 2013 11:45 UTC
Latest updates[?]: Laser JDAMs for USA, Saudis, Japan.
B-2 drops JDAM
Precision bombing has been a significant military goal since the invention of the Norden bomb sight in the 1920s, but its application remained elusive. Over 30 years later, in Vietnam, the destruction of a single target could require 300 bombs, which meant sending an appropriate number of fighters or bombers into harm’s way to deliver them. Even the 1991 Desert Storm war with Iraq featured unguided munitions for the most part. The USAF some laser and TV-guided weapons like Paveway bombs and Maverick missiles, but they were very expensive, and only effective in good weather. If precision bombing was finally to become a reality throughout the Air Force, a new approach would be needed. The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) became that alternative, an engine of military transformation that was also a model of procurement transformation.
DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This DID FOCUS Article looks at the transformational history of the JDAM GPS-guided bomb program, the ongoing efforts to bring its capabilities up to and beyond the level of dual-mode guidance kits like Israel’s Spice and Raytheon’s Enhanced Paveway, and the contracts issued under the JDAM program since its inception.[updated]
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Apr 18, 2013 15:14 UTC
Latest updates[?]: iRobot tie-up with Texas Instruments; 2012 orders for QinetiQ & iRobot
MTRS: TALON IV
In 2005 children’s toys were being used by American soldiers on the front lines, to help them look for roadside bombs. It would appear that someone took notice, because there has since been a flurry of activity on the robotic explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) front. The Man Transportable Robotic System program took off, and its military ground robots began making a difference long before protected MRAP vehicles began to arrive in numbers.
The Academy-award winning movie “The Hurt Locker” made bomb disposal famous, but the reality of it involves far more robots, and far fewer wearable bomb suits. MTRS robots are the larger, heavy duty options for Explosives Ordnance Disposal technicians, though smaller options are also in service. So, what exactly is the MTRS program?
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