UAV UK NEWS

Ideas for future UAV tech in Reality and Videogame/flight simulators

2012-01-22T15:04:00.000-08:00

Since the Predator has inverted "V" shaped stabilizers these stabilizers should contain wheel parts and wheels underneath to lessen weight and save costs in manufacturing, we need to bring down the costs of these units. Less mechanism will save weight and we can use that savings in weight for increased payload or more fuel to extend loitering time. I propose the rear Landing gear incorporated into this V-Tail assembly. Let's move Murphy out of these aircraft and keep it simple, cheap to build and efficient.

http://www.danshistory.com/uav.shtml

This is being proposed to reduce costs of future UAV squadrons in manufacturing and to save weight and fuel efficiency for longer missions and greater range to provide eyes in the sky and security to the battlespace and our nations and allied borders. Redesigning UAV choices in your battlespace UAV simulations and computer games will be necessary to keeping pace with the real world war planners as the technology hyperspaces the world of virtual reality.

Many of the current UAV models are being looked at for improvement in efficiency for added range, additional payload and stealth. Are you designs viable, are they better than actaul? Are you learning from aerospace engineers or are you still teaching them lessons in what works?

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Jobs in the UAV Industry and Facts about UAVS

2012-01-22T15:03:00.000-08:00

UAV stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, which is essentially an aircraft, which flies around without at pilot. There are large UAVs such as the Predator UAV, which is used for intelligence and surveillance. There are number of UAVs which are used in forescasting, fire fighting, weather atmospheric research, Planetary exploration and of course military applications.

The growth of the UAV field is growing fast and that means jobs, consultants, researcher and development and start up companies. Producing UAVs with names like Shadow, fire scout, raven, warrior, hunter, pointer, dragon eye, pioneer, global hawk and golden eagle. A lot goes into the operational needs of UAV aircraft, VTOL, Helicopters and micro-air vehicles or ultra small UAVs the size of model aircraft. Then there are the mini-micro UAVs which are called MAVs. To build and run such as UAV system must understand the mission and the advantage of using a UAV for a particular need. The UAV road map for the United States Air Force, United States Navy, Army and Marines call for greater capability, enhanced design and better fire power. This means larger and more efficient power plants, better UAV training as well as greater numbers of these aircraft.

If you peruse the United States Naval Aviation sites you will find a full history of the UAV, video clips and future designs. The future of the Naval UAV can be seen in these Navy UAV video clips. You can be sure as the military becomes more mechanized and robotic that UAVs will be at the forefront of this paradigm shift. Think about it.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

The economics of Aerial Warfare: Why shooting down a UAV is not always the best solution.

2012-01-22T15:01:00.001-08:00

Shooting Down an Enemy UAV so it cannot give away military movement intelligence.

We know that with any new innovation in warfare or any new theme that comes along or borrowed technology from another industry to help in the ongoing struggle and conflict of man is short lived.

For instance the V-1 Rocket, Nuclear Bomb, Aircraft, balloon, musket, tank, steel ship, sword, missile or even the helmet once the initial advantage was discovered then the enemy or future potential enemy had the same weapons and therefore more innovation had to occur to regain the advantage. Although this crazy cycle never ends, it has brought us many good things too; Nuclear Power, microwave Ovens, Modern Communication, Airline Transport, Safer Automobiles, Lighter Materials, on and on. And that is a cycle through transfers of technology, which will also continue, and therefore mankind and our future has many brighter days ahead in every sector of our endeavors.

These cycles are so well known of new advances causing new advances in warfare that Von Clauswitz noted in his books On War. We see in this latest Iraqi conflict, Afghanistan outing and in the war on terrorism that the Predator and other expensive UAVs helped quite a bit. Now then, the cost to build these is not good for our enemy so do not expect them to attain the two squadrons of Predators that the US Air Force has ordered which would total 40 aircraft. Our enemy will however try to copy our smaller UAV designs that are based on the fun flying radio-controlled aircraft of sportsmen on 7 continents. Now then how do you down a UAV, well if it is truly controlled by Radio Waves, you can disrupt them yes? Yes, but what if it is controlled by other means or can fly for a distance using inherent airfoil stability through dihedral of the wings or proper use of vertical and horizontal stabilizers or a canard? Then the glider once out of the frequency disruption can resume. Even more fearful is that while in-flight it can continue it's mission if the camera settings are set to work free from control and when the fuel runs out will continue to flow with the wind down wind to it's originators? Then the theory of in-flight signal disruption is a wash.

So then another thought. This mounted on two Humvees. A giant net. Remember the reason we do not litter six pack plastic holders? Because they get caught up in the beaks of wildlife migrating birds and sea life. And remember how you catch a butterfly? With a net. So then you have a plastic high tensile strength foldable net 1000 foot high, 2000 foot wide. When you see the UAV swarm or possible threat to your position by way of intelligence gathering by an enemy UAV. Then you send up the net attached to two hovering UAVs, which fly at an 85-degree angle in the direction of the threat. The net is anchored at the humvee SUVs on the ground and once the UAV vertical units are tugged too far they fly forward 300 feet and allow the net to disconnect making it fall to the ground in an arch shape with the foreign matter enemy UAVs caught in the net. Then you learn the frequencies used to transmit and down the rest by way of radio disruption without hurting your own communications systems. Even if the enemy has some type of radar to see the net, the net is plastic by Dupont. If the enemy tries to develop a radar to detect this then it will add weight and thus enemy UAV will have a shortened range.

Shooting down a UAV is not a good use of weaponry unless you could do it using a small style shoulder launched red eye round. But still a modern stinger type missile is more costly than what you are shooting down and a shoulder launched missile that is heat seeking cannot work as the heat displacement of a RC model airplane which is all this is, is very little and thus the target hard to hit. Now realize the amount of money going into these UAV tests and models is significant compared to the local hobby shop, so someone ought to get their sharp pencil out and figure out a way to 10,000 to 20,000 of these things for massive swarms for the price of one or two 15 million dollar aircraft. Because clearly this is all they are worth.

And remember part of Moore's Law was reduced size and capacity, but also cost to make. Downing enemy UAVs is as important as making them. Because once you show viability of concept they will be making them and our enemies will also have them. A net is how you catch an insect, and soon the MAVs for surveillance will literally be a fly on the wall.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Chinese and Russian UAV's

2012-01-22T14:50:00.001-08:00

The future of warfare is robotic and recently both the United States and Russia have demonstrated their advanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technologies. The Russians have a new "Stealth" UAV, which they will most likely sell to the Chinese. The Russian UAV uses mostly US Stealth Technologies, which was borrowed or stolen through corporate defense contractor espionage.

The Russians have been trying for quite some time to develop technologies to penetrate the US Airspace without detection. A couple of years back they had flown bombers undetected to the outer borders of Canadian airspace to prove they could. Why? Most likely to sell to the Chinese, who also want military superiority and so the arms race is alive and well.

The United States has also come a long way in up-scaling it's UAV technology and has announced the new Reaper UAV which is a Predator UAV on steroids with a 66 foot wingspan instead of a mere 41 feet. It has a bomb payload of 4,000 lbs and a range in excess of 4 times that of the predator. The future of Robot Wars will be in the sky, not only on the ground.

The Reaper is three-times faster and has a service ceiling of 50,000 feet as opposed to the 25,000 feet of the Predator Drone. By the end of 2008 there will be 160 Predator aircraft with an undisclosed number of Reapers, although sources say they already have four and ten more on their way now. The future of Air Wars and the future of Military aviation rests with the UAVs we are designing and building right now. Think on it.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Unique methods of Anti UAV Warfare

2012-01-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

Defeating enemy UAV Swarms will be a challenge for our Net-Centric Blue Force Team. When our enemy launches 1000 UAVs at our forces in the battlespace, will we be able to shoot them all down? The answer is most likely no. Even if we match each incoming UAV with a rocket intercept response or use a new technology THEL response to focus it's beam individually to take out each UAV, will we achieve our goal? Is the kill ratio an acceptable answer? In other words is it acceptable to admit we will have UAVs, perhaps single mission UAVs get through to our troops, Aircraft Carrier, encampment or political building? What is in those UAVs? Biological threat, C4, lesser explosive or grenade type munitions? The idea of 1000 incoming model airplane size threats at relatively slow speeds, under 100 Knots is a real problem. In a Carrier Battle Group we have capabilities of defending against such things and perhaps could prevail. But what about "Tent City" in Iraq or along the North Korea Border?

I propose Porcelain tip rounds, which once they hit their first target and go right through it, they then open wings and start circular patterns back to towards the direction fired and swarms direction of movement. Continuing ramming of swarming UAVs and disabling them. These swirling UAV defenders will be within the original rocket round and pop out after first direct hit impact. The wings will fold out from the tube and start raising havoc on the enemy's incoming single mission UAV Swarm. These porcelain tip units will have one job and that is to cause mid air collisions and ram each incoming member of the swarm. In UAV swarm theory UAVs will be controlled autonomously through directions from individual units of the swarm. Perhaps one in three or one in five or one in 20 UAVs of the swarm will provide information to the rest of the nearby swarm units. As more and more units are taken out, the guiding UAVs of the swarm will be rendered useless and the swarm will be without direction and therefore no longer a threat. The Porcelain Tipped defenders will also have various and very simple EA - Electronic Attack components and once inside the swarm will attack, ram and electronically disable the UAV swarm, shorting out the units. A few larger EA units might be sent in first or last to either decrease the numbers of the swarm or to mop up after.

There are many advantages to defending in this matter. If the enemy is using their attack in the fire them and forget them mode and watching on radar or satellite as to what is happening, they might be led to assume something other than what just happened. For instance they might assume that there was a catastrophic malfunction with the swarm? They might assume that the swarm found it's target, turned around, crashed or that their systems are giving them a false reading, which adds to the fog of war within the enemy's command and control.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Military Cloaking Technology for Aircraft and UAV

2012-01-22T14:47:00.000-08:00

If you will recall the Klingon Space Craft and Warship cloaked it's self as it attacked the USS Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk. We know when we study nature, this is a tactic that predator and prey both use in survival. Cloaking, concealing and camouflage have always been methods of operation for offensive and defensive endeavours of achieving victory. Our lives and the lives of our ancestors depended on it. In war time we paint our planes, tanks and even battles ships colors, which mimic the natural surroundings adding an element of safety from enemy detection. Today we are uses Stealth Aircraft and designing uniforms, which blend into the scenery and even change colors as the surrounding background changes. It therefore stands to reason that we would want to protect our new robotic fighting machines is such ways. The simpler the technique the less chances it will fail to provide that extra security of cover. The more real it blends into the surrounding environment the less likely it will be detected and tracked as a target by the enemy.

Using very simple technology we can cloak a Predator UAV. First we paint the bottom of the aircraft with a coating, which makes it into a movie screen, yet still absorbs the enemy's radar. Next we allow a thin strip of carbon fiber material to drop from the center of the aircraft downward. The thin strip will be shaped like a sward to allow for laminar airflow and the least amount of parasite drag to help in performance and to minimize radar signature when flying to or from the enemy.

The strip will fall under gravity and if it fails to retract the aircraft can still land and it will drag on the runway with a very tiny skid plate. Inside the strip will be a wire running through it and to the top of the aircraft. A video camera on top of the aircraft will constantly take a picture of the sky above. There will be small projector on the bottom of the skid plate facing up which will project the image of the sky above on the surface of the bottom of the Loitering Predator UAV. Anyone looking up at the drone will see only the sky and the projected sky and not the aircraft. You cannot shoot down what you cannot see, with small arm fire or shoulder launched SAM. Chances are they will not even know it is there anyway. You win, good guys 1, Enemy Zero (gone).

To cloak the aircraft from the top from enemy aircraft you would do the opposite, video the ground directly below and then project it on the aircraft above. This is the most simplest way to do it without expensive cost, re-design or making the entire skin of the aircraft a plasma screen TV. Think about it.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

In Air Refuelling for Aircraft via Blimps and unique methods of UAV recovery

2012-01-22T14:45:00.000-08:00

Aerial refueling from blimps might be easier than we think. Currently we use C-130s to fuel Boeing Attack helicopters and Large Cargo Type helicopters, which can be a dangerous operation. The C-130 must slow down to very slow speeds and the helicopters are flying at high rates of speed. The problems occur when there is turbulence and the fully loaded with fuel C-130 is in the middle of a transfer of fuel. There are ways to slow down a C-130 and reduce it's turbulent airflows.

But when we are taking about refueling a swarm of UAVs it maybe very difficult to do so by use of a large aircraft. Small UAVs or MAVs will be quite adversely affected by even the slightest vortex or turbulence. Our solution is to provide a lighter than air slow moving craft with very mild and predictive induced airflows, slower speeds and a way to block wind while refueling a fleet or swarm of UAVs or MAVs without loss of aircraft or failure to complete refueling.

Using a large foamy mattress like mesh with cone shaped pores it maybe possible to refuel large swarms of UAVs using a lighter than air blimp or airship. The large airship would have it's population system on top, while underneath on the bottom skin would be this foamy mesh which would drop down and unfold. The bottom of the foamy mesh would be Kevlar to prevent small arm strikes, which might ignite the fuel being used. On the foam side would be cone shaped receptors, which would only activate when and if a small UAV came in contact with them, once it pulled away that nozzle would disengage.

Only those cone receptacles, which have UAVs on the other end would dispense the fuel. This process would work well for small UAVs in a swarm or even MAVs. In the event of use with MAVs each cone much closer together. As the UAV or MAV approached it would not need a perfect lock on the receptacle as is now needed for in-flight refueling of fighter aircraft or the larger Predator UAVs. Imagine a gigantic cupcake pan.

only made of foam with each hole coming to a point, which would match the exact shape of the UAV or MAV as the hole got smaller. These large foam meshes for refueling could be up to several hundred square feet or as small as many square meters. If a UAV fails to attach to the mesh it would simply fly back around and try again. Once attached it's forward propulsion would insure it stays connected as it presses against the mesh. The foam mesh devise would drop and extend downward at an angle as the air pressure caused by the relative wind against it will push it slightly towards the rear of the aircraft, therefore each cone would be slightly angled downward, so it will be level during refueling.

Most UAVs have large proportional fuselages and the front ends stick forward for stability. In this concept it would be best for the UAV to be a pusher-propelled craft although would also work well for a craft which has motors as much as 6 or more inches from the front farthest forward point. If most or all of the front fuselage embeds itself in the receptacle made to match, the aircraft will remain in place, with even the smallest amount of forward pressure from the thrust of the motor or power plant.

If a UAV or MAV is unable to be refueled or it's sensors are showing damage in anyway, it can then be secured within the mesh and upon retraction into the airship remain in the mesh. Once within the Blimp its tail will be secured by a series of hanging hooks, then brought back with the airship. This methodology may also be used to collect UAVs or MAVs upon completion of mission, without the damage incurred by nets. Such a system can launch and retrieve UAVs or MAVs without the need for landing gear thus saving the weight for additional sensors or mission components.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Cutting Edge Military Technology or pure Speculation?

2012-01-22T14:43:00.000-08:00

The UAV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is hear to stay and they are rapidly replacing the glory days of the fighter pilot and soon, there will be no humans in military aircraft flying the planes. Here is a quick overview of UAVs and all the new types. Hopefully these few links can catch you up on the subject to understand the future of these units.

[http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviation/arti...52052-2],00.html

[http://www.uavforum.com/library/photo.htm]

[http://www.vectorsite.net/twuave.html]

As you can see quite quickly there are many types of UAVs and each works on a little bit different principle of flight. Also be aware that each aircraft is a compromise, speed for stability, payload for size and power, this has always been a fact of aerospace design. Now realize that these relatively easy to build units have different functions. UAV are generally reusable but are cost effective enough that return is not as important obviously as a pilot in an F-18, Apache, A-10 etc. Even the predator costs are substantial and you do not want to lose one. Now we know Saddam had plans for drones with cylindrical tanks for bio-toxins mounted on a aerial platform with a 14-16 foot wingspan, twin boom tail and RC devise to power it along off it's little launch pad. This is a Chemical-Biological Weapon of mass killing prototype in progress, which was a UAV project. Now then a vehicle UAV or in this case non-retrievable or it was not meant to be re-used can be made in a crude form nearly by anyone in their garage.

So how do you shoot a UAV down. Well such a large vehicle can be tracked and terminated even if the tank were plastic and the wings of wood and even little amounts of heat provides a SAM handheld or patriot a big enough foot print to intercept. But what happens when the enemy uses UAVs against us? The modern world such as the N. Koreans, Chinese, Iran all has technology that exceeds UAVs. So are we to have fighter jocks sitting in simulator type settings play aerial Mech Warrior? Perhaps, dog fighting each other. We have done tests where a whole platoon fired at a UAV with machine guns and hand held arms and no bullets connected with the UAV at all, meaning it is hard to shoot down, hard to see and thus somewhat invisible to naked eye and footprint small enough that anything you sent after it would need rocket propellant in excess of the weight of the target and probably twice to three times the size.

Then we need newer versions of the stinger, but that means such technology will end up in the hands of Chinese who will pass it on and the arms traders will have a field day and everyone will buy weapons which can shoot down drones, UAVs and unfortunately could be used against private jets, cars, light planes and airlines, not to mention lightweight and high impact explosives to down a military jet and pilot or helicopter full of people, Humanitarian Aid or other flying machine. Until which time it is safe to keep technology in house it might behoove people to remember that the North in the Civil war produced a muzzle spinning bullet that had better accuracy and greater range until the South got them and figured it out and produced the same, simply more blood was spilled and casualties mounted.

Same is the escalation of warfare and even though only 1% off all the people who have ever lived have died in a war that may not mean we wish to kill off the entire race by war and keep bettering the devices of war to kill more people. However we must protect ourselves from those who differ with obvious logic thus making that argument irrelevant in nature. Sorry folks that won't happen any time soon.

So then a swarm of UAVs what are they worth. 20 stinger missiles, after all the data of troop movement could get said troops killed. Now then our goal in war is to find said enemy and eliminate threat. But if they launch UAVs we are in information damage control mode, and need to get rid of the leak of information through infrared, radar, camera, heat sensors, etc, whatever the UAV is equipped with. Shooting each one down would be difficult, shooting one down is hard enough. If they send many like we are talking about doing then the problem is difficult.

[http://www.aerovironment.com/area-aircraft...serv/ptrdes.pdf]

Now then one option not discussed anywhere I can find it is an old idea of Tesla's and ELF and it is called a ELF "SNAP" in the scientific community it refers to snapping the connection of electromagnetic energy which religious followers might call the soul. It would instantly kill all cells in the body and all the electromagnetic energy would leave instantly. By focusing a bean or building a barrier of ELF anything flying through it would snap and all the electrical energy running any devise including the controls on the UAV would snap and the unit would harmlessly fall as soon as the fuel ran out or crash if it did not have stabilization innate tendencies through some sort of dihedral airfoils rendering it into a glider. Now then if someone were to do this to us we would need a way to reactivate more juice, from a lead barrier which would sense no electricity and open up and restore energy, but the entire system would be blown like a fuse burned up.

However a system encased in a liquid frozen lead base would be melted by the snap and then start operating using the liquid as the generation of new power and fly on, at least you could retrieve it. And then you would know of an electro-magnetic force field barrier and avoid it with other expensive hard ware or life form such as a person. So the UAV problem is forth coming as the technology is so readily available.

The smaller the components get and more ways they can conduct themselves and the more ways they can attain decisive military intelligence the more important it will be to terminate the enemies UAV intelligence gathering. Also of concern is the enemy feeding migratory birds food laced with RNA pathogens which do not their species making them carriers of that disease, pathogen, virus which harms our species. Such a force field kills cells and birds on contact and their would be no more spreading to populations of friendlies, or our own troops, or people.

In recap the technology has advanced enough to find a weapon against it which and where none exist, we must find a way to shoot down UAVs from our enemy. We can shoot down Drones of size, but these little things are hard to hit, the very reason we are using them besides the low cost. But the low cost makes them readily available to our enemy so then plan B must be ready now that plan A exists for all countries wishing to serve their political or radical views or will upon the freedoms and human rights owed the human race.

Scrambling frequencies is another method and taking control of their UAVs is another way with a better stronger signal once close enough. Of course we do not want them because they may contain Viruses, so we want to take control of them crash them and then put on a body suit and see what they are made of thus finding frequencies used, capabilities of frequencies, which could be used and capabilities of payload, longevity of flight, speed, and other important information. Also where the UAV was sending information too and what type of information is an important consideration.

If a UAV works on heat signatures of people or detects CO2 coming from one's body like a mosquito finds you then, set out thousands of little heat boxes at the body temperature or little boxes emitting CO2 to the same amount as humans, which would show a thousand troops in an area which does not exist, misdirection leads to bad strategic moves, bad planning and good luck on our part, such the battle field changes a bit, but the basic strategy is the same and thus Von Clauswitz if alive today might ponder the same ideas if he were to know all the facts discussed.

These on-going discussions should provide the thought for research to completely figure out the possible threats and new technologies needed to keep people in the free world safe from the threat now created which is in the hands of the enemy.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Mini Uav's for Stealth: How to operate a UAV Swarm

2012-01-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

How to launch hundreds of UAVs for an autonomous mission from a transport plane. As we watched the MOAB parachute bomb drop out of a C-130 onto the desert and above the tunnels below into Afghanistan, it left the world in awe. Now then this parachute concept has another idea. Launching UAVs, hundreds of them in swarms of 25 to 50, to overwhelm the opponent.

Here is how it is done, the little cute UAVs are put into a bread rack type configuration but like a box made of plastic or composite. It is thrown out the back of the aircraft, okay see ya. Then the parachute opens. The UAVs are launched by relative wind as they dive down after release. Large propellers to start the motors since the motors would have high compression. Or the propellers would spin and break the small cellophane wall separating the chemicals in a little bag allowing them to combine and become a battery.

As the box slows down and the parachute deploys air pressure from under the box would cause the bottom to fall out since it would be on a spring and simply pop off and fall to Earth or it could hang there in an open vertical position until the launching device hit the ground and the door hitting first would trigger and explosion destroying any un-launched aircraft and the box it self, if made of composite it would of course burn cyanide gas so no one would attempt to go near it until it was finally all burned up. As each floor released its aircraft then the next floor would spring back since all the weight of the UAV were gone and the relative air pressure from the slowly dropping parachute started the next set of UAVs on that floor.

The falling UAVs would have some stability and of course dihedral and would simply start flying and the satellite would ping them to keep them flying where ever they were to go. Once in real close; each UAV would go to its exact target, usually five to six per target to be sure, low cost allows for this.

Once the aircraft were dropped out the bottom their higher rate of speed and lower drag than the parachute would easily clear them and the lift from the wing would allow them lateral separation. A small tooth pick could have the horizontal stabilizer in the up position as a temporary trim tab which would come off as the aircraft increased its speed, but stay on long enough to clear the chute. This set up could be used in a C-130, C-5, C-141, C-17 with such ease it would not even be funny.

You could even fly these UAVs in all directions and put flairs on them so they would have a big heat signature or pop out a piece of tin foil or drag a large metallic piece of crumpled aluminum to attract a radar and lock for anti-aircraft or SAM missiles and thus draw fire while AWACs watched pin-point targets and launched against all known radar sites, All because the enemy was fooled by model aircraft.

There are hundreds of types of scenarios and uses for these devices. The cool thing is they do not even have to be viable, work or be operational. It simply sends your opponent in so many misdirectional scenarios it overwhelms them and makes them hesitate to act, thus not commit and gives you the superior edge to make your opponent question themselves.

By flying UAVs with quarter mile spacing launched separately and turning them on in sequence you could mimic a flight speed of an F-18 and they would assume the incoming is a stealth which is remotely showing up occasionally or an F-18 coming in fast. Thus such a threat looks real and they have to turn on their systems to fire upon it. But it does not exist and all they will get after firing the SAM is a model airplane and have given away their position or possibly not even get the UAV, the one in the lead. Then you kill the SAM sight and turn the UAVs in another direction and keep going, they will never figure out what you are doing. Each time they simply at maximum get the lead UAV, which is relatively cheap considering you scored a SAM sight and will soon have air superiority for free basically.

By launching UAVs in all directions with different signatures you could mimic an all out attack from the wrong location, while your enemy sends resources to fight the diversion you are attacking key targets within other territories. A few times of this and they will stop chasing ghosts and then you arm the little UAVs and use them. Or use a stealth with the similar mimicking signature and they think it is simply a dud crying wolf.

You have to value the UAV scenarios. A weapon to prevent war, by eliminating threats which kill people on your team, making it easy to go in to get your exact target to serve your political will with no worries of reciprocal responses which will cost lives on your side. This is most perfect for regime change. No collateral damage and you do not even need a bunch of military lawyers deciding what a proper target is against an enemy who most likely would cut off the balls of one of your captured infantry and shove them in their mouth cut off the head and parade it around town. We are so polite in warfare yet our opponents so barbaric. War is hell and you must bring hell to you enemy.

If your real enemy is the regime leaders, you must eliminate defenses and go get them ASAP, that is the best for all concerned and in that sense if war can ever be humane, as we kill members of our own species and continue this notion of war, then this must be the way it is done. Some day there will not be wars, although a man who would not be willing to fight for what they believe in is not a man, and therefore we must evolve into something else or all believe in the same thing. That same thing could be a religion if you will, a sense of Earth pride, World Nationalism provided we are all of one nation, or admit to ourselves we are all together and we are all of planet Earth. Or we need to unite the world as one and possibly all have a common enemy such as "Evil" "mediocrity" etc. Asteroids, whatever, and something to name so we can unite.

But until then, in a sense we are still a warring species, we ought to find the best way to serve our will with the least amount of future conflict as war is an escalation of political will, which has advanced past the level of reason by one or more of the disagreeing parties.

Too philosophical? Maybe, Perhaps, but you must admit the UAV Swarm idea is part of our future.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

UAV 's the Future

2012-01-22T06:42:00.000-08:00

Possible UAV materials are infinite: Foam, Composite, Balsa Wood, Plastic, Synthetic Balloon Material, Aluminum, Titanium, Spider Web Organic Material, etc. I propose some late breaking technology and newer materials, ceramic coatings and or UAVs built from photorefractive composites?

Why? Weight, stealth, parasite drag, induced drag, boundary layers, and performance, NASA is looking into this as well for other uses;

Then there are some really awesome practitioners, which have it all figured out, UAV manufacturing companies have come alive in the last decade; even Plastics are used in UAVs especially the smaller ones. The larger UAV are made out of just about anything you can imagine. We are not the only ones learning about what to make these out of and we are not the only country capable of making them, many other countries are trying new things also. So it is important to be the best at it and have ways to shoot down enemy UAVs. Recently there was a major news story in the media about the FBI working on finding espionage theft of secret research. One spokesmen, head of the group in Mountain View, CA, said next to International Terrorism it is the FBI's number 2 priority as the loss of important research is leaving the country way too fast; citing that our trading partners and allies were also spying on us; Chinese, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, Iran. And you only have to read the news occasionally to know this is a real issue. Top Secret means about 6 months until it is all over the Internet. Classified means 3 months before some reporter gets a hold of it and it is for this reason that UAV technologies are so dangerous and why we must keep up the innovations in this area to stay ahead of our competition.

As technology progresses, your enemy will have the same tools and technologies you do, by buying it from an ally, spy or secretly stealing it from a University Research Team. So when you invent something as weapon for offense or defense of your people, you have to know how to defeat it too. As it will be used against you in a court of law (war).

Most all foreign countries have UAV programs and have established research and development teams and put forth spies on the subject as well as pretend collaborators. We need to pay attention for the betterment of NATO Countries and UN participants. But what about hostile or potentially hostile nations, they have scientists too. Unmanned Flight is now capable in nearly any current aircraft with the exception of the skill necessary to fly and take-off in a Ryan Monoplane or those requiring the balance of a pilot such as a hang glider or ultra light like the crash and burn motorcycle team brave enough to give it a test at the DARPA Grand Challenge, hats go off to that team for a noble and worthy attempt.

If you think for one second that North Korea does not have UAVs of some type to augment their arsenal of Ballistic capable nuclear missiles think again. They trade with China and Japan and both have established programs, The Trade with South Korea and we have UAVs in Country and North Korea has spies there too. Even Saddam had a UAV prototype flying bomb program, some would say was in it's infancy, I say bull all they needed was a motor attached, you can buy that at an ultra-light store or online catalog, no one can deny that, google for your self if you find folly with my observation. A device such as that prototype UAV with a chemical compound or pathogen, virus or disease in it is not very funny if dispersed into a large city. These technologies are available and are or have been in all the arsenals of the Axis of Evil Countries.

[http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/030408.htm]

I am not the only person worried of this. UAVs that we build need to be light-weight, good payload, stealthy and agile. But the enemy due to cost may decide to build a huge number of cheap units and bet on the numbers rather than survivability, so can we defeat a swarm of these? Very similar scenario, which scared all American's during the cold war, shooting down multiple ICBM warheads which scatter and attack pre-assigned cities. Some UAV enemy strategies include a different approach to the notion of single mission non-recovery theory as many academics have eluded to in the reports online.

I would have to agree that money to buy the units is a big factor as our Congress appropriated much monies to the predator program for DHS and Military, smart move. Coast Guard, Boarder Patrol, etc.but if a UAV does not do very much in the way of surveillance or ordinance delivery due to payloads in smaller non-predator type UAVs then a smart bomb maybe a better way to go once air defenses have been taken out of the equation. Which is why we are well served to have both technologies available to us. Of course it also depends how many targets, time frame and economies of scale when it comes to the logistical costs of movements of people, fuel, food, weapons and power.

Every mission should have a cost benefit and a goal oriented solution, that of course being the name of the game, to win it. UAVs provide options, lower costs over all and smart planning and curtail loss of life on both sides. Single mission UAVs, small versions are appropriate in many regards. Predators are good in that they can be used forever unless we start crashing them.

These smaller UAVs, like SmartBombs are especially important during regime changes when you goal is to provoke change in leadership not in destroying vast amounts of individual human life, no matter what amount of value is placed on it by the culture opposing your political will, but taking out those who oppose the will of the free World and stability of the Human Race. Never the less, war is hell, so you must win at all costs, which goes without saying, losing sucks and defeat or retreat cannot be an option for our team. Retreat should only be used as a tactic to serve your future will. Let the enemy re-group and congregate and attack again getting most bang for your buck.

UAVs are here to stay and will require proper funding, such R and D will come back ten fold to mankind in potential commercial uses for moving freight within and out side our own atmosphere, for doing jobs in agriculture, short and small delivery and of course the future of air travel pilot less commercial aircraft much the same as the NYC subways and people movers across the country and throughout the world.

The costs of UAVs are important and the materials provide the efficiencies necessary to make them light, fast, maneuverable and strong. By watching the costs and picking the right materials, we can always maintain the lead in UAV research and Development, Deployment and acquiring of target to stay in front of the pack in the never ending Human Saga, of Good VS Evil. You know the Sound and Fury stuff, which has been going on since all of the recorded history we know about. We sure are funny, us humans? Wonder if we will ever figure it out?

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

www.upcomingtablets.blogspot.com: Cheap Android tablet by Beetel in India

2011-08-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

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Hermes 450

2011-08-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

The Hermes 450 is a medium size UAV supplying real time intelligence data to ground forces. The UAV (length 6.1 m, wingspan 10.5 m and weight 450 kg), was designed for tactical long endurance missions.

With multi-payload capability (150 kg, 300 L, 1.6 kVA) the Hermes 450 is effective for ISTAR, SIGINT, communication relays and other missions for Division to Corps levels. It is powered by a 52 hp rotary UEL engine that provides a maximum speed of 95 KTAS@SL, altitude over 18 kft, endurance over 20 hours.

The Hermes 450 features fully redundant avionics, fully autonomous flight, LOS and/or satellite communication data link with a fully composite structure that is highly mobile and easily deployed.

The Watchkeeper Programme

2011-08-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

Watchkeeper WK450 is a £800 million contract awarded in July 2005 to Thales to provide the British Army with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for all weather, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) use.
The Watchkeeper is based on the Elbit Hermes 450 UAV (designated WK450). The engine is the rotary Wankel engine. It has a mass of 450 kg and a payload capacity of 150 kg, with a typical endurance of 17 hours. It was originally intended to enter service in June 2010.^[1]
The Watchkeeper is built in the UK by a joint venture company, UAV Tactical Systems (U-TacS), set up by the Israeli company Elbit Systems (51% ownership) and Thales UK. UAV Engines Ltd, who build the rotary engine in the UK, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems.^[2] The majority Israeli ownership has caused some unexpected problems obtaining U.S. export authorisation for some components.^[3]
On 15 July 2007, the UK MOD revealed to IT and Science website The Register that 54 Watchkeepers will be delivered to the British Army. The average cost to the taxpayer is therefore £800m divided by 54 aircraft, approximately £15m per platform.^[4]
Watchkeeper's first UK flight took place on Wednesday 14 April 2010 from Parc Aberporth in Wales.^[5]
In October 2010, the contract was extended by a further 18 months,^[6] and the delivery date slipped from February 2011 to toward the end of 2011.^[7]
Watchkeeper WK450 is a £800 million contract awarded in July 2005 to Thales to provide the British Army with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for all weather, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) use.
The Watchkeeper is based on the Elbit Hermes 450 UAV (designated WK450). The engine is the rotary Wankel engine. It has a mass of 450 kg and a payload capacity of 150 kg, with a typical endurance of 17 hours. It was originally intended to enter service in June 2010.^[1]
The Watchkeeper is built in the UK by a joint venture company, UAV Tactical Systems (U-TacS), set up by the Israeli company Elbit Systems (51% ownership) and Thales UK. UAV Engines Ltd, who build the rotary engine in the UK, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems.^[2] The majority Israeli ownership has caused some unexpected problems obtaining U.S. export authorisation for some components.^[3]
On 15 July 2007, the UK MOD revealed to IT and Science website The Register that 54 Watchkeepers will be delivered to the British Army. The average cost to the taxpayer is therefore £800m divided by 54 aircraft, approximately £15m per platform.^[4]
Watchkeeper's first UK flight took place on Wednesday 14 April 2010 from Parc Aberporth in Wales.^[5]

In October 2010, the contract was extended by a further 18 months,^[6] and the delivery date slipped from February 2011 to toward the end of 2011.^{[7] Words courtesy of Wikipedia}

Current UAVs in the MOD

2011-08-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Taranis: The £143million unmanned stealth jet that will hit targets in another continent

Looming ominously like a space ship from Star Wars, this is the future of unmanned flight.
Defence firm BAE Systems today officially unveiled its first ever high-tech unmanned stealth jet.
The Taranis, named after the Celtic god of thunder, is about the same size as a Hawk jet and is equipped with stealth equipment and an 'autonomous' artificial intelligence system.
The plane will test the possibility of developing the first ever autonomous stealthy Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) that would ultimately be capable of precisely striking targets at long range, even in another continent.

Taranis, the prototype of an unmanned combat aircraft of the future, which was unveiled today

The trial aircraft cost £143 million pounds to construct and spearheads BAE's drive to convince the Ministry of Defence to invest in the next generation of unmanned aircraft.
Almost invisible to ground radar, it is designed to travel at high jet speeds and cover massive distances between continents.
The plane is built to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on enemy territory using onboard sensors.
And it has been designed to carry a cache of weapons - including bombs and missiles -, giving it a potential long-range strike capability.
It can be controlled from anywhere in the world with satellite communications.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1294037/Taranis-The-143million-unmanned-stealth-jet-hit-targets-continent.html#ixzz1UZcKSb2v Words and image courtesy of Daily Mail