Military Tech

The Excalibur, a new turbine-electric hybrid propelled VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) unmanned attack drone, has successfully completed another test flight after taking on two new onboard computers last week.

Developed by Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. for the U.S. Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate and the Office of Naval Research, the Excalibur is another radical robo-craft concept vying to fill the military's burgeoning demand for specialized UAVs.

The demonstrator model, weighing in at 700 pounds, can hit 520 mph, making it one of the fastest drones around, according to the Aurora. The nearly autonomous flight control system allows operators to concentrate on finding and engaging targets instead of piloting the aircraft, according to the Manassas, Va.-based company. The Excalibur's jet-borne vertical takeoff and landing and three electric lift fans providing attitude control and hover thrust, make it "runway independent." After takeoff, it flies like a regular turbojet.

The computers were supplied by Parvus Corporation from its COTS DuraCOR 820 line, a rugged, watertight 3-inch-high, 3-pound unit, featuring a conductively cooled 1.4GHz Intel Pentium-M processor and a solid state disk pre-loaded with a Linux or Windows XP Embedded operating system image. The system will handle everything from command and control to situational awareness, according to the Salt Lake City-based company.

There's no mistaking the mini-jet's intent. The full scale model is designed to carry a 400-pound weapon load; that would be four Hellfire Missiles.

Adherence to the Three Laws of Robotics as put forth by Isaac Asimov has been, until now, entrusted to whoever held the joystick. That may change.

A robotics engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed an "ethical governor," which could be used to program military robots to act ethically when deciding when, and whom, to shoot or bomb.

Ron Arkin has demonstrated the system using attack UAVs and actual battlefield scenarios and maps from recent U.S. military campaigns in Afghanistan. (videos)

In one scenario, a drone spots Taliban soldiers, but holds its fire because they're in a cemetery--fighting there is against international law.

In another, the UAV identifies an enemy convoy close to a hospital, but limits itself to shooting up the vehicles so as to avoid collateral damage to the hospital. The mindful bot would also house a built in "guilt system," which would force it to behave more cautiously, after making a mistake.

While the work shows promise, it also draws attention to the inadequacy of trying to program machines with morals, especially ones expected to perform in a complex battlefield environment, according to experts.

"Robots don't get angry or seek revenge but they don't have sympathy or empathy either," Noel Sharkey, a roboticist at Sheffield University, U.K., told New Scientist. "Strict rules require an absolutist view of ethics, rather than a human understanding of different circumstances and their consequences."

Arkin acknowledges that it may take a while before we can trust predators and other unmanned killers with life and death decisions.

"These ideas will not be used tomorrow, but in the war after next, and in very constrained situations." Arkin is quoted in New Scientist. "The most important outcome of my research is not the architecture, but the discussion that it stimulates."

A new kamikaze drone out of Israel is designed to hang about overhead until it spots a target, then crash into it with "pinpoint accuracy" destroying the target, and itself, with 50 pounds of on-board explosives.

While classified as a Loitering Munition, the HAROP comes equipped with many of the usual UAV capabilities: high-performance FLIR and color CCD camera with 360-degree hemispherical coverage, allowing it to transmit video back to its operators just like a surveillance drone.

Like its predecessor the Harpy, the HAROP will be used to take out high-value targets such as air defense radars that transmit a strong pulse. But there's nothing to indicate it can't home-in on a cell phone call from a moving car. Fortunately, the developer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), has thoughtfully included a Man in the Loop feature that enables the missile to be controlled in real time in case an attack needs aborting to avoid collateral damage.

The HAROP can be launched from a variety of platforms, including a ground vehicle. Launched out the box on a booster rocket, it unfold its wings, starts up an internal-combustion driven pusher propeller, and begins the hunt. Once a target is identified, it can crash "from any direction and at any attack angle, from flat to vertical which is highly essential in urban areas."

IAI has reportedly already signed a $100 million-plus contract to supply the lethal loiterers to an unidentified customer. Throwaway UAVs may do for IAI what disposable razors have done for Gillette.

In what it says is a "first of its kind" initiative, the U.S. Navy plans to launch sometime this spring an unmanned aerial vehicle for a 24-hour endurance flight carrying a 5-pound payload and powered entirely by a hydrogen-powered fuel cell.

Called the Ion Tiger, the UAV can travel farther and carry heavier loads than earlier battery-powered designs, according to the Office of Naval Research. It also boasts "stealthy characteristics" such as reduced noise, low heat signature, and zero emissions (PDF).

"This will really be a demonstration for a fuel cell system in a UAV application," ONR Program Manager Dr. Michele Anderson said. "That's something nobody can do right now."

Fuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen into water in a pollution-free process to create an electrical current delivering up to double the efficiency of an internal combustion engine, researchers claim.

The Tiger will use a "500-watt polymer fuel cell with a high specific power system." Weight will be reduced using high-pressure lightweight hydrogen storage tanks. The UAV has already "demonstrated sound aerodynamics, high functionality, and low-heat and noise signatures under battery-powered tests," according to ONR.

This test will show how a surveillance drone can operate economically with less possibility of detection and still exceed the duration of previous flights seven-fold.

Collaborators include Protonex Technology and the University of Hawaii.

Landmine "contamination" continues to plague developing countries, where more are laid every year than are cleared, according to a UN estimate. Now, a company promises a new technique to locate and map landmines from the air-three times faster and at half the price of conventional detection methods.

A Canadian company, Mine Clearing Corp (MCC) has acquired licensing to the latest in radiometry technology; technology so sensitive it can pick out the tiny electromagnetic reflections emitted by buried objects from as high as 200 feet in the air. MCC plans to incorporate this technology into a landmine detection and GPS scan-to-map system that uses Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) able to pinpoint a landmine to within 20 inches- thus finding the "needle in the haystack" before anyone sets foot in the minefield, according to the company.

Once in the minefield, the company offers a handheld detection unit for use at ground level. Called Fig8, due to its figure eight antenna conductor loops, the detector is powered by the kinetic energy generated by sweeping the unit from side to side - "perfect for third-world countries as it needs no batteries".

The system uses patented sensor technology called "cold sky." It was developed by Roke Manor Research Ltd, a Siemens subsidiary who licensed it to MCC, (formerly Peak Resources.)

Conventional landmine removal involves probing very square foot of suspected terrain. It doesn't matter whether it's done mechanically, or by people, or by trained rats, it's expensive, time consuming and dangerous. Planting them, on the other hand, is quick and cheap.

There could be more than 100 million active landmines scattered in over 80 countries, according to some estimates. The United Nations reckons every 20 minutes someone, somewhere in the world is killed or maimed by a landmine, this despite close to $500 million allocated each year to clearing efforts.

"We are confident that this licensing agreement will allow us to bring practical low cost mine clearance to those countries where abandoned mines continue to wreak a terrible cost on human life," said Roke Managing Director David Smith.

Potential clients for the new detector include NGOs and commercial enterprises such as oil and gas, mining, agriculture and utilities companies in addition to traditional military customers.

A team from Iowa State University is using virtual reality technology to develop "immersive" ground control stations that will give operators of military unmanned aircraft (UAV) an overall view of their planes and the battle space they are flying over.

The university's Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) team is working under a $4.2 million contract as part of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's effort to develop the "next generation control interface" for military UAVs. If successful, the real-time virtual view of the battle space will allow a single operator to control several UAVs simultaneously, all the while monitoring onboard instruments, cameras and weapons systems.

"We're also developing and measuring the effectiveness of new human interface techniques, which will enable operators to effectively control multiple, semi-autonomous aircraft. Already, up to 230 persons can be interfaced to participate in the system simultaneously," research leader Dr. James Oliver said in an interview with Space War.

The idea is to use novel eye-tracking and voice control technology to provide a shared, situational awareness interface, which robo plane crews can then monitor and interact with on large screen displays.

This approach inverts the typical paradigm for conveying information to UAV jockeys, according to VRAC. Because rather than augmenting the real-time camera picture with sensor generated information, the new interface works more like a virtual operating theater--one that's constantly fed by a myriad array of spatial and temporal information sources.

Construction of the X-47B unmanned, tailless, stealth jet is ahead of schedule, with the first flight scheduled for November 2009, reports defense contractor Northrop Grumman.(pdf)

The X-47B is expected to be the first tailless UAV jet to operate off an aircraft carrier, which includes catapult launches and arrested landings; to do that it will also need to be capable of maneuvering precisely and autonomous around the flight deck. But none of that is expected to happen until sea trials in 2011.

The plane, developed under the Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program, has the "potential to transform naval aviation", according advocates.

The Navy envisions it as a force multiplier to be deployed for everything from long range precision bombing runs to close air support.

Classed roughly as "strike fighter-sized" jet capable of high, "subsonic" speed, it boasts a 4,500 pound pay load, and a 40,000 foot operational ceiling. The project has had to overcome a number of marine environment specific challenges including dealing with the corrosive salt-water environment and the problem of directing what is essentially a remote-control plane within a carrier's high electromagnetic interference bubble.

Here's a three armed, six-rotor, unmanned helicopter nimble enough to fly indoors but tough enough to withstand winds of up to 18mph outdoors and, best of all, it doesn't sound like a log-chipper on crack.

The differential thrust from the Draganflyer X6's six rotors, arranged as three counter-rotating co-axial pairs mounted on the tip of each arm, is what makes for its zippy maneuver performance, according to Draganfly Innovations Inc. (Videos) It's also what accounts for the stealthy sound output. While hovering, the X6 produces less than less than 60dB at 9 feet, according to the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan based company.

The Draganflyer collapses into a 5.5 inch diameter tube that can be carried slung over the user's back. Eleven seperate sensors and thousands of lines of code stabilize it during flight, making it easier to fly than any other helicopter in its class, according to the company. It also features some cool running lights.

As far as the nomenclature, what at first glance appears to be a clumsy play on Boeing X-150 Dragonfly demo program is actually a takeoff of the developer's name.

Zenon and Christine Dragan started out as small mail-order business specializing in radio controlled flying machines in 1998 and then moved up to fill that class of UAVs that lie somewhere the models piloted by hobbyists and those approaching full size aircraft.The X6 machines are designed for aerial photography, including everything from search and rescue to music videos.

Being Canadian hasn't kept the company from cashing in on stateside, government largesse. Draganfly provides "grant writing support, consultation, and assistance" to customers looking for Department of Homeland Security grants.

Another entrant in the race to produce a ducted-fan-propelled, vertical-take-off-and-landing UAV, the planned "humvee of the air" will morph to different missions and reach targets three times faster than helicopters, according to the manufacturer.

The official name of the vehicle is VTOL-Swift Tactical Aerial Resource, or V-STAR. With a cruising speed of 288 knots, a 650-mile range and a 400-pound payload, the V-STAR promises to be a "breakthrough solution for frontline military logistics," according to Broomfield, Colo.-based Frontline Aerospace. The aircraft would use a Rolls-Royce gas turbine with counter-rotating blades and "diamond-box-wing" design that transitions to forward flight when needed.

The company is touting the V-Star's multirole flexibility. "The modular payload approach allows for rapid change-out in the field--one minute providing troops with ammo, food, water and fuel--and the next minute providing tactical reconnaissance, communications and close combat support," according to the press release.

It's also making a pitch for green appeal, by incorporating advanced MicroFire technology to give it a decidedly un-Humvee-like fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emission footprint.

"Frankly, we are keeping our MicroFire capability somewhat under wraps at this point," said Frontline founder and Chief Executive Officer Ryan S. Wood. "But we realize MicroFire can increase endurance and fuel economy not only for UAVs, but also create significant fuel savings for a whole class of helicopter engines worldwide--thus creating a true 'green' helicopter."

MicroFire is a "high-temperature counter-flow heat exchanger that extracts heat from the hot engine exhaust and transfers it to the compressed engine air before combustion," an operation that "can sometimes double the overall thermal efficiency of the engine," according to Frontline.

Given the flying Hummer's ability to morph from attack to recon or target acquisition and then back to combat logistics all while fighting global warming--there's only one thing left to do. Build a stretch version in time for prom season.