Crave

There's still a lot of blue sky in Boeing's plans for directed-energy weapons like the Laser Avenger.

(Credit: Boeing)

Updated 2:40 p.m. with details on how the laser damaged the UAV and on the Laser Avenger's targeting system.

Boeing is seeing a glimmer of progress in its work toward fielding laser weapons.

The defense industry giant on Monday said tests of its Laser Avenger system in December marked "the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV," or unmanned aerial vehicle. In the testing, the Humvee-mounted Laser Avenger located and tracked three small UAVs in flight over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and knocked one of the drone aircraft out of the sky.

Boeing didn't go into much detail about the shoot-down. In response to a query by CNET News, it did say this much about the strike by the the kilowatt-class laser: "A hole was burned in a critical flight control element of the UAV, rendering the aircraft unflyable."

While decades of Hollywood imagery may conjure up a vision of a target disintegrating in a sparkle of light, the actual workings of the laser beam are probably more prosaic. For instance, the beam from Boeing's much, much larger Airborne Laser, which is intended to disable long-range missiles in flight, uses heat to create a weak spot on the skin of the missile, causing it to rupture in flight. Boeing hopes to conduct the first aerial shoot-down test with the much-delayed 747-based Airborne Laser later this year.

In tests in 2007, the Laser Avenger "neutralized" improvised explosive devices (IEDs) like those that have been a deadly threat in Iraq, along with other unexploded munitions.

One technology more than any other has stood out as a success story for the U.S. military in Iraq: unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs.

The best-known of the UAVs, the MQ-1 Predator, has evolved from its early use as simply a reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft to become a highly valued weapon in its own right. Armed with Hellfire missiles, it can both track enemy combatants and fire on them. A more recent version of the Predator, called the MQ-9 Reaper, was specifically put into service as a "hunter-killer" drone.

The Pentagon has been so impressed with the use of UAVs in combat zones that it has made a high priority out of training and assigning new pilots for the aircraft (though not without some controversy). While the Predators carry out missions in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and are handled by ground crews there, the pilots generally operate from thousands of miles away, in places like Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

In Sunday's installment of the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes, correspondent Lesley Stahl traveled to Iraq to talk to Gen. Ray Odierno, the new top commander there, and other senior U.S. military personnel about the role of UAVs.

During last spring's fight for Sadr City, for instance, UAVs including the Predator and the RQ-7 Shadow proved instrumental in finding and destroying insurgent targets. Cameras on the aircraft help commanders on the ground see and map out a wide area of operations with their "persistent surveillance" capability.

Stahl's report shows rare footage of the weaponry in action as the military pursued "fleeting and perishable" targets.

U.S. officials credit the high-tech aerial systems as among the top reasons that violence in Iraq dropped so dramatically this year. And earlier this year, although still a young technology, the Predator and the Shadow were among the half-dozen UAVs recognized with an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution.

The Predator--with its "snowmobile" engine and unobtrusive presence--has also become a favored tool of the CIA. Take a closer look in the January 2003 video below, from the 60 Minutes archives.

(Credit: DraganFly)

Well this is paranoia-inducing.

Yes, that is a photo of a camera attached to a miniature helicopter. It's called the DraganFlyer X6. It's a remotely operated device designed to carry wireless video or still cameras.

Measuring about 3 feet in diameter with the rotor, the X6 has three motors to spin its carbon fiber blades and is capable of carrying a maximum weight of 1.1 pounds. This means your typical point-and-shoot camera, budget dSLR or camcorder should be able to fit properly on the bird. It comes with an anti-vibration camera mount which minimizes shaky videos or images.

The really tech-savvy can opt for the GPS option, which lets you track the X6's whereabouts on its 2.8-inch touchscreen control display. But the ultimate experience is surely the video glasses which let users on the ground see through the eyes of the X6 in flight.

There are other accessories that you can throw in, but bear in mind that a basic unit will set you back $14,995. Rather than breaking the bank, I think tying my shooter to a kite is a more affordable alternative.

(Via Crave Asia)

(Credit: Frontline Aerospace)

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.

AeroVironment is set to design and build a 3-inch nano air vehicle for DARPA.

(Credit: AeroVironment)

Unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming a big deal for the armed forces, even when they're really small.

AeroVironment said Tuesday that it has gotten the go-ahead, in the form of a Phase II contract, to design and build a teeny-tiny prototype for the Nano Air Vehicle program at DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. How teeny? The defense R&D agency stipulates that a NAV must be smaller than 7.5 centimeters (2.9 inches) and, at no more than 10 grams (one-third of an ounce), "ultralightweight."

A key eventual mission for NAVs would be military operations in urban environments, with the insect-sized aircraft capable of performing surveillance and reconnaissance both inside buildings and in the open air. In addition, DARPA says, "the program will advance technologies that enable collision avoidance and navigation systems for use in GPS-denied indoor and outdoor environments and develop efficient methods for hovering flight and deployment or emplacement of sensors."

While DARPA and Monrovia, Calif.-based AeroVironment cite biomimickry--that is, drawing on designs found in nature--as a central concept for NAVs, the NAV sketch on the AeroVironment site looks predominantly like a classic airplane-dropped bomb--with gossamer wings tacked on. (Sort of like the wings that Wile E. Coyote strapped on in one of his cartoon pursuits of Road Runner.)

The Wasp III is now serving with the Air Force.

(Credit: U.S. Air Force)

The Phase II contract involves a six-month, $636,000 development program that AeroVironment, which also makes wind turbines for civilian use, says will result in "a rudimentary, three-inch flapping-wing air vehicle system." (Phase I was a $1.7 million program.) If a demo of the NAV is successful, DARPA would have the option to extend the program for 18 months.

AeroVironment has already created small--but not "nano"--UAVs for the Pentagon, including the Raven and the Wasp. A "micro" air vehicle, or MAV, the Wasp can be remotely controlled or programmed for GPS-based autonomous navigation, and it carries a pair of on-board cameras. The Air Force took delivery of its first "BATMAV" (for the Battlefield Air Targeting Micro Air Vehicle program), the Wasp III--with a strapping 29-inch wingspan and weighing in at 1 pound--from the company in 2007.

The A160T Hummingbird comes in for a landing May 9 at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona after a high-altitude hovering demonstration.

(Credit: Boeing)

A disparate pair of aviation R&D projects at Boeing have hit milestones recently.

The A160T Hummingbird, a helicopter-style unmanned aerial vehicle, last week flew for 18.7 hours without refueling, an accomplishment that Boeing described Wednesday as an "unofficial world endurance record" for UAVs between 500 and 2,500 kilograms (about 1,100 to 5,500 pounds)--a record that's pending certification by a key aeronautical sanctioning body.

But the record books aside, the flight also helps to show the Hummingbird's mettle as a potential aircraft for military use. During the flight, the turbine-powered unmanned rotorcraft carried a 300-pound internal payload--which in eventual real-life operations might be supplies for ground troops or gear for in-flight surveillance--and flew as high as 15,000 feet. When it finished, it still had about 90 minutes worth of fuel in reserve.

In a test flight last September, the Hummingbird carried a heavier load for a shorter period of time (1,000 pounds and eight hours). The A160T variant first flew about a year ago, taking up where an earlier piston-powered version left off.

Another May milestone for the A160T Hummingbird, which is designed to fly autonomously, involved so-called hover-out-of-ground-effect flights at 15,000 and 20,000 feet. The ability to hover at the relatively high altitudes would make the UAV more effective for missions in mountainous areas and help keep it out of range of some ground-based air defense weapons, Boeing said.

Measuring 35 feet long with a 36-foot rotor diameter, the Hummingbird in service is expected to fly at 140 knots for more than 20 hours. Boeing Advanced Systems is building the UAV for DARPA and for the Army and Navy.

The Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft in flight.

(Credit: Ed Turner, Boeing)

Also this week, Boeing said that on May 13, it fired a high-energy chemical laser--in ground tests--aboard a C-130H aircraft, a step toward in-flight tests later this year in which the laser will fire at ground targets from on high. The directed-energy weapon is designed to fire through a rotating belly turret in the aircraft, known as the Advanced Tactical Laser.

And in a me-too missive straight out of the Cold War, the Russian news agency Novosti reported a patriotic response to the ATL test from an unnamed Russian defense industry "expert." Boeing, it would seem, is late to the game.

"We tested a similar system back in 1972. Even then our 'laser cannon' was capable of hitting targets with high precision," the expert is quoted as saying. "We have moved far ahead since then, and the U.S. has to keep pace with our research and development."

(Credit: Thales UK)

Thales UK released photos of the new Watchkeeper UAV maiden flight in Northern Israel after permission to publish the pictures had been blocked for three weeks because of political considerations, according to industry press reports.

The Watchkeeper, a "fully autonomous" (including automatic takeoff and landing) unmanned aerial vehicle, is expected to assume reconnaissance and target acquisition duties for the British military by 2010, according to Thales.

The robo-platform comes equipped with day/night electro-optic sensors, laser-target designators, and advanced synthetic aperture radar. Information and images collected are transmitted to a network of mobile ground control stations and remote viewing terminals where operators can control missions. It's unarmed but does include a "de-icing capabilit."

Permission to publish the pictures had been blocked by the U.K. Defence Equipment & Support organization since the April 16 maiden flight, according to Flightglobal.com, "due to sensitivities linked to local elections held across the U.K. on 1 May."

The 450-kilogram Watchkeeper, based on the Elbit Hermes 450, will be built jointly by the Israeli company Elbit Systems and the French-owned Thales UK. Starting price was 15 million pounds (more than $29 million) but has reportedly risen to 17 million pounds a pop (more than $33 million), and despite 2,100 lucrative jobs, a good portion of that money will be flying away offshore. There's one reason to be sensitive.

These are three of the six UAVs now on display at the Smithsonian Institution (from top to bottom): the RQ-3A Darkstar, the MQ-1L Predator A, and the X-45A Joint Unmanned Combat Air System.

(Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. J.G. Buzanowski)

With names like Predator, Dragon Eye, and Darkstar, they sound downright intimidating. And it's true that in the hands of the Air Force, unmanned aerial vehicles like the Predator (and its grimly named younger sibling, the Reaper) can put you in a world of hurt via laser-guided Hellfire missiles.

But in a lot of ways still, UAVs aren't so far removed from the realm of the model airplane. The main reason: by and large, they're not autonomous, but rather fly under the control of a very human pilot on the ground--sometimes nearby, sometimes very far away. And some are small enough to hold in your hands; in fact, the 5-pound Dragon Eye used by the U.S. Marine Corps runs off a very modest electric motor and can be launched with a bungee cord.

One thing all the systems have in common is that they bring a new high-tech element to military operations, helping troops acquire ground targets, avoid roadside bombs, see beyond the next ridge, and even on occasion capture enemy combatants. (That would be the RQ-2A Pioneer in the 1991 Gulf War.)

In Washington, UAVs have already found friends in high places, like Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Now they've also found a home in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. For more on that, and on the drones in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, see News.com's photo gallery, "Photos: UAVs land in the Smithsonian."

(Credit: iRobot)

The military sees a need for a flying robot that can swoop into an enemy position, transition to wheel or track mode, and then get busy icing bad guys--something along the lines of the Griffon UGV/UAV Air Mobility System.

While unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can wing in quickly to reconnoiter or attack enemy positions, they can't follow a target into a cave or a building. Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), on the other hand, can enter structures, search for targets, and examine them at close range, but they're slower than UAVs, have less range, and are limited by rough terrain.

Awhile back, the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command and the Armaments Research, Development, and Engineering Center funded an iRobot team led by Brian Yamauchi and Pavlo Rudakevych to develop a solution. They came up with the Griffon (PDF), an iRobot PackBot prototype strapped to a gasoline-powered, propeller-driven, radio-controlled, steerable parafoil system. The UVG hangs from a superstructure on which is mounted a 32cc Fuji engine behind an 18- by 8-inch propeller.

For the parafoil, the team considered a wide range of extreme sport kite surfing and traction wings but settled on the 11-meter Ozone Razor. This parafoil is attached by two hang points on the sides, with two arms to control the wing surface and a quick release to jettison the whole contraption on touchdown.The PackBot's on-board computer does the driving and controls the gas. Video, audio, and autonomous ground GPS navigation is also a standard PackBot feature.

The kit is designed to be man-packable and could be used by civilian teams for search-and-rescue in hazardous terrain in addition to military recon and strike missions in urban environments, according to the researchers.

A prototype was tested a few years age and apparently worked well, although it wasn't much to look at. It took off, soared up to 200 feet, landed, and then moved out at speeds of more than 20mph, all under remote control--a first, according to the inventors Yamauchi and Rudakevych. Unfortunately, that's the last it was heard of. The concept deserves another look; it has the makings of a great DARPA challenge.