seruriermarshal
05-02-2004, 10:49 AM
WARPLANES: Marines Fly the Silver Fox
April 30, 2004: The U.S. Marines are using a new mini-UAV, in Iraq, for battlefield reconnaissance. The Silver Fox UAV weighs 22 pounds (with a four pound payload) and can fly as high as a thousand feet. Its eight foot wings are easily removed from the fuselage and the UAV can then be carried around in a 60"x14"x15" container that has been described as, 揳n oversize golf bag.? If the wind is strong enough, the Silver Fox can be launched by hand, but normally it is propelled into flight via compressed air from a portable launcher. The UAV lands by just stopping the engine when it抯 low to the ground. The UAV is light enough to just bounce when it hits the ground. Silver Fox is being used in addition to the lighter (4.3 pound) Dragon Eye UAV (which has a less capable video camera and is more unstable in high winds.)
The model aircraft engine keeps it in the air up to five hours per sortie. The aircraft is maneuvered via radio commands via a laptop computer. It can either be controlled by the operator, or simply instructed to go from one way point to another (using an onboard GPS and flight control software.) It can fly at speeds of up to a hundred kilometers an hour (about 27 meters a second). It抯 small enough to provide a hard to hit target for enemy troops firing at it. In any event, it抯 engine is hard to hear when the UAV is higher than 500 feet. At night, it抯 pretty much impossible to detect from the ground.
The dozen or so Silver Foxes currently in Iraq are still considered experimental. The UAV was developed by the navy last year to give warship captains a cheap way to check if there were any whales in the vicinity, before engaging in training exercises that might harm the marine mammals. This was considered cheaper than firing up the ships helicopter (which costs over a thousand dollars an hour to operate.) The experimental Silver Fox UAVs cost about $20,000 to make (using off the shelf components). If manufactured in larger quantities, unit cost would fall to under $10,000. The model the marines are using has day and night cameras which broadcast the video images back to the laptop. This gives battalion or company commanders are view of what is in the area their troops are about to enter. The use of UAVs like this has made street fighting in places like Fallujah a lot more effective, and saved the lives of many marines.
April 29, 2004: Army plans to equip its Hunter UAVs with 44 pound Viper Strike laser guided bombs has caused a dispute between generals who want another aerial weapon, especially for fighting in heavily populated areas, and division commanders and intelligence officers who do not want to see their UAVs taken away from reconnaissance missions for combat duty. There are never enough UAVs, especially long endurance UAVs like the Hunter that can carry Vipers. The 1600 pound Hunter can carry up to 200 pounds of sensors and weapons. The Hunter is currently the workhorse UAV for combat divisions. The Hunter was originally a less successful competitor with the Predator UAV. But the army has persevered and fixed most of the Hunters problems. Now the Hunter has become a valuable reconnaissance tool for combat divisions. The Hunter can stay in the air for twelve hours and has a range of 200 kilometers. In Iraq, Hunters have flown nearly a thousand sorties since arriving in early 2003.
Vipers are anti-tank weapons, and the warhead contains only four pounds of explosives. But this makes it an excellent weapon for fighting in urban areas, as the bomb is very accurate, and less likely to cause injury to nearby civilians.
April 27, 2004: The U.S. Air Force is developing software to enable UAVs to be refueled in the air. This would enable reconnaissance UAVs to spend even more time aloft, and would most likely be applied first to the largest UAVs, like Global Hawk. Aircraft reliability has, for decades, been good enough to allow manned aircraft to, in theory, stay aloft for days at a time. But the main limitation has always been the human crew, and the lack of any mission calling for flights of that length. UAVs are different, especially those that do reconnaissance. Staying in the air for 12, 24 or more hours at a stretch, provides a very valuable battlefield commodity; persistence. Being able to point cameras (still, motion, or night vision) at the battlefield persistently (thus the use of the term 損ersistence? have proved to be a major combat advantage. Keeping UAVs in the air for extended periods has other advantages as well. Large UAVs are also going to be used as space satellite substitutes, carrying communications gear that allows them to support military satellite radios on the ground. Such radios are much more effective than the traditional AM or FM types (which have problems with atmospheric, or terrain, interference.)
Commercial aircraft have had software controlled landing systems for over two decades. Such software allows a commercial airliner to land without pilot intervention, usually in bad weather when the pilot can抰 see anything, but the radar and other sensors can, and use special software to take control and bring the aircraft down. Such software has been used for UAVs (like Global Hawk) to enable them to land without the help of a pilot. Similar software would bring the UAV close enough to a aerial tanker to allow refueling to take place. This is a somewhat more complex operation than landing, as the aircraft getting the fuel has to constantly adjust its position to remain attached to the fuel line. But it's not a huge leap given the current state of flight software. Such a system could also be used for manned aircraft, to take the strain off crews flying very long missions. On those 10-30 hour flights (like B-2s going from the American mid-west to Iraq), the most stressful moments are take off, landing, bombing, and in flight refueling.
If Dragon Eye just 10000 $ , then can deploy more in Iraq , but not city .
I hope they first deploy UAV defend the base , and defend road ......
April 30, 2004: The U.S. Marines are using a new mini-UAV, in Iraq, for battlefield reconnaissance. The Silver Fox UAV weighs 22 pounds (with a four pound payload) and can fly as high as a thousand feet. Its eight foot wings are easily removed from the fuselage and the UAV can then be carried around in a 60"x14"x15" container that has been described as, 揳n oversize golf bag.? If the wind is strong enough, the Silver Fox can be launched by hand, but normally it is propelled into flight via compressed air from a portable launcher. The UAV lands by just stopping the engine when it抯 low to the ground. The UAV is light enough to just bounce when it hits the ground. Silver Fox is being used in addition to the lighter (4.3 pound) Dragon Eye UAV (which has a less capable video camera and is more unstable in high winds.)
The model aircraft engine keeps it in the air up to five hours per sortie. The aircraft is maneuvered via radio commands via a laptop computer. It can either be controlled by the operator, or simply instructed to go from one way point to another (using an onboard GPS and flight control software.) It can fly at speeds of up to a hundred kilometers an hour (about 27 meters a second). It抯 small enough to provide a hard to hit target for enemy troops firing at it. In any event, it抯 engine is hard to hear when the UAV is higher than 500 feet. At night, it抯 pretty much impossible to detect from the ground.
The dozen or so Silver Foxes currently in Iraq are still considered experimental. The UAV was developed by the navy last year to give warship captains a cheap way to check if there were any whales in the vicinity, before engaging in training exercises that might harm the marine mammals. This was considered cheaper than firing up the ships helicopter (which costs over a thousand dollars an hour to operate.) The experimental Silver Fox UAVs cost about $20,000 to make (using off the shelf components). If manufactured in larger quantities, unit cost would fall to under $10,000. The model the marines are using has day and night cameras which broadcast the video images back to the laptop. This gives battalion or company commanders are view of what is in the area their troops are about to enter. The use of UAVs like this has made street fighting in places like Fallujah a lot more effective, and saved the lives of many marines.
April 29, 2004: Army plans to equip its Hunter UAVs with 44 pound Viper Strike laser guided bombs has caused a dispute between generals who want another aerial weapon, especially for fighting in heavily populated areas, and division commanders and intelligence officers who do not want to see their UAVs taken away from reconnaissance missions for combat duty. There are never enough UAVs, especially long endurance UAVs like the Hunter that can carry Vipers. The 1600 pound Hunter can carry up to 200 pounds of sensors and weapons. The Hunter is currently the workhorse UAV for combat divisions. The Hunter was originally a less successful competitor with the Predator UAV. But the army has persevered and fixed most of the Hunters problems. Now the Hunter has become a valuable reconnaissance tool for combat divisions. The Hunter can stay in the air for twelve hours and has a range of 200 kilometers. In Iraq, Hunters have flown nearly a thousand sorties since arriving in early 2003.
Vipers are anti-tank weapons, and the warhead contains only four pounds of explosives. But this makes it an excellent weapon for fighting in urban areas, as the bomb is very accurate, and less likely to cause injury to nearby civilians.
April 27, 2004: The U.S. Air Force is developing software to enable UAVs to be refueled in the air. This would enable reconnaissance UAVs to spend even more time aloft, and would most likely be applied first to the largest UAVs, like Global Hawk. Aircraft reliability has, for decades, been good enough to allow manned aircraft to, in theory, stay aloft for days at a time. But the main limitation has always been the human crew, and the lack of any mission calling for flights of that length. UAVs are different, especially those that do reconnaissance. Staying in the air for 12, 24 or more hours at a stretch, provides a very valuable battlefield commodity; persistence. Being able to point cameras (still, motion, or night vision) at the battlefield persistently (thus the use of the term 損ersistence? have proved to be a major combat advantage. Keeping UAVs in the air for extended periods has other advantages as well. Large UAVs are also going to be used as space satellite substitutes, carrying communications gear that allows them to support military satellite radios on the ground. Such radios are much more effective than the traditional AM or FM types (which have problems with atmospheric, or terrain, interference.)
Commercial aircraft have had software controlled landing systems for over two decades. Such software allows a commercial airliner to land without pilot intervention, usually in bad weather when the pilot can抰 see anything, but the radar and other sensors can, and use special software to take control and bring the aircraft down. Such software has been used for UAVs (like Global Hawk) to enable them to land without the help of a pilot. Similar software would bring the UAV close enough to a aerial tanker to allow refueling to take place. This is a somewhat more complex operation than landing, as the aircraft getting the fuel has to constantly adjust its position to remain attached to the fuel line. But it's not a huge leap given the current state of flight software. Such a system could also be used for manned aircraft, to take the strain off crews flying very long missions. On those 10-30 hour flights (like B-2s going from the American mid-west to Iraq), the most stressful moments are take off, landing, bombing, and in flight refueling.
If Dragon Eye just 10000 $ , then can deploy more in Iraq , but not city .
I hope they first deploy UAV defend the base , and defend road ......