Mil Tech — Expendable Flying Intelligence
Jun 01 2010
Military commanders in the field have come to rely on the intelligence that unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can provide from a bird’s-eye view in the sky.
From the Raven B, a lightweight reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition UAS to the smaller Wasp squad-level reconnaissance and surveillance unit, combat soldiers continue to have a much clearer picture of what the enemy is doing and what he or she intends.
AeroVironment of Monrovia, Calif., maker of UAS, is developing Switchblade — an advanced UAS that can be used to take out soft targets by diving on them and blowing up.
Designed as a Beyond Line-of-Sight (BLOS) package, Switchblade can glide or propel itself by electric propulsion and provides real-time GPS coordinates and color video for information gathering, targeting, and feature/object recognition.
Steve Gitlin, AeroVironment’s vice president of marketing strategy, says Switchblade would be used at the squad level.
“Switchblade would be controlled by the same hand-held ground controller used for Puma, Raven, and Wasp,” Gitlin says. “But where they can only provide visual information, Switchblade can provide that information and then become a lethal munition.”
Switchblade sets up in a tube on the ground, is launched on command, and as it exits the tube, wings spring into position to give it lift and a propeller begins spinning to propel it through the air at a high rate of speed.
Switchblade typically would be launched when the user was confronted with a threat, Gitlin notes, such as a sniper, a mortar team launching indirect fire, or someone planting a roadside bomb.
“The user would fly the Switchblade in the direction of that threat, using the color monitor to visually identify it,” he says. “Once they’ve identified and confirmed the threat, they will be able to lock the Switchblade onto the target, at which point the aircraft transitions into self-guided mode. It then flies itself into the target, impacting it and detonating a small explosive charge in the process.”
Gitlin says the charge is designed to neutralize soft targets with a very high level of precision and minimal collateral damage. For instance, if a Switchblade were to take out a sniper in a building window, he says, “people in apartments a couple of doors down wouldn’t be affected.”
A Switchblade operator views streaming video from the aircraft during the mission, so if the situation were to change, such as if innocent civilians were to appear in the target area, he could call off the Switchblade, Gitlin says.
“The aircraft would then do something that would not result in damage to people or property,” Gitlin noted.
Because of its very small size and quiet motor, Switchblade is difficult to detect, recognize, and track, even at close range.
About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He’s also the author of the mystery novel, Full Moon, and several books on historical military small arms.
