Thursday, October 27, 2011

Drone in a drone

InsideDefense reports that researchers from Naval Air Systems Command, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and Navmar Applied Science Corp. are working on a micro-UAV designed to be carried in another drone. The armed, electric drone would detach from a 13-foot TigerShark and relay real-time video to ground support as it heads for the target. Researchers at Eglin were working on the micro-UAV as part of the Precision Acquisition and Weaponized System when the U.S. Special Operations Command said it needed a weapon that would minimize collateral damage. NAVAIR started working on the effort to integrate the micro-UAV with the TigerShark surveillance drone. A $12 million design and assembly effort is supposed to be done in the spring of 2012. After that comes testing at Eglin and at the Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. (Source: InsideDefense, Wired News, 10/27/11)