The first proper UAV in UK service (accepting the 1939 Queen Bee target system) was the MQM57-Falconer bought into service by 94 Locating Regiment Royal Artillery in 1964, which then comprised three Batteries with 57 (Bhurtpore) being the one to…
Is there a point with technology systems in defence where you have to ask, should we. This is the Lockheed Martin Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) An unmanned load carrier, it is designed for autonomous and even beyond line of…
A few years ago ‘swarming’ was all the rage as efforts to combat saturation attacks against shipping stepped up a gear. More recently, attention has turned to small unmanned aircraft with many solutions introduced by manufacturers that use electronic or…
At what point does the legitimate self-defence become an extra-judicial murder? That seems to be the question of the day, with predictably opposing views The justification came in the simple form of they were planning to kill civilians in…
In our recent discussion on maritime patrol the subject of Australia’s purchase of the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft came up. The subject of its cost came up and there was some confusion as to what exactly was the…
We all know that the RAF’s Reaper, Defender/Islander and Shadow R1 aircraft do secret stuff in secret places, but so does the RC135W Rivet Joint. In the recent PQ on aircraft numbers the MoD listed the forward and depth fleet…
Watchkeeper is a tactical Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) coming into service with the Royal Artillery. As described in my post from 2012, Watchkeeper Then and Now, it is arguably one of the most advanced systems in its class. As…
Autonomous underwater vehicles and surface vessels are currently the subject of a great deal of research effort. It is widely predicted that future anti-submarine operations will include surface and sub-surface unmanned systems, some deployed from submarines, some from surface ships. In…
Which came first, Side Arm or Sky Hook? From DARPA SideArm: DARPA’s SideArm effort seeks to create a self-contained, portable apparatus able to horizontally launch and retrieve UAS of up to 900 pounds from trucks, ships and fixed…
