UAS / UAV

Unmanned Aircraft Systems / Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Aevex Aerospace Phoenix Ghost: ‘Secretive Suicide/Kamikaze Drone’ Aircraft being Shipped to Ukraine to Help Fight the Russians

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com April 30, 2022 Image(s) Credit(s): AeroVironment (AV) An interesting company called Aevex Aerospace out of Solana Beach, California is making a very interesting “secretive suicide/kamikaze drone” aircraft, or armed/weaponized UAS/UAV called the “Phoenix Ghost“, and they’ve reportedly started shipping them to Ukraine to help battle the Russians. Specifically, they’re sending 121 Phoenix …

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DefendTex Drone40 40mm Autonomous Mini Quadcopter UAS/UAV Drone Munition: Infantry Warfare Game Changer?

By David Crane Photo(s) Credit: British MOD/Crown and UASVision.com July 12, 2021 A very interesting Melbourne, Australia-based company called DefendTex is making an equally interesting quadcopter-type UAS/UAV (Unmanned Aerial System/Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) munition called the Drone40 that, in DefenseReview’s (DR) opinion, has the potential to be a real game changer for infantry warfare operations, due to its payload modularity and …

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Attack of the Drones: Artifically Intelligent ‘Robotic Wingmen’ UCAV’s and UAS/UAV ‘Drone Swarms’ are on the Way: Will They Actually Work?

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com September 27, 2020 Last updated on 9/28/20. DefenseReview’s (DR) been following drone aircraft/UAV/UAS technology for, well, forever. The unmanned aerial/aircraft systems technology sphere is indeed a fascinating one, and one that forces one to think about the future of military combat aviation as a whole, and what it’s likely to look like …

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Did Soleimani get JAGM’ed? A Little Follow-Up on the Joint-Air-To-Ground Missile, Precision-Guided Goodness

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com Photo Credit: Title Image: Lockheed Martin via Defense News January 6, 2020 Last updated on 1/09/20. Well, this year (2020) certainly started off with a very big bang (or several bangs, perhaps), when a US General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B weaponized drone/UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) sent what may have been multiple Lockheed …

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Will the Russian Air Force Beat the US Air Force to the Punch with 6th-Gen Jet Fighter Aircraft-Mounted Laser Weapons, Radio-Photonic Radar (‘Radio Vision’), Microwave Weapons and Guided Electronic Munitions? Let’s Hope Not.

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com July 31, 2017 DefenseReview (DR) has been writing about aircraft-mounted laser weapons technology for years, now, including the very interesting Lockheed Martin Aero-adaptive Aero-optic Beam Control (ABC) laser weapon turret for supersonic jet fighter aircraft, specifically, and offensive and defensive laser weapons for jet fighter aircraft, in general, which the US Air …

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DIUx/Kratos UTAP-22 Mako and XQ-222 Valkyrie Combat UAS/UAV/Drone Aircraft: Developmental Artificially Intelligent (AI)Attack Aircraft Wingmen on Their Way for Future Warfare!

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com Image(s) Credit: Kratos Defense and Security Solutions (KDSS) and Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) June 15, 2017 According to a recent Washington Post piece, it would appear that the EDI UCAV (Extreme Deep Invader Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle), featured in the 2005 film Stealth, is about to come to life as future …

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Chinese CASC CH-5 (Caihong 5) Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) Armed/Weaponized UAS/UAV/Drone Aircraft to Patrol the South China Sea?

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com Photo(s) Credit: Kelvin Wong, IHS Jane’s 360 and RUPTLY November 9, 2016 Oh, and speaking of advanced, deadly chinese combat aircraft, they recently unveiled the CASC CH-5 (Caihong 5) medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) armed/weaponized UAS/UAV/drone aircraft, made by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and billled as the “world’s most powerful drone”, at …

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Will AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Super-Intelligent Robot Soldiers Save Us, or Kill Us?

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com Image(s) Credit: Lucas Film December 29, 2015 The Washington Post (WaPo) recently published the mother of all “artificially-intelligent-robots-may-very-well-destroy-us-(humankind)” articles with quotes by everyone from philosopher Nick Bostrom to astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. The piece coincides nicely with, and perhaps even validates, DefenseReview’s (DR) recent piece discussing the subject, titled Rise of the Robot …

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DARPA/Northrop Grumman ‘Tail-Sitter’ UAS/UAV/Drone Aircraft for Airborne Recon (Reconnaissance) and other Missions: Can it be Gun/Laser-Weaponized for Combat? Why not?

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com Image(s) Credit: DARPA and Northrop Grumman December 22, 2015 Last updated on 12/23/15. Speaking of interesting new military aircraft designed and developed by Northrop Grumman (NG), as well as futuristic Terminator-like cyber-soldiers and Skynet-like supercomputers, AND DARPA, Northrop Grumman and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) are apparently also developing a “radical ‘tail-sitter’ …

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Rise of the Robot Soldier and Squad X Core Technologies (SXCT): ‘Terminator’-Like Artificially-Intelligent (AI) Cybersoldiers and Drone and Boat Swarms to Augment Infantry Warfighters with Total, Multi-Perspective 3D Battlefield Awareness, or just Kill all of Us?

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com Image(s) Credit: DARPA, Hemdale Film Corporation, Orion Pictures and Jim Channon December 18, 2015 Last updated on 12/19/15. It would appear that the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the DoD (Department of Defense) are well on their way to developing “Terminator”-like robotic warfighters and UAS/UAV/drone aircraft, along with a Skynet-type system …

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