UAVs

Wars in Ukraine and Mideast Show Why the US Needs to Dominate the Drone Industrial Base

Hamas’ use of small commercial-grade drones, generally classified by the Federal Aviation Administration as Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS), should come as no surprise to those interested in national security. The terrorists employed Chinese-made SUAS to take out sensors along Israel’s Gaza security fence and later dropped a Russian-model grenade on an …

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US solider launching Switchblade 300

Ukraine Needs American Drones

China’s recent decision to restrict exports of drones will blind Ukraine’s reconnaissance advantage in the war with Russia and constitutes an active intervention on Moscow’s side. The U.S. and its allies should respond by developing an industrial base that makes unmanned aerial systems. Failing to do so would all but guarantee that …

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A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper sits on the runway at Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, Dec. 1, 2022

The Long Term Flight

Any peace in the Ukraine war that allows a future resumption of Russian aggression is worthless. Diplomacy, economics, and most important, military provisions should constrain Russia from embarking on another campaign of grinding brutality. We must think ahead. The potential transfer of 100 MQ-9 Reapers from American storage to Ukraine, …

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American Rotax Engines in Iranian Drones

About that ROTAX Engine in Iranian Drones

The Jerusalem Post features an article on January 13 that is important in calling attention to the fact that Rotax engines are in Iranian drones, and absurdly wrong on key points. The article is wrong on the company ownership of ROTAX and completely misleading on the question of how the engines got …

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ELTA Drone Guard System demo

South Korea’s Tech No Match for Intruding NK Drones

Radar and jamming technologies are the keys to figuring out why South Korea was unable to down even a single one of the five North Korean drones that intruded into the South’s airspace December 26. Even though one of the North’s drones got as far as northern Seoul, it appears …

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Iran_Shahed136_Drone_Drones

Iran’s Suicide Drones a Grave New Threat at Sea

An oil tanker owned by an Israeli billionaire was hit by a suicide drone off the coast of Oman on November 15. Israeli government experts believe the drone that struck the tanker was an Iranian Shahed-136 and suspicion immediately fell on Tehran as the likely perpetrator. Initial reports say no one was …

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uvision unveils its hero multi-canister launcher mcl for us marine corps

The Future of the Skies, Part III: Marines Lead the Way

For all of the advantages that loitering munitions (LMs) offer the US and near-peer states, their true threat may lie in the remarkable ease of their proliferation. Like chemical and biological weapons, LMs are made out of publicly available materials and processes that do not require a traditional industrial base, …

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IAI Harop

The Future of the Skies, Part II: The Rise of Loitering Munitions

As with the pikemen of Switzerland and the rifles of the American revolutionaries, preemptive, large-scale integration of novel technology often occurs first in those countries where necessity outweighs the pressure of tradition. Others innovate once conflict erupts and the strictures of peacetime wear thin. Russia has not faced the former …

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Soldier launching Switchblade 300

The Future of the Skies, Part I: The Switchblade Arrives in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine shows that the face of battle is changing in favor of small, less costly, and easily portable weapons that negate many of the advantages formerly held by large, complex, and expensive systems. The man-portable Javelin anti-tank missile is a good example. AeroVironment’s Switchblade is another. The …

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