The MQ-8 Fire Scout, an unmanned helicopter used for reconnaissance work by all branches of the US military, made news this week when the US Navy grounded its Fire Scout aircraft after a pair of recent crashes. The current machines are unarmed, but by 2013, a planned weapons upgrade will make them first sea-based, armed drone helicopter in the Navy’s arsenal.
When it’s not busting cocaine smugglers or helping overthrow dictators, the Navy’s MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV will soon hunt for pirates. With lasers.
General Atomics’ Avenger — the newest iteration of the classic Predator — is headed to war for the first time, Danger Room’s David Axe reports. It’s got F-35 sensors, loads of stealth weapons bays, and terrain-sweeping radar. Iran: start licking your lips.
Each Predator drone in the US arsenal costs between $4.5 and 10 million which puts them out of the reach of most forward-operating battalions who normally get stuck with smaller, unarmed UAVs. This new guided munitions from Raytheon is about to make those little fliers way more deadly.
Unmanned reconnaissance is all the rage these days, if you happen to be paranoid ex-military or on the extreme side of Facebook stalking. Regardless of the source of your psychosis, you’d probably get your hardware from Cyber Technology, a Western Australia-based company that manufacturers the cyberQuad MINI UAV shown above.
First China tried to clone the Predator, and it went kablooey in the woods. Now new footage shows that Russia’s Predator counterpart met an equally unflattering fate: a wobbly takeoff followed by a very messy explosion.
The US Army’s newest aerial toy is a little different than the rest of its drone brethren. Instead of providing overhead video and maybe shooting off a missile, AeroVironment’s Switchblade UAV is the missile. Portable, kamikaze death from above.
