Mod. Notice Technological advances in weaponry

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Sea Mines are an old but effective weapon especially in constrained seas. we have received our first batch of the RWM Italia sea mines.
These modern mines can be activated and deactivated from a distance.
The article states the PLA already have over 100,000 sea mines
The mines look very different to the classic WWII mine that most imagine. Not sure which models we are getting, the Murena is pictured on the left and Asteria on the right. Bit of convergence between mines and kamikaze USV happening.

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Something old, something new.

The warzone has an article about an F111 incident where the engines were producing more thrust than expected, the craft went much faster than expected. Allegedly the cockpit indictor showed mach 3.2. It burned off paint, antenna's and bubbled the cockpit. Whether it was truly greater than mach 3 we will never know but there does seem to be a few other reports of FIII reaching mach 2.9 along with appropriate paint damage etc.


Something new - US deploying 4 Strykers with 50kw lasers for field testing. At that power I suspect only soft targets like drones will be truly within their scope but in our drone filled world that alone would be a great new capability.


The article has an interesting comment about energy on target.

“You may have a 50-kilowatt laser, but at 10 kilometers can you put at least four kilowatts in a centimeter square because … that’s what you need to burn through a quarter inch steel plate?” he asked. “But that’s really hard to get … from a big beam to get the small portion of it on the exact spot to be able to burn at that high intensity and any kind of dust particle or that starts to disrupt that.”

It doesn't talk about time on target which is as important.
 
The Dragonfire laser weapon (UK) was tested a couple of months ago - impressive targeting ability:



That bloody atmosphere! One mile range. At that power (50kw) you are only going to be cooking low end drones or acting as a 'dazzler'. Still, that's a capability needed if you are threatened by a swarm. My understanding is that to see direct destructive antimissile effects you need 300kW or greater. Even then the range issue really limits their use against face moving hypersonic targets. I can see why the USAF was so keen to get their antiballistic missile laser on to a Jumbo all those decades ago.

Article by Richard Dunley, who is a senior lecturer in naval history and maritime strategy at UNSW about the threat of drones to surface ships and how it is analogous to the threat navies faced with Torpedo boats in the late 19th century.

 
It has been announced that a production facility for the MQ28 Ghost Bat is being built in Toowoomba. This article from the Warzone talks about it in some detail.
More interesting to me was the image (below) showing it's specs and 4 of it's 'nasal' payloads. This is the first time I have seen these listed. Note the 'placeholder'

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The next run are going to be Block II craft, I have not found anything describing the changes for Block II.
 
Another drone gets posted on this board. Guess it's the vibe of the times. Northrups Manta Ray, a gliding UUV drone that mimics it's name sake. Also has a novel system to extract energy from thermal gradients in the ocean



With a shape like that and no folks on board, I'm expecting the second generation to be a flying sub, like that from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. It really is one of the coolest SF designs.
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Despite it not flying the sub is worth reading about.
 
Droning on......
Saildrone USV is getting a Thales Australia towed array sonar for USN use. Good to see the USV finally getting some proper ASW kit, even better, it's the locally developed Blue Sentry sonar. Saildrone uses wind and solar power for propulsion, making them capable of very long duration missions. They have proved very useful and reliable for ocean science. The CSIRO has some. Manufacturing is being scaled up by Austal USA.
 
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Lockheed have announced a new hypersonic air launched missile, the Mako, that is allegedly ready for production. It's much smaller than the meaty Russian missiles, 6 can be carried by an F35 with 2 going internally - see image above. Few details are available other than it is capable of Mach 5, can be carried on a wide range ot aircraft and can hit targets at see. Xavier with his wonderful accent interviews the program lead.
 
The interception of the vast majority of Iran's drones and missiles in the attack on Israel demonstrated a very effective air defence system. It wasn't just Iron Dome, it was layered, multinational and involved aircraft, ships and ground launch facilities. I think it is the largest missile attack ever successfully engaged. This sadly is a glimpse of a future.

According to this article from the intercept about 150 drones and missiles failed, either at launch or on route. US Forces acting under US CENTCOM claim 80 attack drones and at least six ballistic missiles with 70 drones shot down by aircraft.


Added - Saw this list of the cost of the missiles used, in USD. Expensive business.

SeaRAM (short-range) is $900K,
ESSM $1.75M,
SM-2 $2.35M(depending on model).
SM-6 is $4.3M.
SM-3 are $12M.
AIM-120 AMRAAM costs 1.1M each.
Aster 15/Sea Viper costs $2.85M each

Also saw USN conforming they used the SM3 anti-ballistic missile (at 12 million a pop) against the medium range ballistic missiles, the first use in combat.

It doesn't seem so long ago FAS said it wouldn't never work, like trying to hit a bullet with a bullet. They were wrong.
 
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The Warzone has an article about Project Aquiline, a small. bird like drone the CIA designed in the early 1970's, so about 50 years ago. it used a pusher propeller on a bird like airframe with a 2m wingspan. It predicted the design & use of many of the drones we see today. Ahead of it's time, it never went into production.
The article also talks abpout some of the CIA other drones, also the mysterious bird types with flapping wings - not formally assigned to the CIA, but heck, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. The CIA had a biomimetic fish design in the 1960's, allegedly used by them in Vietnam. Of all the biomimetic movement designs, fish are the easiest to do. Even Iran was recently experimenting with them.
 
Robots, robots and more robots. The first article is about the successful completion of the robot Patrol Boat for the RAN.


The second is about a minigun armed drone. Really only a demo. There seems to be some question whether the types of guidance systems and precision they have are able to use these types of non precision weapons effectively.


A flame throwing robot, but no, it's not for war. (lol) Makes a rather nasty trench clearing warbot in the military domain.

 
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The interception of the vast majority of Iran's drones and missiles in the attack on Israel demonstrated a very effective air defence system. It wasn't just Iron Dome, it was layered, multinational and involved aircraft, ships and ground launch facilities. I think it is the largest missile attack ever successfully engaged. This sadly is a glimpse of a future.

According to this article from the intercept about 150 drones and missiles failed, either at launch or on route. US Forces acting under US CENTCOM claim 80 attack drones and at least six ballistic missiles with 70 drones shot down by aircraft.


Added - Saw this list of the cost of the missiles used, in USD. Expensive business.

SeaRAM (short-range) is $900K,
ESSM $1.75M,
SM-2 $2.35M(depending on model).
SM-6 is $4.3M.
SM-3 are $12M.
AIM-120 AMRAAM costs 1.1M each.
Aster 15/Sea Viper costs $2.85M each

Also saw USN conforming they used the SM3 anti-ballistic missile (at 12 million a pop) against the medium range ballistic missiles, the first use in combat.

It doesn't seem so long ago FAS said it wouldn't never work, like trying to hit a bullet with a bullet. They were wrong.
From what I gathered, the mass drone attack was an economic win for Iran since Israel spent a LOT more money to defend against it. War is expensive business.
 
From what I gathered, the mass drone attack was an economic win for Iran since Israel spent a LOT more money to defend against it. War is expensive business.
Yes, it is expensive.

You forget one part of the economic equation, to count the damage, death and injury they would have caused if they hadn't been intercepted. Probably many billions of dollars damage. Then add the human cost.

Also that was a significant heft of 100+ missiles by Iran, even the cheap drones that they used a few hundred of, cost about $50,000 a pop. They used quite a bit of gear for negligible military outcomes and they don't have much of an economy.

Very brave folks attacking a nuclear power like that. Can't help feeling something has changed in Iran. They had a shot at Pakistan the other day, another nuclear power. The usual modus operandi is via 3rd parties.
 


Another robot, this time an F16, the RoboFalcon or RoboViper, you take your choice. Some very impressive footage of the beasty flying in formation, pretty close to the manned jets. Looks good in the orange, white a blue. They do cheat a bit, because the RoboViper doesn't have enough of a sensor suite to have true situational awareness itself.

 
Yes, it is expensive.

You forget one part of the economic equation, to count the damage, death and injury they would have caused if they hadn't been intercepted. Probably many billions of dollars damage. Then add the human cost.

Also that was a significant heft of 100+ missiles by Iran, even the cheap drones that they used a few hundred of, cost about $50,000 a pop. They used quite a bit of gear for negligible military outcomes and they don't have much of an economy.

Very brave folks attacking a nuclear power like that. Can't help feeling something has changed in Iran. They had a shot at Pakistan the other day, another nuclear power. The usual modus operandi is via 3rd parties.
The Iranians knew full well their mass drone attack was never going to kill anyone; they were counting on Israel pulling out all stops to prevent death and destruction. So it was basically a win-win situation for Iran.

The economic equation will swing back in Israel's favour once Iron Beam is widely deployed. Lasers shooting down multiple drones for a tiny fraction of the cost of an interceptor missile will close that window of opportunity.
 
Stealth aerial refueling tankers... meant to be in service by 2040 :think:

 
Stealth aerial refueling tankers... meant to be in service by 2040 :think:

Very expensive no doubt.

I'm waiting for modern technology to make something like a WWII heavily armored bomber viable again. They would carry some antiair missiles, lasers, EW kit and perhaps even networked, AI controlled gunnery systems. Might be cheaper than stealth airframes both in construction cost and maintenance.

Speaking of lasers, Wired has a pretty comprehensive article about the problems and pitfalls.

Small 20kw laser have been deployed and are described as sometimes being effective against drones. Vague. 50-60kw seems to be the power for larger drones and perhaps slower aircraft. 300 kw said to be the power 'burn out the nose cone of missile'.

Can't help thinking a little bit of evasive movement by the target is going to make that time on target problem that lasers face a whole lot more difficult. Clearly we have entered the age of the 'death ray'.
 
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I've posted about the Ocius Bluebottle USV before, now it's got it's first overseas customer, ThayerMahan, a sonar maker. They have bought 2 to host their sonar sentry system. CoA have already purchased 6.

 
Bloomberg have an interview/doco with Andruil head, Palmer Luckey whose first big tech product was Oculus Rift. The company has moved into defence tech in a big way, including being the prime for the development of the RAN's autonomous UUV, Ghost Shark.


It is interesting and covers a wide range of topics related to defence, security and technology.
 
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More drones. ADF have been trialling an electric loitering munition, the OWL (One-Way Loitering munition), which has a substantial 200km range. It's a pretty standard design for a loitering munition with a rear prop. The article suggests it will be introduced into the ADF next year. I just hope they get enough mass. It has been developed by Western Australia-based company Innovaero and Boeing subsidiary Insitu Pacific and has been in development for a couple of years.


I also saw this article describing RAAF C17 doing an airdrop to supply Mawson Station after recent supply difficulties. The C17 has been a mighty useful aircraft.

 

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