Subscribe via RSS

Archives by Date
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008

See all Archives
Archives by Category
'Canes
Afghan Update
Ammo and Munitions
Armor
Around the Globe
Av Week Extra
Axe in Iraq (and Elsewhere)
Bizarro
Blimps
Blog Bidness
Body Armor Blues
Bomb Squad
Brownshoes in Action
Bubbleheads, etc.
Cammo Green
Catch the "Buzz"
Chem-Bio
Civilian Apps
Cloak and Dagger
Commandos
Comms
Contingency Ops
Cops and Robbers
Cyber-warfare
Data Diving
Defense Tech Poll
Dissent Tech
Door Kickers
Drones
DT Administrivia
Eat DT's Dust
Extra! Extra!
Eye on China
Fast Movers
FCS Watch
Fire for Effect
FOS Files
Friday Funnies
Gadgets and Gear
Going Green
Grand Ole Osprey
Ground Vehicles
Guns
Homeland Security
In the Weeds with Eric
Info War
Iraq Diary
Jarhead Jazz
JSF Watch
Just War Theories
Lasers and Ray Guns
Less-lethal
Logistics
Los Alamos and Labs
M4 Monopoly
Medic!
Mercs
Missiles
Money Money Money
Most Wanted
MRAP Edge
Net-Centric
Nukes
Old Skool
Our Shrinking Planet
Planes, Copters, Blimps
Politricks
Polmar's Perspective
Popular Mechanics
Rapid Fire
Raptor Watch
Red Team
Retro-Futuro
Robots
Roll Your Own
Sabra Tech
Ships and Subs
Snipertech
Space
Special Ops
Star Wars
Strategery
Stray Trons
Tactical Development
Terror Tech
The Deadlies
The Defense Biz
The Peoples' Site
The Sunday Paper
The Tanker Tango
The View from Av Week
Those Nutty Norks
Training and Sims
Trimble on the Case
Video Lounge
War Update
Ward'z Wonderz
You can run...

See all Archives
Newsletters

Edited by Christian Lowe | Contact

Army Picks New Killer Drone

P2080431.JPGThe Army has finally settled on a company to build its next generation of long-range killer drones, according to Defense Daily.

General Atomics, maker of the wildly succesful Predator robo-plane, got the $214 million gig to build 48 of the Extended Range Multi-Purpose drones. The first of them should be ready to go by 2008. 132 are planned, all told.

Defense News notes that "unlike Predator, the ERMP will be able to take off and land automatically" -- handing off the trickiest parts of piloting a drone to a computer. Which means that the ERMP can be flown by young enlisted men, instead of by the ex-fighter pilots, who now operate the Predator fleet. (My Wired magazine story on drones has a bit more on this.)

The Army sees the drones staying up in the air for 72 hours straight; the Predator, by comparison, can't even manage a whole day in flight, right now. While it's airborne, the Army expects the ERMP to snoop on enemies, relay communications, identify targets -- and blow stuff up, if need be. It'll start out with Hellfire missiles, same as the Predator. Other weapons may be added, later on.

Comments

Unfortunataly war nowdays is unavoidable and ofcourse human death also. And such developments like this one can decrise the number of soldier death, ofcourse only for one fighting side.

Posted by: Macintosh at December 13, 2005 09:53 PM


i built one of these out of foam and it looks just like the predator ..it flys perfect its about 9 feet log its cook ..good day

Posted by: robert munger at September 8, 2005 08:53 PM


So much resources for war and death and so little for hunger

Posted by: David at August 21, 2005 01:40 PM


I beileve that these things are great and that ferther research should be done to build even better ones. these things will allow for more accurate information and be able to take out more precise targets without risk to humen lives. This is the wave of the future

Posted by: Paul Jerome at August 15, 2005 02:07 AM


when i was a kid, i dreamnt of why not the military invent a drone just like in video games where you fly a plane and have it attack something. atleast when its game over, it is just the drone not you. and now we have it. i bet wiz kids at video games can help us wack the bad guys with less lives

Posted by: miguel at August 14, 2005 11:04 AM


Good Mornig,

Just to spice up this post and maybe incite a little more interest on this topic.

General Atomic, a great company I might add, my wife worked for them in the '70's when they were in the business of doing audits on nuclear power plants, sits in the District of soon to be Ex-Comgressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. The question here is why was the Warrior perfered over the Hunter II.

In side by sides it would appear that the Hunter II has a slight edge over the Warrior in that it's external load capacity is 700lbs. vs. 500lbs. for the Warrior. Combint that with the operational history of the Hunter with the U.S. Army the advantage should be for Hunter II.

Could the fact that the soon to be Ex-Congressman and his stable mate fellow Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, of a next
door District are looking for a soft landing for the "Duke"?

It might also be noted that Northrup Grumman, the manufacturer of The Hunter (II) is in the ajoinging District of Dem. Rep. Susan Davis, who enjoys a higher opinion rating with both Military and Veterans then either of her Republian colleagues.

Just some observations of what looks like a shady deal from the Pentagon.

On second though disregard this this post, such shanagians like this can't happen under the watch of Sec. of Defense Rumsfelf and President Bush, never.

ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
"Stewart's Platoon"

Posted by: Byron Skinner at August 12, 2005 02:26 PM


we have been preparing for this move since the first video games appeared

Posted by: Manny Muinos at August 12, 2005 09:39 AM


Whatever platform the military decides on, let's hope it's Happy Hunting time against the bad guys. There's nothing more thrilling than having terrorists going about their nasty business, only to hear the final "whoosh" as the missile slams home. Some of the best news you ever read in the papers is when the Israelis do an Apache/Hellfire strike and take out whole carloads of dangerous dudes. Those are some major scores. Think about how that effects the mindsets of the guys who think they want to run the terror cells. And you know the terrorists rat each other out so it can be ongoing good news.

Posted by: Dick at August 12, 2005 09:14 AM


I don't know about any of that, but for that amount of money, couldn't they make it look a little more intimidating? More Boba Fett, less R2D2.

Posted by: J.E. at August 11, 2005 02:20 PM


Didn't the Army get in trouble by trying to do too much with a single platform --Aquilla -- back in the '70s? This project seems to have a wiff of the same sort of over-reaching to it.

Posted by: Paul Danish at August 10, 2005 04:52 PM


Seeing this plane reminds me of that movie TOYS with Robin Williams but I am glad to know that we are upgrading our military.

Posted by: Jim at August 10, 2005 04:51 PM


Post a comment




Remember Me?


Please enter the code as seen in the image below to post your comment.