RAF show off 'new British drone

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The RAF has unveiled its latest weapon in the fight to protect the crucial Kajaki dam in southern Afghanistan.

The unmanned Mantis killer ‘drone’ aircraft will guard supply pylons in the area where last week British troops carried out a daring mission to install a 200-ton turbine.

Designed to fly thousands of miles and last up to 30 hours without refuelling, the Mantis – which is the size of a small lorry – will carry Brimstone air-to-ground tank-busting missiles and GBU laser-guided bombs.

Any idea on the states of this thing such as cost, wingspan, number on order and so on?

Is it a potential replacement for buying US made Reapers?

reply to post by Thirst




Wingspan 22m
It has 6 weapons pilons (3 on each wing)
Endurance 24hrs+
Not sure of cost per unit, but apparently the cost has been shared 50/50 with the developers. Nor am I sure about numbers, but I could try and find out off my RAF contacts.

The real UCAV you want to keep an eye on for the Uk is Taranis. That machine is rather cool!

Taranis is led by BAE Systems and also involves Rolls-Royce, GE Aviation Systems, QinetiQ and the Ministry of Defence.[1] BAE Systems has overall design leadership as well as providing stealth technology, flight testing and control equipment. QinetiQ is responsible for UCAV flight autonomy and GE Aviation Systems provides electrical subsystems. The aircraft will use a Rolls-Royce Adour MK951 turbofan.

BAE Systems said "Taranis will make use of at least 10 years of research and development into low observables, systems integration, control infrastructure and full autonomy. It follows the completion of risk reduction activities to ensure the mix of technologies, materials and systems used are robust enough for the 'next logical step'."[1] These "risk reduction activities" were related BAE programmes including Replica, Nightjar I, Nightjar II, Kestrel, Corax, Raven and HERTI. BAE Systems Australia will have a workshare of about 5% in the programme. The Taranis demonstrator will have an MTOW of about 8000 kilograms and be of a similar size to the BAE Hawk. The first steel was cut in September 2007 and assembly began in February 2008 [2]. Ground testing will start in early 2009 and the first flight of the Taranis is planned for the first quarter of 2010.[3] The demonstrator will have two internal weapons bays.[4] With the inclusion of "full autonomy" the intention is thus for this platform to be able to "think for itself" for a large part of the mission.

EDIT: Change link for Taranis image

[edit on 7/9/08 by stumason]

Thank you for the very cool pics stomasen. Do you know how they fly these things remotely? j

reply to post by jpm1602


They usually have a ground control station, either in a building or large truck of some sort. The reapers have two operators, a "pilot" and a sensor operator, so I would imagine the control on these new ones is similiar.

"Pilot":



Sensor Operator:



GCS:

I don't know why the MoD is so insistent on it's next generation of HMS super-carriers...if you could modify these UAV craft to be even smaller, with folded-aerofoils and missile-boost tube-launched and fired from ship/land based firing platforms in swarms of hundreds and piloted by X-Box based crews linked by flight-control central servers you'd have the most formidable air defence/attack capability imaginable

A combining of net-centric mobile-phone-cell transceivers, aeromodelling, gaming and warfare all rolled into one

You guys do realise the ultimate intention of these unmanned viehicles is their use against peacefull civilian populations by totalitaristic fachists?

The automatization of the armed forces is a very disturbing trend to anyone that knows even a tiny bit of history and psychology.

Once this sort of power is on the table, ie automatized weopons delivery systems, very nasty people will do their best to get control of it, first, and use it against the general population as part of a bigger eugenics agenda, second.

At least soldiers have souls that evaluate what they are going to do and what they have done. And talk about it. Cold remorseless death is not an evolution of the military, it's a retrocess to our lower selves.

Expect these things to bomb a house (or pentagon) near you soon.

reply to post by Zepherian


These things are controlled by humans, so you point is somewhat moot really.

That is part of my point.

To put it another way, a smaller number of people will control a larger amount of firepower. And a small percentage of the population is sociopathic. And sociopaths are fairly common in positions of power.

It is not a good development.

And think about it from a legal perspective, where is accountability if the drone "malfunctions" during a scripted mission and bombs your house?

These things are liability shields...

reply to post by Zepherian


I don't want you think Military people are like or even where you're from, but those that I know you have served in HM Forces (which is many people, including family members) would never bomb civilians deliberately, especially in their own country!

These people aren't machines and they have family and friends too. have a little respect and trust in them, and stop being so paranoid.

They won't do it deliberately? Just tell them a lie so they do it missguided. Or use a drone scripted wrong.

Stop being paranoid? On ATS?

Listen, I know that the vast majority of people would not do what I insinuated. But in this compartmentalized pyramid society system it's not the vast majority of people I'm worried about.

reply to post by Zepherian


And how many times do you think the "Evil Government" could bomb anywhere in the UK and get away with it? They would be lucky to survive the fall out from one attack, let alone step up a campaign against their won population using the Military.

You may not know this, but the Military has before (very recently in historic terms) seriously considered overthrowing the elected Government because of some very shady goings on.

Trust me when I say that if the Politicians went coockoo and ordered attacks on British people, the Military would not stand for it.

The Police on the other hand would happily follow the orders given to them by Politicians, but that is because the Police are a political force. The Military is not under the command of Politicans.

Now, I don't know if your British or American or what, but don't go thinking because one country hires rednecks who have a gun-ho, don't question orders, shoot the sh1t out of everything mentality, doesn't mean they all have. Remember that.

EDIT: Anyway, lets stay on topic shall we? If you have an issue about the Government and it's plans, start a thread. Don't hijack someone elses.

[edit on 7/9/08 by stumason]

The military of the UK is currently fighting not one, but two unjust wars. I think my skepticism of your claims is warranted.

And my posts were not totally off topic, as you have to fit technology into a socioeconomic backdrop to understand how it will affect the status quo, not just lust after it like young teens.

Originally posted by Zepherian
The military of the UK is currently fighting not one, but two unjust wars. I think my skepticism of your claims is warranted.

Ah, but then that's your opinion. There are those who think that overthrowing the Taliban is quite justified - what with their links to terrorism et al. I think that the Taliban's treatment of women justifies war.

I am sure there are quite a few widows of Saddam who think what has happened in Iraq as justified and in the medium term will deliver a better Iraq. Recent hand over of provinces etc to the Iraqis is (I think) the turning point.

Sitting in our comfortable homes with all our freedoms and assorted pananios helps us to forget the real world.

Back on topic! I think these BAE designs indicate a very bright future, so long as the British Government are supportive and don't end up destroying another emerging industry with petty short-termism.

Regards

Well, going into those wars in detail would indeed be derailling the thread, and it's not just my opinion, it's a whole sociopolitical movement.

But fair enough, those who want to participate in the tecnolust and sing rule brittania are, as far as I am concerned, totally free to do so, no matter how silly I think it is.

So carry on up the UCAV I guess

Originally posted by stumason
reply to post by jpm1602

 

They usually have a ground control station, either in a building or large truck of some sort. The reapers have two operators, a "pilot" and a sensor operator, so I would imagine the control on these new ones is similiar.

"Pilot":



Sensor Operator:



GCS:

Ah...this bring backs memories....all i can say is its scary how much commotion a cup of coffee can cause. lol.