March 14, 2006) Military conflict over the millennia has been defined largely by the technologies available – the spear, the sword, the horse, gunpowder, rifles, cannons, motorised transport, tanks, the anti-tank and anti-personnel mine, aircraft, rockets and so on. One of the coming capabilities capable of offering a massive advantage in warfare involves robots, sometimes guided and sometimes autonomous that walk, carry, roll, swim and fly. The first UAVs were used to improve situational awaereness and this has quickly evolved – now all but the smallest UAVs have been armed and found to be very effective at delivering precision firepower.
The Tactical Aerospace Group (TAG) is about to reveal a new class of weaponised UAV that will be particularly useful for brigade level and down. Initially designed with the ability to be transported through a jungle environment for use in drug interdiction, the TAG UAVs can accompany spec-op teams, be carried over severe terrain and can be fitted with recoilless firearms, new technologies such as Metal Storm and up to 70mm rockets/missiles adapted from existing shoulder launched weapons.
The majority of the latter are Fire and Forget with ranges up to 4000m or more but all can also be guided by our onboard laser targeting capability. Command decision is facilitated via preprogrammed target locations or by real-time visual feed to a fire-control officer.
As the current trend for war-fighting appears to be the net-centric concept, TAG’s UAVs fit in exceptionally well with the capability to act as first strike vehicles controlled either remotely or in groups (or swarms) directed from a manned aircraft or helicopter in the vicinity but outside the range of retaliation. Such UAVs are especially useful in urban warfare as they are the only airborne vehicles capable of navigating in narrow streets or confined spaces with the fire power to take out almost any barrier or adversary encountered.
The ability to hover or maneuver directly into a firing line with a particular door, window, vehicle, tunnel, cave etc. eclipses current missile targeting abilities, opening a new range of battle plan possibilities.
TAG is a manufacturer of high performance VTOL unmanned aircraft systems and develops custom and turnkey UAS solutions by integrating industry and COTS flight control systems, ground control stations, instrumentation and various payload and sensory technologies with our unmanned aircraft. Deliverable systems are available for autonomous or remotely piloted unmanned helicopters for military, law enforcement, civil, media, surveillance, scientific and research applications.
TAG also has "aircraft only" packages available for industry and academics to provide a platform for their research and experimental control system and payload development programs.
