DRS says low-cost miniature missile is within 12 months of live-fire testing from UAV
The US Air Force unmanned air vehicle battlelab has widened its experiments with armed tactical-sized platforms to include the US Navy/DRS Technologies-developed Spike low-cost miniature missile. Flight tests will be carried out in conjunction with the US Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake, California.
The UAV battlelab also plans to extend work on using tactical and medium-endurance UAVs as delivery systems for stores or other non-lethal payloads under its “guided tube dispenser” programme. That programme will soon migrate to testing aboard General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-1/9 Predator-series UAVs.
The Spike experiments follow recent demonstrations at Eglin AFB, Florida of a tactical UAV (TUAV) carrying and deploying Textron’s BLU-108 wide-area anti-armour munition.
UAV battlelab commander Col Larry Felder says knowledge gained from that experiment is being used by the US Special Operations Command to help define requirements for a proposed special forces multi-mode precision strike UAV demonstration that would include lethal and non-lethal ordnance delivery.
Felder says the Spike demonstration is intended to explore how the weapon “can provide us the capability to do what I consider ‘danger close’ air support in an urban environment”.
Spike missile development was begun by the Naval Air Warfare Center in 2001 as a man-portable, low-cost alternative to heavier anti-armour and area missiles for strikes against soft-skinned targets. System design and development ended in 2003, with controlled live fire tests in May 2004. DRS Technologies says it is within 12 months of being ready to perform live-fire testing from a small UAV.
The UAV battlelab demonstration is expected to take place over three years, including ongoing US Navy involvement.
DRS displayed a mock-up of a four-missile configuration carried by a Sentry HP TUAV. The UAV Battlelab used the Sentry as a testbed for its BLU-108 demonstrations.
The guided tube dispenser demonstration is being conducted jointly with Textron and comprises a tube launcher and wind-corrected payload delivery pod derived from the BLU-108 weapon. The US Army recently completed testing the system, says Felder.
Source: Flight International
