The Bolt VTOL drone does not require any dedicated launch equipment and can operate from congested environments. It can be unpacked and airborne in under five minutes and loaded with a range of anti-personnel and anti-materiel warheads.
Textron Systems showcased its newly-developed Scorpion ISR light attack aircraft at the Singapore Airshow 2014 besides the Shadow M2 and Aerosonde UAVs.
US defense systems manufacturer Raytheon plans to exhibit a wide range of products and programs in the areas of Intelligence, Surveillance And Reconnaissance (ISR), Command, Control And Communications (C3), integrated air & missile defense, missile systems, radar and homeland security (including coastal/maritime security), at Aero India 2011 in Bangalore next week.
Northrop Grumman Corporation plans to show-off its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems ‘including airborne early warning and control systems for maritime reconnaissance, fire control radars and unmanned aerial vehicles’, at Aero India 2011 in Bangalore, next week.
Boeing is working on a program to integrate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with manned aircraft, to enable the latter to control and direct them in the air and increase the scope of ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) sensory inputs.
While so far, Boeing’s Apache combat helicopters have displayed the ability to control a single UAV, the company has multiplied the scope of the same system to enable larger aircraft like the family of 737 AEW&C Wedgetail and P8 to control multiple UAVs.
The commander of US and ISAF forces in Afghanistan has, in his assessment to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, said that ‘increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate regional tensions’. General Stanley McChrystal, while promising a new ISAF strategy, also points out the need for additional forces, calling the next year critical.
