Drone Armament Nathan Krussel

Types of Weapons Conventional Biological/Chemical Nuclear Standard load out of military UCAV’s Firearms, Conventional explosives, Non-lethal Biological/Chemical No confirmed uses Threats have been made to use them Hezbollah in Syria London Olympics Nuclear No known threat to use nuclear armament on a UCAV The “heavier” UAV’s are capable of carrying a nuclear payload Types of Weapons

Prior to the 1980’s no UAV’s had been designed as UCAV (unmanned combat aerial vehicle) The DSI R4E-30 was the first UCAV and was designed specifically to carry 2.75 inch viper rockets The Lockheed Missiles and Space Company produced the Aquila Designed as a laser designator in 1978 First Combat Drones

There wasn’t really any major advancement in multi-use strike drones The UCAV advancement before the predator resembled rockets, as they were onetime use payloads themselves RAE Larynx was a British guided anti-ship weapon. One time use The major breakthrough catalyst in multi use UCAV research was the MQ-1 predator Most advancement and production in UCAV’s has been since the mid 1990’s Combat Drones up to now

These are the countries with known operational armed drones Azerbaijan German Pakistan Botswana India Singapore Brazil Iran Russia Columbia Ireland Taiwan China Israel Tunisia Croatia Italy Turkey Cyprus Mexico United Kingdom France North Korea United States Countries with UCAV

UCAV’s under review MQ-1 Predator (1994) IAI RQ-5 Hunter (1995) Elbit Hermes 450 (1998) IAI HARPY (Early 2000’s) MQ-9 Reaper (2001) MQ-8B Fire Scout (2002) BAE HERTI-Fury (2006) Predator-C Avenger (2009) Elbit Hermes 900 (2009) UCAV’s under review

Initial Created for reconnaissance, quickly was fitted with weapons. First drone in history to engage with a conventional aircraft 2002 with a Iraqi MIG-25, predator was destroyed Max Takeoff weight: 1020kg (2250 lbs) Empty: 512 kg, loaded: 1020kg Performance Range 1100 km (675 mi) Endurance 24 hours Armament 2 hard points 2 Hellfire Missiles 4 Stinger Missiles 6 Griffin air to surface missiles MQ-1 Predator (1994)

Designed and still primarily used as a reconnaissance UAV Is capable of carrying payloads, but hasn’t be tested with a weapon payload, but has been used with different types of communication gear, and a laser designator Performance Range 260km (162 mi) Endurance: 11.6 hours Payload: 90 kg (198 lbs) Armament Laser designator Communications relay (extends VHF/UHF range) Communications Jammer IAI RQ-5 Hunter (1995)

Designed as a medium sized multi- payload vehicle with a primary mission of reconnaissance and communications relay Israel has armed with two hellfire missiles. Performance Range: 300 km Endurance: 17 hours Payload: 180 kg Armament No defined hard points Has been modified to accept 2 missiles. Elbit Hermes 450 (1998)

A UAV designed to detect, identify, and destroy radar emitters. Constantly searches for radar emitters, then identifies, if hostile attacks the target Finds target, then flies into the hostile radar emitter and destructs on impact Performance Range: 500 km Endurance: several hours Payload: self Armament Self 32kg (70 lb) high explosive warhead IAI HARPY (Early 2000’s)

Successor to the MQ-1 predator, also known as predator B Designed from the ground up to be an attack strike drone, is bigger and has more power than the original MQ-1 First test flight in 2001, air force finally owned 9 reapers by 2007 Performance Range: 1850 km (1150 mi) Endurance: 14 hours Payload: 1700kg (3800 lbs) Armament 7 hard points 14 hellfire missiles 4 hellfire missiles and two 500lb Paveway II laser guided bombs 4 hellfire missiles and two 500lb JDAM bombs Currently testing support for stinger missiles MQ-9 Reaper (2001)

A fully autonomous helicopter that operates with zero human interaction required A surveillance (RQ-8A), weapon laden (MQ- 8B), and cargo carrier (MQ-8C) One of the few VTOL UCAV’s Performance: Combat Radius: 203.7km with 5+ hours on station Endurance: 8 hours typical, 5 hours fully loaded Payload: 272kg (600 lbs) Armament: Hellfire Missiles Viper Strike Laser-guided glide weapons Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) MQ-8B Fire Scout (2002)

BAE HERTI-Fury (2006) Based of the HERTI-1D platform Is a very light system, with no weapons attached is 350kg Not much has been released by the British military about it. Performance Range: 28 km Endurance: 20 hours Payload: 150 kg (330 lb) Armament: Twin Thales Lightweight Multi-role Missiles (LMM) BAE HERTI-Fury (2006)

Predator-C Avenger (2009) First test flight was April 4th 2009 Powered by a turbofan engine (MQ-1 and MQ-9 are not) Added stealth design to help reduce detection. Has a tail 1 and tail 2 variant Performance (tail 2): Range: Unknown Endurance: 18 hours Payload: 2900 kg (6500 lb) Armament: Internal and external weapon mounting Hellfire missiles GBU-SDB (small diameter bomb) 250 lb GBU-12 Paveway II or GBU-38 JDAM 500 lb GBU-16 Paveway II or GBU-32 JDAM 1000 lb GBU-31 JDAM 2000 lb Predator-C Avenger (2009)

Elbit Hermes 900 (2009) Israeli Medium sized multi-payload UAV Primarily designed for reconnaissance and communications relay. No confirmed reports of arming the Hermes 900 Performance Range: “unlimited” Endurance: 36 hours Payload: 350 kg Armament: No confirmed arming States multiple hard points, and 250 kg modular installation bay Elbit Hermes 900 (2009)

The UAV’s are currently equipped with conventional munitions Both the Predator C and the Reaper are capable of carrying a nuclear weapon. The B83 Nuclear bomb weighs approximately 1100 kg (2400 lb) and can yield 1.2 megatons of TNT. Biochemical weapons are much lighter than conventional munitions and all the UCAV’s listed would be capable of this payload. Many other non-conventional payloads could be used, but many would probably be prohibited by the Geneva convention. Even the reconnaissance only UAV’s could be retrofitted for use with lighter weaponry, but range and endurance may be affected. Alternative Payloads

Weaponizable Police Drone Vanguard Defense created the Shadowhawk helicopter UAV. Cheap compared to military UCAV’s and starts at $300,000 Is made in 4 main configurations, the top two are available for military purchase only Performance Range: 24 km (15 mi) Endurance: up to 3 hours Payload: 10 kg (22 lb) Armament 40mm, 6 chamber grenade launchers 12g Shotgun Non-lethal weapons Gas rounds from the grenade launcher Bean bag/rubber bullets Possibly a Stun gun as was suggested. Weaponizable Police Drone

Sources used Wikipedia as a reference list to many sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-1_Predator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RQ-5_Hunter http://www.army-technology.com/projects/hunter/ http://www.elbitsystems.com/elbitmain/area-in2.asp?parent=3&num=32&num2=32 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbit_Hermes_450 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Harpy http://defense-update.com/directory/harpy.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper http://www.dote.osd.mil/pub/reports/fy2012/pdf/af/2012mq9reaperuas.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_MQ-8_Fire_Scout http://www.northropgrumman.com/Capabilities/firescout/Pages/default.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Systems_Fury http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/hertiuav/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_Avenger http://www.elbitsystems.com/elbitmain/area-in2.asp?parent=3&num=31&num2=31 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbit_Hermes_900 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B83_nuclear_bomb vanguarddefense.com/specifications/‎ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140173/Poison-drones-new-Olympic-threat- warns-Colonel-charge-keeping-London-calm.html http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/140408/sec_id/140408 http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/OP37.pdf Sources used Wikipedia as a reference list to many sources