1. Drone Armament
Nathan Krussel

2. 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

3. 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 inch viper rockets
The Lockheed Missiles and Space Company produced the Aquila
Designed as a laser designator in 1978
First Combat Drones

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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 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)

8. 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)

9. 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)

10. 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)

11. 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)

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. 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)

15. 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)

16. 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

17. 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

18. Sources used Wikipedia as a reference list to many sources
vanguarddefense.com/specifications/‎
warns-Colonel-charge-keeping-London-calm.html
Sources used Wikipedia as a reference list to many sources