Drones - Military, Industrial, and Hobby

[LFC]

We'll start this thread with Kroger supermarkets announcing they'll be making drone deliveries.

Kroger, one of America's biggest grocery chains, is beginning to test a drone-delivery service near Dayton, OH. Starting this week, Kroger will begin testing deliveries near the company's store in Centerville, Ohio.

"Customer deliveries are scheduled to begin later this spring, and a second pilot is scheduled to launch this summer at a Ralphs store in California," according to Kroger's announcement.

The Federal Aviation Administration has permitted commercial use of drones for several years. But until recently, regulations required the drones to be within the line of sight of the operator. That wasn't a big deal for aerial photography, but it made drones useless for a retail delivery service.

It's only in the last year or so that the FAA has begun approving commercial use of drones that fly beyond the operator's line of sight.

The drones will be provided by Drone Express, a division of Telegrid Technologies. "The flights will be managed by licensed Drone Express pilots from an on-site trailer with additional off-site monitoring," according to Kroger's press release.

The drone is only capable of lifting about five pounds (2.2 kg) of cargo, which limits the kinds of goods customers can order. Kroger says it will offer special bundles of useful products that fit within the weight limit—like a "baby care bundle with wipes and formula" or a "s'mores bundle with graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate."

Kroger says that deliveries could be made in as little as 15 minutes.

[LFC]

A drone was just used to perform in flight refueling of a manned aircraft.

On June 4, the uncrewed Boeing MQ-25 T1 test asset demonstrated for the first time air-to-air refueling with a F/A-18 super hornet. As you can see in the footage released by the U.S. Navy, the drone extended its hose and rogue and was able to deliver jet fuel to the military aircraft behind it, fulfilling its primary mission.

Although a test, both aircraft were flying at the speed and altitudes expected in an actual scenario. This was the 25th T1 flight. The uncrewed aircraft has been tested extensively in preparation of an actual refueling event. The Navy paid Boeing $805 million to build the first four MQ-25 aircraft and then paid another $84.7 million to bring the number of drones to seven.

[LFC]

Drones don't necessarily have to fly through the air.

Empty “ghost” ships have been reportedly cruising between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with no humans on board. But these uncrewed vessels aren't being commanded by a gang of undead pirates hellbent on revenge and treasure. Instead, they are the latest autonomous ships being tested out by the US military.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO), together with the US Navy, has recently confirmed the success of a second long-range journey of an autonomous ship.

The uncrewed vessel, named NOMAD, traveled 8,187 kilometers (4,421 nautical miles) from the Gulf Coast, passing through the Panama Canal, to the Pacific Coast. Remarkably, 98 percent of the journey was completed in autonomous mode, free from human command except for the taxing arm of the passage through the Panama Canal.

The vessel is part of the epically named Ghost Fleet Overlord program, which saw another autonomous vessel, RANGER, complete a similar transit in October 2020. While they’re keeping quiet on how the vessels actually work, it’s assumed they navigate using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. According to the US Navy, they’re currently testing both NOMAD and RANGER in order to “mature the autonomy systems, demonstrate system reliability, and explore employment concepts for coordinated operations with manned combatants.”

The words “autonomous vehicle” are usually associated with aerial drones and self-driving cars, but there is growing interest in the idea of autonomous ships cruising the oceans with little-to-no human input. Autonomous cargo ships, for instance, are considered by some to be the inevitable next step within maritime shipping.

[LFC]

At least one MIT professor thinks it's just a matter of time before organized crime gets their hands on weaponized drones. That's probably true. All it takes is corruption and money.

In a recent interview with The Next Web, MIT Professor and founder of the Future of Life Institute Max Tegmark has made some dire predictions about the future uses of militarized robots, and the ideas paint a grim picture of future warfare. Talking about small, weaponized, autonomous drones and robots, Tegmark suggests that once "slaughterbots" are fully developed by the military, it is only a matter of time before civilians can get their hands on them, as they do with so many other weapons. In the wrong hands – such as drug cartels – these bots will open a gateway of cheap and almost unstoppable targeted assassinations onto whoever they choose, he said, adding that governments need to step in now before that dystopian scenario becomes reality.

“If you can buy slaughterbots for the same price as an AK-47, that’s much preferable for drug cartels, because you’re not going to get caught anymore when you kill someone,” said Tegmark, talking to TNW.

“It’s also much more effective for penetrating defenses. Even if a judge has lots of bodyguards, you can fly in through a bedroom window while they’re sleeping and kill them… And it’s going to go far beyond that. Because pretty soon anyone who wants to knock off anyone for any reason will be able to do this.”

Unfortunately, world leaders do not see eye-to-eye with the use of automated killer robots. In a Geneva meeting last week, The United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons held a debate on whether autonomous weapons without substantial human control should be banned, and failed to reach a consensus. Instead, they simply agreed to "continue talks".

[andydp]

About 20 years ago I was doing my Reserve Annual Training at Huntsville Arsenal. (Think missile research). One of the weapons under testing was a ground launched missile with ground observation capability. It could be launched against some tanks but, if it saw a better target it would attack that. Meanwhile it would notify launch control to send another missile to the original target.
Doesn’t take much to imagine the missile would launch a second attack all on its own without human authorization.

[LFC]

Companies are still working towards drone delivery. Interestingly Amazon seems to be trailing Google and Walmart.

Earlier this month, Google’s sister company, Wing, began offering a drone delivery service in the Dallas suburbs of Frisco and Little Elm. Wing drones take off from “nests” in two Walgreens parking lots to deliver things like health products or ice cream to nearby customers. Wing describes it as “the first ever commercial drone delivery service in a major US metropolitan area.”

One reason for that last caveat: Walmart has been running its own drone delivery service near its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters since November. Walmart delivers a range of products to customers within a 1.5-mile radius of two Walmart stores. The service will soon expand to a third Walmart store in the same corner of Arkansas.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s drone efforts got some unflattering press coverage last week. Bloomberg reported on a drone crash at an Amazon test facility in Oregon. No one was injured, but the story underscores the fact that Amazon has yet to launch a commercial drone delivery service in the United States—despite a December 2013 segment on 60 Minutes where Jeff Bezos predicted drone deliveries might reach the market in four to five years.

The Wing and Walmart services are still pretty limited, with each service initially designed to perform around 100 deliveries per day. But drone delivery is finally moving beyond the research-and-development phase. Wing and Walmart are using drones to deliver real merchandise to real customers. The question is how quickly they can scale up—and how many other companies can follow their lead.

Regulations are a major factor in the slow development of drone technology. The Federal Aviation Administration tightly controls every aspect of these services, requiring companies to get separate approval each time they expand to a new area. So the future of the industry depends a lot on whether the FAA promotes or hampers its growth.

[LFC]

We knew kamikaze drones were coming. Now they're in Ukraine and being used against Russia. Ukraine has a greater capacity for making a mark with these than some of the other groups that have already done it.

The war in Ukraine is no stranger to drones, but the kamikaze drone strike on the Russian city of Rostov last week marked the beginning of a whole chapter in drone warfare. A small ramshackle Ukrainian drone with a tiny warhead flew across the heavily defended front line and smashed into an oil refinery in Russia on June 22, causing a large fire. Given how cheap it is to make a drone, and its successful evasion of Russian air defenses, Russian officials might soon have to worry about defending oil facilities, supply depots, and military installations deep in Russian territory.

Long-range kamikaze drones are a new threat to Russia. Most observers of the conflict in Ukraine are familiar with the Switchblade drones provided by the U.S., but these have a relatively short range and require operators to direct it onto a target. Kamikaze drones like the one used in the Rostov attack can go hundreds of miles without the need for an operator, and are small enough to slip by much of Russia’s air defense, which is designed to detect and engage fighter jets and missiles. With the use of GPS and inertial guidance systems, a Ukrainian operator would simply need to give the drone a point on the map before sending it on its way.

For Russia, the biggest concern is that Ukraine can make these cheaply and easily. Press reports claim the drone used in the Rostov attack was produced by Ukraine or a was model available on the internet for less than $10,000. Airframes, engines, and guidance systems could all be bought commercially and assembled without too much technical expertise. The payloads are likely small and the drone can’t re-adjust if the coordinates are wrong, but it costs a fraction of its American and Turkish-made counterparts and can do millions of dollars in damage if it hits a fuel tank or sets fire to a docked naval vessel. Depending on the final unit cost, Ukrainian drones could conceivably be cheaper than the missiles Russia would use to shoot them down.

For Ukraine, long-range Kamikaze drones fill a capability gap. Ukraine needs to use one of its few remaining ballistic missiles or risk a million-dollar drone like a TB2 Bayraktar to achieve the same level of damage from the front lines. President Joe Biden is famously reticent about providing Ukraine with missiles that can strike Russian territory out of a fear of escalation. The U.S. has offered MQ-1C Grey Eagle drones, but Ukrainian officials are reportedly nervous about accepting them on the basis that such a high-profile weapon might be shot down quickly if used near the front lines.

Ukraine would not be the first actor to use Kamikaze drones to coerce stronger power. In Yemen, the Iran-supported Houthis have been successfully using similar types of drones for years. Saudi Arabia and the UAE field more sophisticated air defense systems than Russia to cover a smaller front, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. In 2019, a single attack on Saudi oil processing facilities by Kamikaze drones halved Saudi oil production overnight. The Houthis even tried to ram a Patriot radar on one occasion, which would have blinded the entire battery. The attacks are such a concern for the Gulf states that limiting the use of drones is reportedly a major point of contention in ongoing peace talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

[LFC]

As predicted years ago, Ukraine is making use of drones with improvised weapons. This is cheap, targeted, easy to deploy, and very difficult to counter bombing.

[LFC]

This was more general information on drone warfare than mostly specifics in Ukraine. It really spells out the capabilities versus the limitations.

Given interest in the Iranian Shahed-136 (and smaller Shahed-131) loitering munitions now being used at a rapidly increasing scale by Russia in Ukraine, and some of the breathless claims being made about them; a brief thread on what they can and can't do compared to jets 

[LFC]

China is upping its drone game.

With the Wing Loong-3, China has taken combative drones to a different level altogether by increasing its range to 6,200 miles (10,000 km). To achieve this, China has increased the size of the drone considerably, with the length of Wing Loong-3 now at 40 feet (12.2 m), much longer than its predecessor's nearly 30 feet (9.05 m) body. The wingspan of Wing Loong-3 stands at 78.74 feet (24 m), much wider than the nearly 46 feet (14 m) of Wing Loon-1.

Another striking feature of the drone is its newly entrusted capability of carrying fourth-generation air-to-air missiles. As per SCMP's report, Wing Loong is equipped with PL-10E strike missiles that can take down helicopters and other UAVs, considerably increasing its survivability. Together with its long-range and striking capability, it makes the Wing Loong-3 a deadly drone capable of intercontinental strikes.

The scary thing is that they'll likely be for sale to a variety of unstable nations. That means they'll be available to some of the worst actors on the planet.

The Chinese Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic) plans to mass produce the Wing Loong-3 and has already initiated work on establishing this capacity. China already exports Wing Loong drones, which are currently in service in African and Middle Eastern nations.

These drones are considered at par with Turkish Bayraktar UAVs, and with the recent upgrades, China has demonstrated the ability to innovate and deliver. Intriguingly, China is also offering the technology to countries that sign up for its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which a Forbes report dubbed Drone Diplomacy.

Currently, the Wing Loong drones might only be in demand in Libya or in Pakistan but with increased range and better strike capabilities mean that they could soon be attractive to other countries as well.

As we saw during the conflict in Ukraine, major defense manufacturers like Russia turned to Iran for its Shahed drones to target strategic locations in large numbers. It would not be a surprise if other U.S. adversaries also took to these drones to target U.S. bases far from the mainland U.S.

What would be an even worse scenario is the sale of Wing Loong-3 drones to potential terrorists who could use them to target sites inside the U.S. without even getting close to borders. Given its size, Wing Loong-3 travel rather slowly than most missiles and weapons. However, experts told Forbes that combined with a low-altitude flight, it could be used to evade air defense systems and carry out attacks from thousands of miles away.

[LFC]

I find it interesting that Turkey is becoming one of the world's major innovator of drone warfare.

Although most military analysts are well aware of Türkiye's rise as a major drone power, meanwhile also boasting the first production multi-role unmanned combat aircraft in the world, not nearly enough know about the strides it is making in the design of unmanned surface vessels (USVs). [1] The year 2021 witnessed the unveiling of three armed unmanned surface vessel (AUSV) types, the ULAQ-series by ARES, the NB57/RD09 by Sefine and the USV 11/15 by Dearsan. Thanks to these designs, its UCAVs and a great number of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), Türkiye is well on its way to becoming the market leader in unmanned weapons systems.
 
Several countries around the globe are already deploying USVs and AUSVs for mine clearing operations and harbour defence duties. Türkiye looks to drastically expand on these capabilities through the introduction of rocket, torpedo and missile-toting AUSVs. The armament of these unmanned vessels not only includes anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) with a range of some eight kilometres, but also 220+km-ranged Atmaca anti-ship missiles (AShMs). The introduction of these multi-role AUSVs to the Aegean Sea in large numbers could see a significant shift in the naval balance to the point that the Greek Navy is unlikely to ever overcome the differences in both quality and quantity.
 
The wide range of potential applications allows USVs to take over many of the duties currently carried out by manned vessels. In addition to anti-surface warfare (AsuW) and minesweeping USVs, Turkish shipyards have designed USVs for anti-submarine warfare (ASW), intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), electronic warfare and even firefighting tasks. Aselsan has also developed USVs that can conduct autonomous operations and operate in swarms, providing yet another layer of independent operations. [2] Through the simultaneous design of these types within just a matter of years, Türkiye appears to have come to dominate the market for AUSVs.

Türkiye's USV designs also seem well positioned to become a success on the export market, mirroring the success of its unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs). Türkiye is arguably the first country that has managed to combine reliability and affordability of unmanned systems with effective results on the battlefield. Their attractiveness to foreign customers might be precisely what ensures their success, escaping the fate of USV designs the world over that were ultimately only produced in scarce numbers. In December 2021 it was reported that ARES Shipyard was in the final stages of negotiations with two European countries for the sale of the ULAQ-series of AUSVs. [3]

[LFC]

The war in Ukraine is showing us just how much drone warfare has advanced. This is video by one drone as it attacks another in mid-air drone on drone combat.

[LFC]

Organ delivery by drone.

When it comes to organ transplants, time is of the essence. As soon as a heart or lung is made available, both the medical teams and the patient need to act quickly in order to get the new organ in the body as soon as possible. Otherwise, they risk the organ deteriorating and becoming so damaged that it’s unable to be transplanted.

One of the hurdles to this process is getting an organ from one hospital to another. While it might seem like a simple matter of getting it from point A to B, it can be incredibly difficult in dense urban areas with high levels of traffic. With the clock ticking, that’s precious time that can’t be wasted.

That’s why researchers in Canada have turned to drones to whisk away donated organs to the patients who need them. In a study published Dec. 21 in the journal Science Robotics, the team modified a drone typically used in aerial photography to carry a transplant organ from one hospital to another. The study’s authors successfully used the device to transport a donated lung across the city of Toronto.

Check out a video of the special delivery below courtesy of Tech Xplore:

[LFC]

This is incredible. I never saw drones changing warfare in this manner.

[andydp]

Jan 17, 2023 21:17:47 GMT LFC said:

This is incredible. I never saw drones changing warfare in this manner.

Since I'm not on twitter, I can't view this very interesting video.  The comments provide an excellent view of what the UKR Army did after getting the radio. 

According to the thread they used the radio for nine days to listen in on RUS radio traffic.  In normal situations, you're supposed to change codes every few hours.  The loss, or suspected loss, of the radio should have been reported immediately so the compromised codes could be changed.  Using compromised radio encryption for nine days, reinforces the fact Russians have no idea what they're doing.

It probably wasn't reported because the responsible person did not want to fall down a few flights of stairs while in the USO building.

Update:

I managed to find a "non twitter" story for more background.  There also appears to be a video in the article.

www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-says-stole-russian-radio-drone-could-hear-enemy-plans-2023-1

[LFC]

Russia is going to deploy their first unmanned armored vehicles. They will be fitted with anti-tank weapons. With the successful use of drones by both sides, plus in other conflicts, it was just a matter of time.

[LFC]

Ukraine is becoming the in field testing ground for autonomous weapons.

he U.S. military is intensifying its commitment to the development and use of autonomous weapons, as confirmed by an update to a Department of Defense directive. The update, released Jan. 25, 2023, is the first in a decade to focus on artificial intelligence autonomous weapons. It follows a related implementation plan released by NATO on Oct. 13, 2022, that is aimed at preserving the alliance’s “technological edge” in what are sometimes called “killer robots.”

Both announcements reflect a crucial lesson militaries around the world have learned from recent combat operations in Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh: Weaponized artificial intelligence is the future of warfare.

“We know that commanders are seeing a military value in loitering munitions in Ukraine,” Richard Moyes, director of Article 36, a humanitarian organization focused on reducing harm from weapons, told me in an interview. These weapons, which are a cross between a bomb and a drone, can hover for extended periods while waiting for a target. For now, such semi-autonomous missiles are generally being operated with significant human control over key decisions, he said.

Pressure of war

But as casualties mount in Ukraine, so does the pressure to achieve decisive battlefield advantages with fully autonomous weapons – robots that can choose, hunt down and attack their targets all on their own, without needing any human supervision.

This month, a key Russian manufacturer announced plans to develop a new combat version of its Marker reconnaissance robot, an uncrewed ground vehicle, to augment existing forces in Ukraine. Fully autonomous drones are already being used to defend Ukrainian energy facilities from other drones. Wahid Nawabi, CEO of the U.S. defense contractor that manufactures the semi-autonomous Switchblade drone, said the technology is already within reach to convert these weapons to become fully autonomous.

[LFC]

Assassination drones that can recognize specific individuals either already exist or will soon.

Flying killer robots used to be a nightmarish sci-fi fantasy—something that only existed in James Cameron movies or Michael Crichton novels. These days, not so much. Not only is drone warfare close to two decades old, but innovations to this lethal technology are being developed all the time.

Case in point: New Scientist magazine recently unearthed a contract between the U.S. Air Force and a little known defense firm that shows the government is using reconnaissance and surveillance drones equipped with facial recognition to aid in special operations missions. While the magazine notes that those smaller drones aren’t typically armed (unlike, say, their big siblings, the Predator and the Reaper), they clearly present dizzying new possibilities for America’s most shadowy and deadly cadres. The Air Force’s provider is a Seattle-based firm, RealNetworks, which sells a platform dubbed Secure Accurate Facial Recognition, or SAFR. The government paid $729,056 for SAFR, which will be deployed “on an autonomous sUAS for special ops, ISR, and other expeditionary use-cases,” according to the contract. While not a ton is known about how the U.S. is using this technology or how long it’s been using it, one thing is certain: it’s creeping people out.

“Big huge NOPE to everything here,” tweeted Jake Wiener, a lawyer with the digital privacy organization EPIC, in response to the news.

[LFC]

They are using flat pack cardboard drones in Ukraine. Talk about cheap and portable. Also it sounds like pretty durable.

At least 100 incredibly cheap ($1000-$5000) Australian drones made of cardboard+rubber bands are being delivered to Ukraine every month.

Designed to be totally expendable, some have completed 60 flights and drop bombs, deliver supplies, or conduct recon.

The Precision Payload Delivery System drones, designed by @sypaq_Official, are constructed from thick, wax-coated cardboard and heavy-duty rubber bands that secure the wings.

[LFC]

This video starts out showing a new drone delivery vehicle but the part that made it really worth posting starts at about 1:30. The company he's talking about has created and been running an incredible drone delivery service in Rwanda to deliver medical supplies all over the country. In 6 years they've logged over 40 million miles and they have a drone taking off and landing every 90 seconds. This goes waaaayyyyy beyond anything I imagined currently existing.

[LFC]

A new military drone that carries mini-missiles.

[AnBr]

www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1291565345068345