Photo: AeroVironment
If you've been watching the events unfolding over in Ukraine you are probably aware of the beating armored vehicles, from infantry-carrying ones to tanks, are taking from drones. Somehow, Ukrainian soldiers have proven incredibly resourceful in adapting all sorts of drones, including commercially available ones, for the task of dropping explosives from above, rendering armor pretty much useless.
The defense industry, naturally, took note, and it is beginning to try to improve on the battlefield designs, but also test new drone and munition combinations. That's exactly what defense contractors AeroVironment, Corvid Technologies, and L3Harris announced they've succeeded in doing this week.
You may not know the name of this drone yet, but it'll probably become commonplace in military operations in the future. It's called Vapor 55 MX, and it was introduced less than two years ago in the AeroVironment portfolio.
The flying device is capable of carrying up to 22 pounds (10 kg) of usable payloads. The uncrewed small aircraft can fly for distances of up to 32 km (20 miles, the maximum distance of the link range that allows it to be remote-controlled).
It can stay in the air for up to 75 minutes, and it is capable of hovering in the same place for up to an hour, and can drop its payload from a distance of just one meter (3.2 feet) from its target.
The payload capacity of the thing may not seem like much, but that's still 20 percent more compared to previous versions of the same machines, and more than enough to carry multiple 40 mm anti-armor modular warheads to their targets.
And that's exactly what the drone did, as it was used by the three companies to test the its capabilities of carrying such munitions from the Shryke family. We're not told where the test took place, or when, but we are informed this was the first-ever “successful multi-drop, live fire” of the drone carrying this type of explosive.
During the procedure the drone was required to carry four rounds of the Shryke at the same time. This allowed it to target multiple targets simultaneously, during the same flight – something soldiers fighting for their lives will probably appreciate greatly.
It's not clear at this point when and where the Vapor will be used in this configuration (or how much it costs). The Shryke is theoretically just one of the payloads it can carry, as the modular way in which it was designed and the payload interface it uses allow for it to be equipped with other kinds of weapons as well.
In fact, says the company making the drone, any third-party payloads can be integrated, "without being impacted by excessive non-recurring engineering costs and schedule delays."
You may not know the name of this drone yet, but it'll probably become commonplace in military operations in the future. It's called Vapor 55 MX, and it was introduced less than two years ago in the AeroVironment portfolio.
The flying device is capable of carrying up to 22 pounds (10 kg) of usable payloads. The uncrewed small aircraft can fly for distances of up to 32 km (20 miles, the maximum distance of the link range that allows it to be remote-controlled).
It can stay in the air for up to 75 minutes, and it is capable of hovering in the same place for up to an hour, and can drop its payload from a distance of just one meter (3.2 feet) from its target.
The payload capacity of the thing may not seem like much, but that's still 20 percent more compared to previous versions of the same machines, and more than enough to carry multiple 40 mm anti-armor modular warheads to their targets.
And that's exactly what the drone did, as it was used by the three companies to test the its capabilities of carrying such munitions from the Shryke family. We're not told where the test took place, or when, but we are informed this was the first-ever “successful multi-drop, live fire” of the drone carrying this type of explosive.
During the procedure the drone was required to carry four rounds of the Shryke at the same time. This allowed it to target multiple targets simultaneously, during the same flight – something soldiers fighting for their lives will probably appreciate greatly.
It's not clear at this point when and where the Vapor will be used in this configuration (or how much it costs). The Shryke is theoretically just one of the payloads it can carry, as the modular way in which it was designed and the payload interface it uses allow for it to be equipped with other kinds of weapons as well.
In fact, says the company making the drone, any third-party payloads can be integrated, "without being impacted by excessive non-recurring engineering costs and schedule delays."
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