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Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

baesystems.com

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Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#21

Post by ta8645 »

bencollier49 wrote: post #11
vinw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably because of the low volume. They've only sold 30 so far, and the R&D costs need to be recovered.

If the selling point is stability in a storm, then the differentiation is in software, which is interesting. You'd expect the price of things like this to tumble. One could imagine great dark clouds of these things in battle over perhaps Eastern Europe or the South China Sea in ten years' time.

And roving cities assigning tickets for illegal parking and all manner of other infractions.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#22

Post by eloff »

realmod wrote: post #17

Drones are integral to current warfare and will continue to become even more important. And as we've seen in the Caucuses, the nations with the most effective drones will easily conquer other countries without or with worse drones. Aside from that, we've come really far with drones which are amazing technology-wise. We have small drones like these with a 2km-range and large drones that can carry huge payloads, i.e. p…

Compared to nuclear and biological weapons, drones don't get my pulse up.

A future where terrorist groups can produce their own weapons of mass destruction seems like it may well be on the horizon. Through exponential improvements in the underlying technology. Crispr for biology and laser based uranium enrichment for nuclear.

I think it's entirely possible that the great filter might be ahead of us and might consist of our own weapons exceeding our ability to manage them responsibly.

Happy New Year all!

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#23

Post by jjoonathan »

bencollier49 wrote: post #5

It feels like they're paying ludicrous money for these. Can someone in the know explain what differentiates these from shop-bought or scratch-built drones? As per this article below, the Nano 1A UAV Quadcopter Bug drone sells for £4,500 (a tenth of the price of another model, the Black Hornet Nano): https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drone-nano-b... I appreciate that this is probably a variation on the o…

You need to separate R&D amortization from marginal price, otherwise you're deep in "ask a silly question, get a silly answer" territory.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#24

Post by sirtimbly »

bencollier49 wrote: post #5

It feels like they're paying ludicrous money for these. Can someone in the know explain what differentiates these from shop-bought or scratch-built drones? As per this article below, the Nano 1A UAV Quadcopter Bug drone sells for £4,500 (a tenth of the price of another model, the Black Hornet Nano): https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drone-nano-b... I appreciate that this is probably a variation on the o…

There's maybe $300 of off-the-shelf components (at retail prices) in the pictured air unit. It's the R&D time. The software dev and testing of the the whole system would be super expensive. Also there's no mention of their ground station design, how is it controlled by the operator, there's a lot of money and research that has to go into that half of the problem. Soldiers wont put up with the operational peculiarities that hobbyist will. Drones are incredibly fragile because of the weight limitations. 40 minutes of flight time is amazing, probably 2x the best time a hobbyist could build with off-the-shelf parts at that size class.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#25

Post by newen »

eloff wrote: post #22
realmod wrote: post #17

Drones are integral to current warfare and will continue to become even more important. And as we've seen in the Caucuses, the nations with the most effective drones will easily conquer other countries without or with worse drones. Aside from that, we've come really far with drones which are amazing technology-wise. We have small drones like these with a 2km-range and large drones that can carry huge payloads, i.e. p…

Compared to nuclear and biological weapons, drones don't get my pulse up. A future where terrorist groups can produce their own weapons of mass destruction seems like it may well be on the horizon. Through exponential improvements in the underlying technology. Crispr for biology and laser based uranium enrichment for nuclear. I think it's entirely possible that the great filter might be ahead of us and might consist…

Hundreds of thousands of autonomous drone killbots the size of bats flying around do get my pulse up.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#26

Post by laptop-man »

grecy wrote: post #6
throwaway4good wrote: post #3

Reminds me of the DJI Mavic Mini. How much does it cost?

I have the Mavic Mini 1. It weighs 249g (which is 27% more than this drone). It also realistically only flies for about 15-20 minutes before needing a recharge, which is half as much as this drone. So while similar to the Mavic Mini, I think it's clear they're not in the same league.

for 199 you can get https://www.racedayquads.com/collections/all-pre-built-quads...

close to 1 to 2 mile range (depending on obstructions) 30 min battery as long as your not freestyleing lol. (assuming you have everything else for it. a decent starter set up is close to 200/300 dollars but is compatable with any drone you can stick a rx in)

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#28

Post by epicureanideal »

bencollier49 wrote: post #18
epicureanideal wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: "It boasts a stealthy low visual profile and the ability to fly even in strong winds of more than 50mph. It was the only nano-UAV able to cope with the uncompromising weather during a recent Army Warfighting Experiment (AWE) event hosted by the Ministry of Defence’s Future Capability Group."

> It boasts a stealthy low visual profile The one in the article's picture looks like a flying brick. A lot of money to be made in this field - there's a low barrier to entry in the market.

The problem as I see it is that many, many people have the skills to compete, but not the capital. And often are working so much that they don't have spare energy to invest every weekend for years to build an MVP.

I know some will say that sounds like making excuses, but the examples I've seen of entrepreneurs have been people who haven't actually had to work very hard at their day jobs. They aren't totally burned out at the end of the day.

I wish I knew a way to fix this situation. The economy could operate far more efficiently than it is, and that would be better for all of us.

Re: Bug drone for UK army that weights 196g, has 40 mins autonomy and 2km range

#30

Post by m1gu3l »

newen wrote: post #25
eloff wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to nuclear and biological weapons, drones don't get my pulse up. A future where terrorist groups can produce their own weapons of mass destruction seems like it may well be on the horizon. Through exponential improvements in the underlying technology. Crispr for biology and laser based uranium enrichment for nuclear. I think it's entirely possible that the great filter might be ahead of us and might consist…

Hundreds of thousands of autonomous drone killbots the size of bats flying around do get my pulse up.

Why do this when you can gas a bunch of people or blow them up old school for way cheaper? Not sold
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