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

baesystems.com

171–180 of 188 posts

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

#171

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…

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."

"Army Warfighting Experiment (AWE) event hosted by the Ministry of Defence’s Future Capability Group."

I wonder who was allowed to attend... And how those were selected....

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

#172
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Governments in most western countries have thrown out habeas corpus and have given themselves the right to indefinitely ‘disappear’ anyone they arbitrarily deem a threat to national security. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden come to mind. Neither of those seem to be examples of habeas corpus being thrown out. Neither were "disappeared" and the court systems were used against Assange and nothing has happened to Snow…

Whoa that's a bit of a US Centric broad brush there. "Most Western Countries" - there's more to the West than the US, UK and less than half a dozenish who have or are doing that. I'm Irish and the vast majority of the EU and other Western Countries (however that is defined) aren't in the business of disappearing people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappeared_(Northern_Ireland)

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

#173
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, these are the kind of modern aids I mentioned. You're still likely to miss your first one. Mortar is not a precision weapon, it's a Monte Carlo prop.

Any particular reason someone couldn't build a steerable mortar? It wouldn't take much in the way of gas jets to do the job.

You can do all sorts of guided munitions with all kinds of weapons, but then the simplicity vs drone attack point is kinda moot.

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

#174

Having played a little with micro-drones as a hobbyist, the ability to have an "eye in the sky" is amazing. Just today, we got a little turned around on a hike -- in less than a minute I was able to see our location from above and which direction to bushwhack a shortcut back to the main trail. I can see how this would be invaluable in a "strategic" situation. Even the tiny ones are noisy and give away their position…

Trained eagles and hawks are already used to keep airports and shopping malls safe from unwanted birds anyway, so it just yet another target to deal with.

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

#176

Hmm...from a tech porn perspective it’s a cool little gadget. But given the shadow surveillance and police state that was erected post 9/11 and how often “national security” outfits have been caught playing fast and loose with the laws of the land, there is a good chance that bugs like this one will be eventually be used to illegally spy on domestic dissidents and whistleblowers. Governments in most western countries…

This is hardly surveillance technology.

Yes it's a camera drone for the military. Big deal. It's also extremely noisy.

The government can put cameras wherever and on whatever platform it damnwell wants - and is allowed to. Really the only way to control the consequences is to restrict those places, platforms and what is done with the data, through laws and regulations. You know, like in a democracy.

If that's not possible, a camera on a particularly cute drone is the least of your problems.

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

#177
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

No camera, and no camera mount included So once you do, you blow past the 250g limit, and it's in a different class.

It has a builtin camera? You can also upgrade to something like a caddix loris or tarasar and get full 4k and still be under weight.

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

#179
post #167

I have searched around a bit, but could not recognize the motors. Here is the best picture available, in which we can clearly see graphical content that would only be on commercial motors[0]. One of the other drone made by the same company uses Align motors[1], taken from a picture[2]. Those are however not used for this bug drone. [0]: https://uavtek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Bug-Nano-Ima... [1]: http://www.a…

https://de.amaxshop.com/index.php?route=product/product&prod... Nothing special.

Thanks. It seems to be the 2550kv version. Here are some numbers about it[0]. It might hover at idle if I read this correctly.

I don't see how they do it at 196g though. 4 * 31.6 + 2 * 47.5 = 221.4g, with 47.5g being the weight of one 18650, as this is what seems to be inside (weight of a Sony VTC6 taken from [0]). The energy density would have to be a lot better than this, I don't know a thing about non-rechargeable batteries as suggested by others in this thread.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2v1QLmhNxM

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

#180
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Likewise, the rest of Europe relies entirely on NATO's firepower against Russian belligerence. Can you elaborate a bit on what you mean by "Russian belligerence"? Do you have some example of Europe relying on NATO's firepower against it?

NATO is seen as a deterrent to Russian expansion into the old Soviet territories as some of the states that are now democracies have joined NATO. In the absence of a European defence infrastructure like NATO that's pretty much all they have. Russian belligerence being invading the Baltic states. Crimea and eastern Ukraine were less clear cut than supposed for historical reasons but many in the East live in fear of th…

But how is NATO not a military force? It’s kind of equivalent to the US military (except it includes them)... EU is similar to United States. Both are unions of independent states
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