Drones to Dominate Battlefields Prior to Introduction of Next-Gen Vertical Lift Troop Transports

Submitted by tatwood on Fri, 05/01/2020 - 12:39

BreakingDefense.com, quoted Maj. Gen. David Francis, commander of the Army’s Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama: “What we have to do is improve our stand-off and our survivability with the introduction of some technology that will be available prior to the actual FVL [Future Vertical Lift] platform.” 

This will include the Israeli Spike missile and the Air Launched Effects (ALE) family of smaller drones that can be launched from helicopter missile racks.  Photos in descending order:

1. Martin UAV's vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle takes flight (Martin AUV).
2. Martin engineers show of their V-Bat vertical take-off and landing drone.
3. L3 Harris FVR-90 drone2.
4. Textron’s Aerosonde HQ drone.
5. Maj. Gen. David Francis.

Thanks to CDR David Place (USN/Ret), davidplace47[at]gmail[dot]com, and Robin E. Alexander, President ATC, alexander technical[at]gmail[dot]com, for their assistance with this report, the background for which appeared in their  # 20 - 9 - 26 APRIL 2020 edition of the UNMANNED SYSTEMS NEWS (USN).

David distributes the Unmanned Systems News (USN), a free, comprehensive newsletter in PDF format every week or two, as well as serial news flashes, from which this NREF news update was sourced. To be included in his distribution, simply send David a subscribe request to davidplace47[at]gmail[dot]com.