Weapon-toting drones may soon be deployed across the battlefields of the world

The future of warfare is starting to look more and more like something out of a Terminator movie. Military forces around the globe are increasingly looking toward robots to replace combat soldiers, hoping to keep boots off the ground, while minimizing collateral damage and limiting civilian casualties.

Now, the latest breakthroughs in technology have led to the development of a small multi-rotor drone known as TIKAD, which has been modified to carry multiple different kinds of weapons, including grenade launchers and machine guns.

Produced by a Florida startup called Duke Robotics, TIKAD was developed by the company’s co-founders, Lt. Col. Raziel “Razi” Atuar, a 20-year veteran of the Israeli military and a reservist in the Israeli Special Forces, and two of his fellow soldiers. Defense One reports that the men were motivated by a desire to see the end of “chaotic street battles” that have unnecessarily taken the lives of their colleagues and countless innocent civilians. (Related: Stay up-to-date at NationalSecurity.news.)

“You have small groups [of adversaries] working within crowded civilian areas using civilians as shields,” Atuar told Defense One. “But you have to go in. Even to just get a couple of guys with a mortar, you have to send in a battalion and you lose guys. People get hurt. The operational challenge, it bothered us.”

So, what makes TIKAD unique? Defense One explains:

[P]hysics does not allow the easy integration of a machine gun on a small aerial drone that also has to hover. When a gun fires, expanding gases eject the bullet from its barrel with great force — and exert an equal and opposite force on whatever is holding the weapon. Newton describes this conservation of momentum — more commonly known as kickback or recoil — in his third law. When a person fires a pistol, the backward momentum is transferred through the shooter’s body into the ground. But a low-mass object hovering in the air, like a quadcopter, has no mount. The physical forces that pushed the bullet out of the barrel are going to act on the drone, more than likely knocking it out of position.

TIKAD’s developers overcame this problem by utilizing a system of flexibly connected plates which distribute the “recoil” in such a way that the drone can remain stationary in the air. TIKAD has been specifically designed to carry an M4, grenade launcher or SR25 in any circumstances. The plate system will automatically stabilize the drone, allowing for an accurate shot.

Duke claims that TIKAD will revolutionize the way in which conflicts are solved, and can be deployed in places that cannot be reached by humans or to which soldiers simply should not be sent. Duke notes that each year, the U.S. military spends more than $150 billion on research and development of better solutions for its troops. The company predicts that the military robotic and drone sector will continue to dominate all other sectors of development.

Defense One has confirmed independently that the Israeli government has placed an order with Duke for an undisclosed number of TIKAD units. The U.S. military has also expressed considerable interest in these drones.

Experts predict that in coming decades, all sectors of the military will increasingly choose to send robots or drones into conflict situations. In fact, the Marines are already beginning to implement the use of lethal robots as “door-kickers” in place of humans. (Related: U.S. Navy to deploy weaponized drones in world’s oceans.)

Interestingly, police departments around the country are also showing increased interest in utilizing drones in conflict situations. For example, the Dallas Police Department used a ground bomb disposal robot to eliminate a shooter in a tense situation in July of 2016.

It would seem that the future of warfare is changing. We can only hope that this sophisticated and death-dealing technology does not fall into the wrong hands.

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re...

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has ...

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, sp...

ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Search This Blog