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Showing posts from March 30, 2014

A New Kind of Drone War: UCAV vs. UCLASS

The Australian government recently approved the acquisition of a fleet of US Navy  Triton   surveillance drones  to patrol our oceans. Australia has mostly used Israeli drones to date, such as the  Heron s in Afghanistan. So as we dip our toes into the American UAV market, it’s worth taking note of a recent development that might be threatening US primacy in this area. While the  Predator  and  Reaper  laid the groundwork for the use of armed drones in warfare, a question remains about the survivability of the technology against modern air defences. Developing a stealthy long-range drone with a decent weapons payload that could go beyond missions in Yemen and Pakistan appeared to be the next order of business for the US, especially in the future Asia-Pacific theatre. Projects like the demonstrator  X-47B  unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) have shown promise in achieving those missions. But for now the US Navy has decided to go for an unmanned carrier-launched surveillance and stri