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NATO Helecopter Drone down in Libya. In Other News... we have helecopter drones.

guyver01

guyver01

Lifer
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/06/21/libya.war/index.html

A U.S. unmanned helicopter flying surveillance for NATO over the skies of Libya went down Tuesday in the central coastal area, though the alliance did not give any details on whether it was shot down or experienced mechanical problems.

NATO lost contact with the Fire Scout at 7:20 a.m., spokesman Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken said at a news conference.
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I always thought our drones were Predators... no idea we had helecopter drones..


MQ-8B_Fire_Scout.jpeg


AIR_MQ-8B_Cutaway_from_NGC_lg.jpg
 
Pretty sure I've seen pictures / video of this before. Looks like a submarine with rotor blades.

[edit]
Maybe it's adapted from a submarine drone? Maybe it's amphibious! 🙂
 
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We also have unmanned land vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles. Just about anything that we have manned we have unmanned versions of.
 
guyver01 said:
well i know we have plenty of drones, i was just under the impression all our drones were "fast movers" ... personally i don't see the point of a slow moving drone..
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Observation, obviously.

...also, precise delivery. Option to retrieve objects...?
 
guyver01 said:
isn't that what satellites are for? we have a shit-ton of surveillance satellites up there.
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Yeah, only one person can use those at a time. It's not like there are hundreds of satellites at the disposal of every combat unit. You need to go pretty high up the chain to be able to direct and control where those satellites point. If you want intel on rapidly changing situations, depending on having access to a satellite isn't going to get you very far.
 
guyver01 said:
isn't that what satellites are for? we have a shit-ton of surveillance satellites up there.
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doesn't it cost a shit ton of money to move satellites? i'm guessing cost is the real reason why the helo drone was used. plus, we have to put it (UAVs) through real-time situations every once in a while.
 
guyver01 said:
isn't that what satellites are for? we have a shit-ton of surveillance satellites up there.
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-much better resolution when you're not 150 km - 36,000 km away from earth

-weather not an issue

-can stay focused on a target for a much longer period of time when compared to non-geo sats

-don't need to wait for sat to get into position

-cheaper than sats

-drop bombs?
 
sunzt said:
-much better resolution when you're not 150 km - 36,000 km away from earth

-weather not an issue

-can stay focused on a target for a much longer period of time when compared to non-geo sats

-don't need to wait for sat to get into position

-cheaper than sats

-drop bombs?
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Pretty much. Spy satellites are nice, but they aren't sufficient.
 
Hey guyver just read up on what darpa is cooking up.

Robot cheetahs that can catch humans.
Small insect drones.
As said an unmanned version of every capability we have now.
Loitering mini uav's which can kill a single human. (mini cruises missiles with wings that can circle and wait for a target to appear)
Also they actually want to create skynet "deep green"......

I wonder how smart all this is.
 
purbeast0 said:
you mean Enemy of the State wasn't 100% accurate?!?
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It's actually fairly accurate in terms of capability. The problem with spy satellites is that they are such a scarce commodity. They are only used for VERY critical mission planning and execution (Think the Osama raid). Your every day joe in the military is never going to use a spy satellite to help him execute his mission.

They depend on things like UAV's, rovers, etc.., which are much more readily available and accessable.
 
sunzt said:
-much better resolution when you're not 150 km - 36,000 km away from earth

-weather not an issue

-can stay focused on a target for a much longer period of time when compared to non-geo sats

-don't need to wait for sat to get into position

-cheaper than sats

-drop bombs?
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I could see a helicopter drone firing small air to ground missiles but not dropping bombs. Bombs are just too heavy for a small drone to carry.
 
guyver01 said:
True... i was thinking maybe close fire support, but .. doesn't seem to have much armament, and would be too susceptible to small arms fire to be effective.
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did you not see the dual missile rack in your 2nd image? x2 rack = 4 shots. missile range >>>> small arms.
guyver01 said:
won't the enemy notice this big grey hovering camera outside their window??
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this is a job for the darpa hummingbird drone.
 
guyver01 said:
well i know we have plenty of drones, i was just under the impression all our drones were "fast movers" ... personally i don't see the point of a slow moving drone..
Click to expand...


They don't fly that fast but they fly fairly high meaning they are usually out of range for most arms fire, especially anything the countries we've been using them in have. Useful for precision strikes and reasonably detailed surveillance.
 
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