Fox News - What do a kamikaze drone, a “field and forget” surveillance system and an Israeli robot have in common? Buzz at the annual AUSA Army meeting in Washington, D.C.
Here are three new pieces of tech revealed at this year's show.
1Battlehawk drone blows itself up
Textron Defense Systems
Made by Textron System, the Battlehawk
is similar to Aerovironment’s widely publicized Switchblade. Both are
drones that can be carried in a backpack and hand-launched. And they
both represent a movement towards making drones more accessible at a
squad level.Rather than call in air support, a squad would have a drone literally in their hands to deploy against threats like a sniper or an ambush waiting around the corner. The Battlehawk is made of carbon-fiber wings – wings that can be curled up for deployment from a 22-inch tube launcher.
The 5.5-pound Battlehawk runs on a small battery-powered propeller. This drone can be flown using a mere tablet or smartphone equipped with the Android app.
It also has an onboard video camera system so the users can monitor the mission in progress.
Battlehawk can follow a target for half an hour using a geo-location device, or the pilot can choose Attack or Abort Mode. Using the controls, the grenade in the drone’s nose can be armed in flight. More
