Russian ZALA 421 micro UAV
During an interview with William Swanson, CEO Raytheon, he was asked about proximity fuse development for the Stinger missile that could be used against enemy UAVs. The main point is: do today’s defense systems really need these missiles?
There will be a time in future when highly capable unmanned aircrafts will start replacing the manned ones presently used. This might seem too comic but its true that it will happen. All this will be because of the reason that its quite safe to operate an airborne object from a remote area while staying on ground. No risks of losing precious lives, losing highly trained flyers or recovering a pilot from a downed aircraft site. Not only it will make airforce’s job a bit easier but also it will enhance the strike capability.
Every country is now acquiring these ground controlled flying machines and in future all would be needing some means to counter them. Russia just got into a plan to acquire UAVs from Israel Aerospace Industries. Israel’s state-owned Aerospace industries have developed Bird-Eye 400, I-View MK150 and Search MK II drones for serveillance and strike purposes.
Russia developed its own UAVs earlier that were good enough for short reconnoisence missions but their capabiilities were questioned when Russia got into a clash with Georgian, Israeli built, UAVs.
Now coming back to raytheon’s work, with all this fast acquisition of UAVs anti-UAVs is a necessity. This project is in the phase of developing proximity fuses for these anti-UAV missiles. It is a truth that without a UAV an army is blind to enemy so considering all this, today’s defense systems really need these weapon systems.
