ARS TECHNICA: Drone Economics:

GPS · Nov 1, 2012

Drone Economics: Tiny tactical drones get dirt-cheap, GPS-guided bombs

The US military and CIA have used "drone strikes" heavily in the war in Afghanistan and the hunt for members of Al Qaeda. They've fired Hellfire missiles from the long-range Predator, Reaper, and Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, killing over 3,000 people so far with such attacks. But at 100 pounds, the Hellfire weighs almost as much as some small drones, and it costs tens of thousands of dollars. Add that to the cost of flying the big drones that carry them, and it makes for a very expensive way to kill someone.

But the economics of "precision-strike" drone warfare may change very soon. The US Army and General Dynamics announced today that they have successfully tested a weapon that could turn small unmanned aircraft into small-scale automated precision-attack bombers. General Dynamics' Ordnance and Tactical Systems unit and the Army Armament Research and Development Engineering Center successfully demonstrated they could shell targets from a small drone armed with GPS-guided 81-millimeter mortar rounds.

Originally designed to be fired from mortar tubes on the ground, GPS-guided mortar rounds started to be deployed to US troops in Afghanistan last year. The guidance is part of a fuse attached to an otherwise-conventional mortar round that controls the stabilization fins on the shell. The system tested by ARDEC and General Dynamics (called the Air Drop Mortar) turns GPS-guided mortar rounds into "smart" bombs, programming them with GPS coordinates through a specially designed rack on the drone.

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Source:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/drone-economics-tiny-tactical-drones-get-dirt-cheap-gps-guided-bombs/

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