Defence

The US Air Force plans to expand the weapons-delivery capabilities of its General Atomics MQ-1 Predator unmanned air vehicle through a series of tests early next year.

Intended to increase the service’s ability to engage area battlefield targets, and small naval vessels in the littoral environment, the demonstrations will centre on two munitions developed by Textron Systems.

To be conducted from Creech AFB, Nevada or the US Army’s Fort Huachuca facility in Arizona, the tests will include the delivery of two BLU-108 sensor-fuzed submunitions and two clean lightweight area weapons (CLAW) from a Predator air vehicle, says Lt Col Steven Ward, UAV battlelab division chief for the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The USAF last year conducted a live test firing of the BLU-108 from a Sentry HP UAV, which successfully deployed two of the 29kg (64lb) weapons. With a unit cost of around $30,000, each contains four 3.4kg infrared-guided skeet warheads that seek individual vehicle targets or self-destruct, leaving what the USAF describes as a “clean battlefield”.

During the 2004 trial, six of the released skeets hit their targets, while the other two self-destructed. The USAF also tested the system against littoral targets earlier this year.

Also referred to as the selectively targeted skeet (STS) and derived from the BLU-108, the CLAW is an area round of about 4.5kg with a $7,000-8,000 unit cost. The weapon is suitable for carriage by tactical UAVs or smaller systems, such as mounted beneath a ducted-fan design, says Textron.

It can cover the same area as a current 450kg cluster bomb without leaving unexploded ordnance, says the service.