The demand for UAVs to conduct armed overwatch missions to help protect United States forces, as well as their allies and partners, isn't going away, but exact the opposite: For the foreseeable future, the Reapers will continue to provide this invaluable service for American troops around the world, as you can see in a recently released video that includes a unique clip that an MQ-9 Reaper captured of militants firing a rocket-propelled grenade at a C-130 Hercules airlifter that was performing an air drop of cargo at relatively low altitude.
In the full video, the UAV's pilot and sensor operator, who later struck those hostile forces, also offer an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how the unmanned aircraft perform these kinds of armed overwatch missions. The Air Force's 432nd Wing at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, one of the service's premier UAV units, posted the video on YouTube on Apr. 6, 2020. The pilot, 1st Lieutenant Russel, and the sensor operator, Airman First Class Ashley, both assigned to the 20th Attack Squadron, which itself is assigned to the 432nd, but is based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, describe the event.
Army planners say they envision a portable set of interchangeable components that could be used to build a wide assortment of UAVs. Ideally, a 3-D production system would churn out the frame, while a selection of motors, sensors, cameras and other apparatus could be selected from a standing inventory: “It’s an integrated system model that allows you to match the mission to the components,” said Eric Spero, a team lead within ARL’s vehicle technology directorate. “If I know what mission I need to accomplish, I want to be able to select the most appropriate electronics and combine that with a predefined structure.”
The Army is not alone in offering up a vision for a 3D-printed UAV. Hobbyists can download instructions for build-it-yourself copters and can even buy ready-made printable drone kits on Amazon. YouTube offers video tutorials. But the military-grade project looks to go beyond these commercials offerings, by making available the widest possible range of vehicles: “Our emphasis is on inherent flexibility,”said John Gerbes, a mechanical engineer at ARL. “It’s not just about providing a 3D-printed UAV but about providing a suite of tool to meet mission-specific needs.”
The use of 3D printing, or additive technology, makes it possible to create these ad hoc solutions to meet a broad range of requirements. Rather than carry parts and pieces for every possible configuration, soldiers will be able to manufacture on the fly those components that best suit the need: “If you can scale the arms longer or shorter, that links to the motor, which links to the battery, which links to the control systems. When you can do that, that is when you are really leveraging the power of additive technology,”Spero said.
“This is one step toward giving soldiers the right tools they need when they need them,” said Larry “L.J.” Holmes, Lead, Additive Manufacturing-Hybrid Operations Team (AM-HOT) at RDECOM, the Research, Development and Engineering Command. He described UAVs as the “low-hanging fruit,” a point of interest across Army and Marine Corps user groups. But he suggested that this capability might be just a starting point as the Army seeks other areas in which 3D printing could fulfill mission-specific needs on the fly. So, why carry around UAVs... when they can be printed on the spot?
Additive manufacturing, also known as 3-D Printing, is maturing as a viable means to produce mission-essential UAVs at the point of need. Now, U.S. Army researchers are working with the U.S. Marines to develop 3-D printed UAVs.
This is theme of a new YouTube documentary released by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. The video details how researchers first envisioned on-demand printing with a suite of tools that would allow for Soldiers to enter mission parameters and then get a 3-D printed aviation asset within 24 hours.
