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View Full Version : MOD investigates High Tech - Low Cost "Loitering Munitions"


WE Branch Fanatic
6th Feb 2005, 21:30
From the MOD (http://news.mod.uk/news/press/news_headline_story.asp?newsItem_id=3081)

British troops could get a range of futuristic new armaments, able to loiter over a battlefield for hours before identifying and then destroying their targets, under a research programme that has been launched by the MOD.

Os it just me - or does this seem like an attempt by the system to decoy attention away from the very real cuts inflicted on the Forces since the SDR, and the very real delays to projects?

LCLC has the potential to address a range of capability gaps. A carrier vehicle incorporating a modular payload could conduct a variety of roles including the engagement of agile and time sensitive targets, the detection/recognition of targets at long ranges from friendly forces, a communications relay, deploying smart sub-munitions, and even supplying troops deployed deep into the battlefield.

Perhaps if they stopped making cuts there would be less gaps?

opso
6th Feb 2005, 23:36
Wrong way round - they've made the cuts (sorry, manpower adjustments!) to pay for this sort of thing rather than buy this sort of thing to cover the gaps made by the cuts. This and other 'brilliant solutions' have been on the drawing board for ages, but without the budget to pay for it all.

What worries me is the insistence on the swiss army knife approach to procurement. Just as Typhoon, designed as a cold-war, MOB only fighter is suddenly a multi-role expeditionary wonder capable of replacing any FJ, this LCLC is a bomber, recce, comms, missile platform doing the AT job. The trouble with a swiss army knife is whilst it's fun to play with and has a natty pair of scissors, it's just bugger all use for getting you through a jungle - go buy a machete instead!

engineer(retard)
7th Feb 2005, 19:57
Opso

Wrong way round - did you mean high cost, low tech?:O