The tactical drone family Orbiter which the Israeli company manufactures Aeronautics Group is expanded with a new platform loitering ammunition single use only designed to collaborate with nearby aerial surveillance vehicles. The Orbiter 2 LM presented by the company has been designed to enhance battlefield situational awareness and precision strike capabilities for ground forces.
This suicide drone It is launched from a catapult, it weighs approximately 12 kilos and has a wingspan of 2.74 meters. The company describes it as a next-generation system based on the existing Orbiter 2 that combines the lethality of a loitering munition with ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) capabilities.
Can remain in the air for two hoursoperates silently thanks to its electric power source and offers a low probability of detection with minimal acoustic, optical and radar signatures.
According to the manufacturer, the capabilities of the drone include a pinpoint precision attack for minimal collateral damage, along with anti-jamming capabilities and encrypted communications. The system also integrates artificial intelligence to improve functions such as target recognition. 'If you recognize a unique target type, next time the algorithm will improve and recognize this behavior,' said Eyal Assenhaym, vice president of Marketing and Business Development at Aeronautics Group.
Aeronautics plans to integrate it with the Orbiter 2 STS (Sensor-to-Shooter), a system that Pair Loitering Ammo with nearby Surveillance Drones for pre-attack surveillance on the battlefield and subsequent damage assessment, pick up Breaking Defense.
According to Assenhaym, recent conflicts have shown an increased importance of unmanned aerial vehicles. This marks a change in the use of drones, mainly in anti-terrorist operations, to integrate them with regular infantry battalionsin which soldiers may not have access to larger, more sophisticated surveillance drones.
'This creates a critical need for organic intelligence capabilities for ground forces. The forces need to be organic, which means they can operate them themselves for their needs in a time critical operation', says Assenhaym.
Aeronautics has been in the tactical drone business for two decades and has had to adapt to the demands of modern battlefields. 'We are now proposing a combined system. You can buy an ISR Orbiter 2 along with some Orbiter 2LMs. Both have the same communication platform, ground control and the same human-machine interface. Will be deployed with them in the coming months', says Assenhaym.