Marines making flying foot soldier
Friday, 20 April 2001 1:34 (ET)Marines making flying foot soldiersQUANTICO,
Va., April 19 (UPI) -- The Marines are developing small roboticflying
machines that can fit into a soldier's backpack and, when called on,fly
across battlefields, sending back to him or her video images of
enemypositions."UAVs have typically provided the upper echelon of military
commanderswith sensitive reconnaissance but Dragon Eye is intended to empower
the footsoldier," said Jim McMains of the Office of Naval Research in
Arlington, VA.Made from commercial products, the propeller-driven, 4.3 pound
unmannedaerial vehicle or UAV has a wingspan of 48 inches and breaks down
into fivepieces which a soldier should be able to reassemble in only a few
minutes,said McMains.The soldier wears a ground control device containing a
computer processorand a moving map display and, by pointing and clicking,
tells where theywant the device to fly and take video. He then activates the
tiny engine andthrows it into the air.The Dragon Eye sends the video stream
back to a monitor that is containedin the wearable ground station."They plug
in the altitude then tell it where it should come back," hesaid. "It flies
away, comes back and lands all by itself with no pilotassistance."The video
streaming capability limits the maximum range to 10 kilometersand the
device's lithium battery power source-comparable to the power neededfor a
child's motorized car-provides sixty minutes of flight time.The engine turns
two oversized propellers, whose size keeps down noise byreducing the number
of rotations needed to sustain flight. McMains said at100 meters the human
ear can barely hear the Dragon Eye, which flies at aspeed of about 40 knots
or about 46 miles per hour, and at such distancescan appear to be a souring
bird."During tests, we have seen that even hawks have a tendency to migrate
toit," he said, adding that it could also appear bird-like to enemy
radarlucky enough to pick up such as small presence.The Dragon Eye, which
will soon undergo field tests and then a subsequentround of modifications, is
likely to cost $3 to $4 thousand dollar per unit,with ground control devices
adding up to $8 to $10 thousand apiece, saidMcMains."This project gives
Marines a significant capacity for expanding theirsphere of knowledge on
battlefields and urban terrains and in congestedurban environments," said
Daryl Davidson, executive director of theAssociation for Unmanned Vehicle
Systems International in Arlington, Va.Davidson said cultural changes within
the Pentagon's leadership as well asscientific progress in miniaturization,
composites, sensors and powerdevices have boosted the military's attention to
UAVs over the last fiveyears or so.He said that while defense projects like
Dragon Eye have served as thegenius of unmanned systems, whether airborne,
aquatic or land-based, thetechnology is fast moving to the private sector.
"We like to say that thesesystems do the dull, dirty and dangerous jobs,
things like flying overforest fires, patrolling borders and drug
interdiction," he said, addingthat the FBI and DEA could already have
unmanned systems that match orsurpass the ability of Dragon Eye but that they
would likely be classified.(Reported by UPI Technology Correspondent Kelly
Hearn in Washington)--Copyright 2001 by United Press International.All rights
reserved.--
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