Military investigates killer drones that can fit in rucksacks.

• Author: Beidel, Eric

Troops are demanding smaller unmanned aerial vehicles on the front lines, sparking efforts to develop lighter weapons for the aircraft. Now there are plans to make weapons out of the drones themselves.

Several military agencies have been evaluating technology for hand-launched drones that can strike targets in kamikaze fashion.

The Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's aviation and missile center last year issued a request for information from industry. The Air Force's Air Armament Center also began looking into the concept, contracting with three companies to demonstrate what could be done with these flying weapons. Tests were conducted this spring, and data from the results will help the Air Force come up with requirements for a formal lethal miniature aerial munitions system (LMAMS) acquisition program expected to begin in fiscal year 2012.

In its initial request, the Army sought information on a system that had lethal effects against "personnel in the open and personnel in moving soft-skinned vehicles (sedans, pick-up trucks) while minimizing collateral damage." A successful product would weigh 5.5 pounds or less, have a flight endurance of more than five minutes and have a range greater than three kilometers, the request stated. An accompanying ground control station should give an operator the ability to autonomously or manually control the munition in flight, according to the document.

The Army wanted to know how much it would cost to buy up to 20,000 such systems and if there were other concepts for the same tactic

The push behind the studies is to give front-line troops a weapon to address non-line-of-sight targets. The idea is "that you have a convoy or ground deployed unit that comes under fire either from a mortar team or machine gun team that's just out of the range of typical weapons they have on hand," said Donald MacArthur, chief technology officer for Innovative Automation Technologies (IA Tech), one of the companies that received a contract to demonstrate its product for the military. If "they don't have direct line-of-sight to the targets but they have some orientation of where the fire is coming from, they can put one of these up in the air very rapidly."

The ideal systems can be launched by hand or with a tube. The aircraft then can loiter for up to 30 minutes above a target, at which point it can be directed to speed toward the enemy and detonate.

For initial tests, the Air Force requested airframes less than 18 inches long. The aircraft and its portable ground control station were to weigh no more than 3 pounds each. Systems were tested for their ability to identify a human target at more than 300 feet above ground within 20 to 30 seconds, according to Air Force documents. A broad agency announcement on the program lists a desire to kill or incapacitate personnel within a 6.5 foot radius from the point of detonation. The same announcement said that the LMAMS requirement was being sponsored by the special operations commands of the Army and Air...