RTI and TAG join forces for a recoilless UAV gun

If UAVs were first imagined as reconnaisance tools, the wars in Iraq and Aghanistan have put that theory to rest. Predators, for instance, have been extremely succesful at assassinating wanted terrorists with Hellfire missiles. Yet as UAV technology gets smaller and more agile, the ability of the craft to withstand the recoil of the weapons they shoot gets weaker. With less weight but even more sophisticated on-board equipment, weaponzied UAVs (WUAVs) may be extremely vulnerable to shocks.

It is therefore good news that Australia-based Recoilless Technologies International (RTI) has signed a joint commercialization agreement with UAV manufacturer Tactical Aerospace Group (TAG). Together the companies will develop a WUAV recoilless firing system based on RTI technology. Once complete, the multipurpose gun pod will be approximately the same size of an external fuel tank. RTI chairman Richard Giza:

“RTI has the skills and capability to develop a recoilless ballistic armament system for TAG’s UAVs that will not only satisfy the capability requirements of ‘Detect First’ but combine the much needed ‘Strike First’ capability without placing valuable human resources in harm’s way or disrupting the flight pattern of the TAG rotary wing UAVs”

The technology is a likely competitor of the “stacked projectile” approach offered by Brisbane, Australia-based Metal Storm. That project uses an electronically initiated, stacked projectile system to fires projectiles sequentially from several 40 mm barrels. Other WUAV weapons systems in the works include the Spike multipurpose anti-tank missile system from Haifa, Israel-based RAFAEL Armament Development Authority, Karlskoga, Sweden-based Saab Bofors Dynamic’s NLAW shoulder-fired missile.

-read more in this GizMag report