Army starts testing new long-range munitions consisting of unmanned aircraft, sensors and weapons payloads
DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah – The U.S. Army has released a new video giving the first look at a new and classified weapon called “Long Range Effect” -- an unmanned aircraft with onboard sensors and weapons payload that flies under operator control to locate targets and then attacks them like a missile. Forbes reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
26 July 2021 -- The new weapon is part of a family of munitions known as Air Launched Effects (ALE). These munitions launch from helicopters or other Army light aircraft like the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA), as well as from Army combat vehicles.
The video was taken at the Experimentation Demonstration Gateway Event 2021, commonly known as Edge 21, at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, in May. The appearance in the new video is of the blink-and-you’ll-miss it type, just a handful of frames at the 48-second mark, plunging down and obliterating a dummy mobile radar system.
These long-range weapons are in addition to the SwitchBlade munition, launched from a bazooka-like tube, which U.S. ground forces use against high-value targets in Iraq and Afghanistan for some years, and the new, larger SwitchBlade 600, which seems to be aimed at the ALE market.
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John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
