Maybe so,

but I'm waiting for the day when we have sensor-guided hand-tossed smart grenades with maneuvering fins that look like those Nerf footballs!

Note folks that the guidance system is built into a replacement for the projectiles fuse!  This means that it will probably work with any munition use that fuse design  and can be easily retrofitted to existing stocks with little more than a wrench.

 

Also, they dropped these from aircraft for testing.  Wonder if they were also testing adapters to allow 81mm and 120mm guided mortar bombs to be dropped from UAV's?

Guidance and control "modules" that screw into the mortar round's nose well are the same concept that DARPA and BAE are applying in the ODAM (Optically-guided Direct Attack Munition) laser-seeking round they're trying to prove can be done for mortars as small as 60mm (so far, seems like it's feasible, at least under labratory and test stand conditions).

Not to mention, this is the same general principal behind those PGK precision guidance kits under trials for 105 and 155mm artillery shells: any of these class of projectiles with whatever NATO standard size fuze well in its nose can accomodate the PGK fuze (I'm assuming the fuze has enough memory to allow it to be programmed to "know" it's been installed in a 105mm or 155mm round, as a 155 round with generally 3 times the mass of a 105 (nominal 100 pounds versus 33 pounds, give or take) will take more brute force to cource-correct during flight).

 

I have a score of pdfs and ppts on my shop computer that I can pin here next week, lest I can find them all this weekend.

Everything from the ODAM developments (add a few more inches and roughly 1 pound in weight to a standard 60mm mortar shell), to millimeter-wave/radio frequency guidance designs being pondered for 81mm rounds (better tech than the 1980s era Merlin round), and even 120mm systems (idea there seems to be for a new gun system for AC-130 gunships, with the benefit of commonality with a whole family of precision guided 120mm mortar rounds now in the works across NATO countries...).

 

This shrinking precision guidance tech is my "gun porn".

Those of you who've been here a while, you've more than once seen my rants about it.

As of late, it's becoming more and more justified rather than pure speculation on my part: even if these mini- and micro- PGMs aren't in full production swing just yet, it's still quite impressive we can do it, and are doing more of it, getting the tech down to even smaller calibers every year or so.

 

For starters, Precision Guided Miniature Munitions Navigation and Guidance Concepts

 

and Low Cost Course Correction Technologies (LC³T)

 

and Low Cost Course Correction (LCCC) Technology Applications

(see pg 10 of that one!)

 

Keep in mind, this stuff was released in defense seminars back in 2004.

Surely we're farther along, 4 years later, and with quite a bit more learned.

 

This one, Recent Developments in Affordable Laser Guided Precision Weapons Capabilities is from 2007,

and shows the 60mm ODAM on pg 14.

Well they have already demonstrated smart fuzing for grenade launchers. The time is rapidly approaching where "smart weapons" will be organic to a standard rifle squad. That's a net benefit for everybody. It will simultaneously reduce casualties while at the same time making the average joe or UAV many times more lethal. The troubling part of it is the trickling down of this kind of technology to terrorist and asymetric opponents.

 

With regard to your hand tossed smart grenade...

 

 

Only thing missing is a warhead and appropriate guidance integration.

 

-DA

Getting there...
But I was thinking more along the lines of these:

I work with a semi-retiree who belongs to an R/C aircraft group, and one of their more impressive constructs is this microlight that isn't even a foot long, with barely a foot wingspan, fully controllable like any other R/C aircraft (although the little powerplant is quite loud).

If they can create servos small enough to operate elevators and rudders in wings that are less than half an inch thick, then we're not far from creating them small enough to course-correct something like this, thrown over several dozen yards (although we've shot these Nerf "missiles" from potato guns a few hundred yards easy!).

Couple that to the latest micro miniature digital video cameras, a secure datalink, and some form of lightweight explosive,

and we'd have something that, not being metal-encased, wouldn't create lethal fragments over an unfriendly area.

It would be ideal for "popping" some bad guys in the back of a pick up truck driving around trying to use the local populace as human shields, against the ocassional MG position or sniper in the window of a school or hospital, or... (remembering that scene with Ice Cube in Three Kings when he threw the Nerf football with C4 lashed to it at that helicopter...yeah, yeah, Hollywood, I know).

 

Put a couple of these microlight guided grenades under your UAV there, and we got something.

I've seen some R/C pilots do some wicked stunts with their aircraft.

Give'em a first-person perspective with a camera inside it rather than having to steer it as normally done, and it opens up a whole new aspect of warfare (drop two smart grenades, then go kamikaze), perfect for these XBox controller gurus with all their latest CROWS training and such, or anyone else who's spent hours on numerous flight sims and first person shooters.

(of course, a Chuck Norris signature would probably strike more fear than Payton Manning's...)

I've been slightly obsessed with PGM mortar rounds since around 1992 (they've come along slower than I expected) because, once they get in general circulation, they'll be a very potent terrorist/guerilla tool.  Fast set-up in almost any location, relaxed aiming requirements, range of a few kilometers, CEP < 10 meters.  And they will get into general circulation, because the technology needed to make them is becoming ever more available.

 

Maybe the good guys should be thinking about what to do about that.  

 Thank you doggtag.

 

If the desire is cost savings the guidance can be in the UAV, not the ordnance.  Rather than calculate a ballistic trajectory (possible but involved) the UAV can dive over the target changing altitude but maintaining targets latitude and longitude.  Helios can hover at GPS point and drop a dumb bomb and get GPS guided bomb accuracy.  The UAV that could stand the maneuver would cost more but you make the cost up fast if you get precision out of the dumb many times.    Unguided Mortar ammo is a natural to drop.  You could use smokegranades or anything. 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The longer term implication of this might be a hand launched anti-(micro)air craft missile.  Or a tube that connects to the side of a mans helmet and fires an anti-UAV missile that can intercept incoming mortar rounds (dropped or conventionally fired) and cause them to explode low order at higher altitude.  If your going to take the science fiction out of the story I can put some back in.  In any case expect the anti-IED budget to move towards anti-micro-aircraft artillery applications.

 

 

 

 

I myself am surprised at the relative mediocrity at which the 120mm PGM market has fared.

I recall back in the 1990s of the Swedish Strix, the German Bussard (there was 1 or 2 other designs based both closely and loosely around it),

even at one point some kind of fiber optic guided round.

Then we (everyone in general) just seem to have lost interest, at least as far as getting that level of accuracy into the infantry's hands as quickly as possible (might take the glamor and glitz away from other cash cow programs?).

Look how long it's taken the US to pony up to the idea, we're actually a latecomer as far as having a full-fledged get-it-into-production system in the M395 PGMM.

Perhaps because the whole pinpoint ability issue is still too new and game-changing for the likes of the old area fires school of thought to embrace?

Didn't see any real need for it until now, even though mortars have been in use since the days of the first gunpowder weapons?

Who knows... 

 

As to bad guys getting the tech: as far as Russian and chinese customers are concerned, yeah, they'll get it one day.

But will we (everyone else) have realized the potential these munitions can fully offer?

The other issue is, these aren't just something you drop down a barrel and it does all the work automatically and autonomously.

You need fire control systems for the mortar first (manual optics alone just won't cut it, as you're still manually plotting in info via the programming device), then the mechanisms that program the fuze for the mission just prior to firing. And you'll need the battlefield equivalent of tech support gurus to help maintain all that associated electronics support equipment just to keep the guided mortar round a feasible option to commanders.

 

Dropping unguided mortar rounds from UAVs, even UAVs that can behave like territorial birds defending their turf from a hawk or house cat, totally defeats the purpose of this: it's effectively then no different than dropping bigger dumb bombs from bigger aircraft, relying solely on the aircraft's fire control system for accuracy, and hoping the bomblet/mortar round behaves in battle just like when we tested it under perfect controlled conditions.
Moving the guidance and control into the actual munition means that small warhead actually will land where that small amount of explosive is needed, not just in the general vicinity, where a larger warhead then is needed to guarantee at least some damage to the target.

 

As for the sci-fi aspect of it, that notion isn't far off, either.

Query again the Starstreak hypervelocity missile and its three kinematic explosive darts, all three of which are under an inch in diameter, and all three of which can adjust their flight paths along a laser beam to maneuver into the intended target.

 

The US M72  LAW uses (at least it did in my day) a 35mm unguided training rocket, fired from the same 66mm launcher.

Something the size of a single Starstreak dart (even to, say 1.25inches in diameter and to 1&1/2 to 2 feet long) could easily be deployed from a very lightweight launcher, complete with a strap-on integrated sight/director assembly.

Take for example this flyweight called Spike ,one of the smallest guided weapons available today (not to be confused with the more popular Spike family that Israel developed!)

Configuring some sort of lightweight "Stinger Jr" combination optical sight and command guidance unit, it doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to see this little fella pressed into anti-UAV use at low levels (where it doesn't need excessive speed and maneuvering abilities).

Something the size of the "hand-launched" mini UAV pictured above would probably be the smallest size we'd engage with just such a miniature PGM...

Did we miss the part where this is airdropped?  What this means is, it works as long as you don't subject it to any shock, e.g. by firing it.  For a no-G-rated guidance package on an 8lb munition, I think another 8lb or so is kinda high, don't you? 

 

And how much will this cost?  If over a grand, let's just hang up the phone.  Whatever GD charges, I swear I can do it for half.  Try modelairplanenews.com for ideas.

 

And while we're at it, what is est. CEP for dumb 81s?

 

...dropped from a UAV?  It's probably best measured in units of football fields.

...about the different strength tolerances needed between being free-fall non-powered ordnance, and gun-fired (or rocket boosted).

 

My take on that it: if it's going to be a pure air-dropped munition, with no concerns over launch boost stresses, why even use an 81mm mortar shell (other than as a proof-of-concept demonstrator), when any number of other designs could create a more effective system?

 

The only real advantage I can see in using a mortar shell would be solely for the fact that the technology was being built with the intention of surviving mortar launch pressures.

If solely as a free-fall weapon, we can make it much simpler and less robust, so to speak, again since we don't require hard launch and high-G maneuvering.

If the latter is the case, then any number of COTS small R/C aircraft designs will suffice, we'd just have to do the math as to how much explosives the design can carry without being too unbalanced in its glide approach.

 

But if we can create the system to work reliably, and cost-effectively, from 81mm mortars, then that's just extra benefit to the units who use 81mm mortars, as they'll need less rounds now to engage a given (point) target.

As to suggesting it be used as a projectile from an aerial mortar: no one uses aircraft-mounted 81mm mortars (then again, there's still some speculation going around as to what might arm a gunship version of the C-27J Spartan Joint Cargo Aircraft...).

If the tech will work for gun-launching in an 81mm caliber, then the tech should be upscalable to utilize with 105mm howitzers (benefit for both AC-130s and any land-based light artillery units).

If it can be mass-manufactured cheaply enough, it could also offer competition to numerous 120mm precision guided mortar rounds.

 

As to any extra weight that such a guidance and control system adds to a standard mortar shell,

it all comes down to the accuracy it can achieve,

will the extra weight cut down the regular shell's range,

and is it cost-effective enough when compared to a larger number of unguided rounds being thrown all over the target area.

Putting a 2-8 pound warhead dead onto a target is still better than landing half a dozen of dumb shells all around the targets with no guarantees of a direct hit.

 

If we don't need it strong enough for gun tube launching, then a thinner-walled munition design would be better suited for air dropping.

We could, theoretically, then get by either with a lighter casing to deliver the same payload, or a similar-weight munition but with more payload. The potential is there we could create a new class of mini- and micro precision bombs that are far lighter, yet carry the equivalent punch of 105, 120, even 155mm artillery rounds.

There's additional info on where this project (81mm RCFC) is at along its development, courtesy of DefenseIndustryDaily.Com

 

Currently, the "little guy" in question looks like this, mounted in its drop test rig at the tail ramp of an aircraft:

 

Notice that the actual RCFC module, there at the mortar projectile's nose, is smaller in diameter than the 81mm diameter of the shell, with 2 small strakelets/canards visible at the sides (it isn't intended for high-G maneuver, so large control surfaces aren't needed) .

Curious as to how the mechanism actually works.