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Seeking to reduce civilian casualties and collateral damage, the Pentagon will soon deploy a new generation of drones the size of modelplanes, packing tiny explosive warheads that can be delivered withpinpoint accuracy. Errant drone strikes have been blamed for killing and injuringscores of civilians throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan , giving the U.S. government a black eye as it targets elusiveterrorist groups. The Predator and Reaper drones deployed in theseregions typically carry 100-pound laser-guided Hellfire missiles or500-pound GPS-guided smart bombs that can reduce buildings tosmoldering rubble. The new Switchblade drone, by comparison, weighs less than 6 poundsand can take out a sniper on a rooftop without blasting thebuilding to bits. It also enables soldiers in the field to identifyand destroy targets much more quickly by eliminating the need tocall in a strike from large drones that may be hundreds of milesaway. "This is a precision strike weapon that causes as minimalcollateral damage as possible," said William I. Nichols, who led the Army 's testing effort of the Switchblades at Redstone Arsenal nearHuntsville, Ala. The 2-foot-long Switchblade is so named because its wings fold intothe fuselage for transport and spring out after launch. It isdesigned to fit into a soldier's rucksack and is fired from amortar-like tube. Once airborne, it begins sending back live videoand GPS coordinates to a hand-held control set clutched by thesoldier who launched it. When soldiers identify and lock on a target, they send a commandfor the drone to nose-dive into it and detonate on impact. Becauseof the way it operates, the Switchblade has been dubbed the"kamikaze drone." The Obama administration, notably the CIA , has long been lambasted by critics for its use of combat dronesand carelessly killing civilians in targeted strikes in Pakistan,Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia. In 2010, a United Nations official said the CIA in Pakistan had made the United States "themost prolific user of targeted killings" in the world. In recent weeks, White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about the issue at a recent news briefing, and he saidthe Obama administration is committed to reducing civiliancasualties. Although Carney did not mention the Switchblade specifically, hesaid "we have at our disposal tools that make avoidance of civiliancasualties much easier, and tools that make precision targetingpossible in ways that have never existed in the past." The Switchblade drone appears to be an improvement as analternative to traditional drone strikes, in terms of minimizingcivilian harm, but it also raises new concerns, said Naureen Shah,associate director of the Counterterrorism and Human Rights Projectat Columbia Law School. She pointed out that when a drone strike is being considered thereare teams of lawyers, analysts and military personnel looking atthe data to determine whether lethal force is necessary. But theSwitchblade could shorten that "kill chain." "It delegates full responsibility to a lower-level soldier on theground," she said. "That delegation is worrisome. It's a situationthat could end up in more mistakes being made." Arms-control advocates also have concerns. As these small roboticweapons proliferate, they worry about what could happen if thedrones end up in the hands of terrorists or other hostile forces. The Switchblade "is symptomatic of a larger problem thatU.S.militaryand aerospace companies are generating, which is producingvarious more exotic designs," said Daryl Kimball, executivedirector of the Arms Control Assn. "This technology is not alwaysgoing to be in the sole possession of the U.S. and its allies. Weneed to think about the rules of the road for when and how theseshould be used so we can mitigate against unintended consequences." The Switchblade is assembled in Simi Valley by AeroVironment Inc.,the Pentagon's top supplier of small drones, which include theRaven, Wasp and Puma. More than 50 Switchblades will be sent to thewar zone in Afghanistan this summer under a $10.1-million contract,which also includes the cost of repairs, spare parts, training andother expenses. Officials would not provide details about where theweapons would be used, how many were ordered and precisely whenthey would be deployed. AeroVironment, based in Monrovia, developed the weapon on its own,thinking the military could use a lethal drone that could be madecheaply and deployed quickly by soldiers in the field, said companyspokesman Steven Gitlin. "It's not inexpensive to task an Apache helicopter or F-16 fighterjet from a base to take out an [improvised explosive device] teamwhen you consider fuel, people, logistics support, etc.," he said. About a dozen Switchblades were tested last year by specialoperations units in Afghanistan, according to Army officials, whosaid the drone proved effective. The Army is considering buying $100 million worth of the drones ina few years under a program called the Lethal Miniature AerialMunition System, Nichols said. The Air Force and the Marine Corpshave also expressed interest in the technology. AeroVironment is not the only company pursuing small, lethaldrones. Textron Defense Systems is also working on a small kamikaze-style drone.Named the BattleHawk Squad-Level Loitering Munition, the drone isbeing tested at an Army facility in New Mexico. Peter W. Singer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and authorof "Wired for War," a book about robotic warfare, said theSwitchblade's entry into the war zone is typical of today's weaponsprocurement path. Defense contractors, he said, are on their owndeveloping smaller and cheaper but powerful high-tech weapons vitalto waging guerrilla-type warfare in the 21st century, and they arefinding success. "This weapon system is the first of its kind," he said. "If itworks, there's little doubt others will follow." william.hennigan@latimes.com. I am an expert from magneticfloating.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Floating Desktop Globe Manufacturer , China Magnetic Rotating Globe, Magnetic Floating Globe,and more.
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