General Dynamics Demonstrates Cheap Precision Strike for Army UAS

By Stephanie Levy

1 November 2012



General Dynamics teamed up with the U.S. Army Armament Research and Development Engineering Center (ARDEC) to successfully demonstrate GPS-guided munitions for use on small unmanned air systems. In a series of three tests, a Tiger Shark UAS launched an 81mm mortar equipped with General Dynamics' Roll Control Fixed Canard control system and an ARDEC fuzing solution. All three mortars were launched from the UAS at altitudes of approximately 7,000 feet, but they were guided to within seven meters of the GPS-identified target grid.



An Air Drop Mortar used existing mortar inventory to provide a low-cost, lightweight weapons system. General Dynamics' patented RCFC guidance kit adds precision-strike capability to existing mortars.



"The Air Drop Mortar program with General Dynamics provided a platform to successfully demonstrate and mature subsystems including communication links, munition deployment, guidance and control and fuzing," said Tony Sebasto, senior associate for munitions at ARDEC, in a press release. "The utilization of existing mortar production components, along with demonstrated guidance and control and fuzing, gives the U.S. warfighter an option for a very affordable and very capable precision strike weapon."