The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
Tiny UAV Joins the Marines
by James Dunnigan
April 17, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
Efforts to create smaller and smaller UAVs has reached the point where the U.S.
Navy and Marine Corps are now field testing the seven ounce Wasp Micro Air
Vehicle (MAV). This is a flat, rectangular “flying wing” (13 inch wingspan,
about seven inches long), that can stay in the air for about an hour. Once the
battery powered propeller is spinning, the operator throws Wasp into the air,
and off it goes, usually a 100 feet altitude. You land it by pressing the
autoland button after you have entered GPS coordinates of where you want it to
return to. The propeller often breaks off when it lands, but the Wasp was
designed for that, and you just snap on another one. The $5,000 MAV can survive
about twenty such landings. The MAV is controlled via a hand held ($30,000)
device that looks like a Gameboy, but has a seven inch color screen and controls
laid out for easy use. The Wasp carries a GPS, and microprocessor that keeps it
stable in flight. The operator picks a route via GPS coordinates, and can order
it to circle an area at any time. Two color video cameras are carried (one
looking forward, and one looking to the rear), and then the Wasp is a hundred
feet up, you can make out people below, and whether they are armed. The Wasp
moves at a speed of 35-75 kilometers an hour (or about 9-19 meters a second).
The controller can remain in touch with a Wasp that is up to ten kilometers
away, after which the operator losses control, and the video
feed.
The controller, which is the
same one used for larger micro-UAVs like the Raven and Pointer, can control up
to six Wasps at once. An improved version of the Wasp is in development, and
this new one will be waterproof and have a night (infrared) camera. The major
shortcoming of the Wasp is the difficulty of using it in windy or stormy
conditions. This is a problem with all lightweight UAVs, and is particularly bad
with the tiny Wasp. The troops, however, are happy to have it. The system is
rugged, lightweight and simple to use. When the air is fairly still, the Wasp
can go up and provide the troops with a major battlefield
advantage.
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