Rotary Wing UAV for Bomb Impact Assessment within an Urban Environment

Warfare within a city is a difficult business not only because of the abundance of man-made obstacles, but because the effects of bomb strikes are difficult to measure. Reconnoitering at low altitude and close range by a manned aircraft is often prohibitively dangerous because of the lack of maneuvering room and the high probability of hostile fire. A small, unobtrusive UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) capable of transporting sensors such as a video camera to a bomb impact site would greatly assist in determining, in real-time, the efficacy of the strike without exposing the operator to danger. In this Phase I study, Lite Machines will develop a variant of its rotary-wing UAVs and will study possible launch strategies from an existing munitions platform and the effectiveness of the UAV for bomb impact assessment in a cluttered urban environment.