Australian Companies to Develop Armed Tactical Micro-drones

 Two Australian companies have signed an agreement to develop armed tactical micro-drone, the Cerberus UAV, with DefendTex, (an Australian based weapons research and development company) to provide the armament technology.

The two Australian companies are Cyborg Dynamics and Skyborne Technologies who lately signed a partnership.

 “The Cerberus GL is about 6kg in weight. If the soldier carries the armament like an M72 LAW (a portable one-shot 66-mm unguided anti-tank weapon), then it will be only 4 kg," said Dr Michael Creagh, Chief Executive Officer of Skyborne Technologies  in a statement on Monday.

 The micro-drone is able to provide direct fire support while remaining man portable, providing operators with a tactical edge on today’s battlefield.  

Cerberus GL has the ability to fire three 40mm grenades, 6 shotgun rounds at an enemy UAV or even an anti-vehicle rocket whilst performing ISR tasks before, during and after its fire mission, then return to the soldier for re-loading and a battery swap. All this in a package under 6 kilograms and with an endurance of over 15 minutes.

Cyborg Dynamics CEO and Army Reserves Infantry Platoon Commander, Stephen Bornstein provided valuable insight from the operator's perspective saying "this UAV can engage light skinned vehicles, enemy UAV's, provide direct fire support, new vantage points to use primary weapon systems and conduct battle damage assessments, and all at man portable size." 

The strategic partnership will allow for the development of new gimbals for optics and fire control as well as enhanced payloads.