Fire control system for mini-UAVs developed: ScanEagle could fire weapons

The U S Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) recently demonstrated a miniaturized fire control system capable of arming small, tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with miniature weapons. It is called the Weapons Management Suite (WMS). The WMS acquired and tracked a target, and controlled canards on a Spike missile in a NAWCWD China Lake lab. “WMS was developed to provide existing intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms with fire power,” said Rick Kelly, head of the WMS project in a press release. The prototype WMS fire control system, weighing about eight pounds, successfully flew on a Vigilante UAV helicopter and fired a Spike missile in June 2009. After the prototype flight test, NAWCWD moved forward with the WMS GEN2 which is six times smaller and weighs about two pounds. The Spike missile was chosen since there were no other miniature munition options available in 2004 when the program begaan. After nearly seven years, the team is looking at two other miniature weapon candidates for use with WMS GEN2. They are the Scan Eagle Guided Munition (SEGM) and the GPS-Guided Munition (G2M), both undergoing development at China Lake. The weaponized mini UAV platform would have the capability to engage the high-value, time-critical target when discovered.