Unmmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and loitering munitions have become increasingly popular over the last few years in conflicts given their effectiveness and cost. They offer a range of characteristics and benefits which include their loitering capability and precision.
They are a lot more cost-effective than traditional missiles, and they offer flexibility and adaptability in that they can be used in a variety of missions and scenarios. However, their increasing popularity and strengths are also counteracted by a number of weaknesses including:
- Vulnerability to Air Defences: They travel relatively slow compared to guided munitions and so they can be shot down by air defences.
- Given their cost-effective design and desire to maintain a certain size and weight they have a limitation on the size of payloads that they can carry
- Also given the cost focus on the platforms, their guidance solutions are also typically prone to jamming and spoofing from hostile forces which can make them ineffective in their missions
This webinar provides an overview of the UAV and loitering munitions application space and how guidance solutions and testing environments are evolving to enhance the effectiveness of these units in hostile and contested environments where there can be high levels of jamming and spoofing present.
