Lethal Unmanned Aerial Systems – a new chapter in safe, reliable and lethal armaments capability at every echelon

PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. – For many decades, engineers at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Armaments Center executed the critical research, development and engineering activities that have led to the many safe and decisive armaments lethality capabilities employed by our Nation’s warfighters.

Today, the Armaments Center is applying those same successful rigorous design processes and standards to new armaments developments for lethal unmanned aerial system (L-UAS) that will be the cornerstone going forward to help Soldiers obtain lethal unmanned aerial system capabilities faster and less expensively.

In the same way that the Picatinny Rail is an essential interface for scopes and other weapon accessories carried by Soldiers, the Armaments Center identified the need to safely and effectively pair lethal payloads with UASs, leading to the development of the Picatinny Common Lethality Integration Kit (CLIK). The Picatinny CLIK specification defines the physical interface (mechanical attachment), electrical interface (power, network, messaging) and safety critical architecture between the ground station control and the UAS with lethal payloads, eliminating unique integration methods and costly acquisition conditions created by “vendor lock.”

“This ensures a rigorous, yet flexible, process for evaluating, qualifying, procuring, and ultimately fielding safe and effective weaponized UAS payloads to the Joint Force,” said acting Executive Director of the Armaments Center’s Weapons and Software Engineering Center, Bhavanjot Singh. “When we solicit industry for a capability, we will be providing Picatinny CLIK technical data so industry can focus on providing lethal capabilities without worrying nearly as much about integration.”

In addition to the Picatinny CLIK, the Armaments Center is also applying decades of armaments system expertise to create a robust ecosystem of modular lethal payloads optimized for UAS. Several Armaments Center modular UAS payloads have already been demonstrated with warfighting units, and they are available for immediate integration with industry platforms.

Modular lethal payloads are capable of functioning in one-way attack systems and in UAS that deploy droppable lethal effects and return home.

Payloads such as Armament UAS Delivered Immediate Battlefield Effects (AUDIBLE) enable quick change adapters to safely drop existing munitions, like the M67 grenade, providing a proven concept that is scalable to service a larger array of munition options.

Attachable payloads such as Shank (formerly known as Project Shiv) support one-way, first-person view (FPV) missions utilizing an existing explosively formed penetrator warhead capability combined with an architecture that provides measures for safe target engagement.

Shank was a major enabler for a milestone event when the Armaments Center partnered with the 7th Army Training Command and 173 Airborne Brigade at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany from Feb. 17-20 for the first live-fire training exercise using FPV UAS’s.

“Not everything has to be high-tech solutions, existing technologies can be integrated to provide a new capability or new application driving more affordable solutions for the Warfighters” said Executive Director of the Armaments Center’s Munitions Engineering and Technology Center, Anthony Sebasto.”

The Armaments Center is scaling its government-owned aviation fire control, known as Gunslinger, for applications on L-UAS to advance the delivery accuracy of droppable lethal effects and direct fire systems. Gunslinger applies modular open system approach standards that support targeting of drop-glide munitions and direct fire weapons on small UAS by continuously calculating an impact point to enhance aiming and firing during platform movement.

The Armaments Center also continues to evolve critical component technologies that are key to enabling successful L-UAS operations. For munition payloads, existing robust warhead technology is being applied to solve current L-UAS challenges, while new enhanced warhead technologies are being optimized to improve effects against threat UAS systems.

The Armaments Center is also developing munition fuzing for a MIL-STD-1316 (Army standard for fuze safety) compliant safe-and-arm device that can be integrated to existing or new munitions for the UAS environment. “The Armaments Center is widely recognized for being a world-class warhead and fuze developer, even by the biggest names in industry,” Sebasto said. “Industry has leveraged Armaments Center-developed warheads and fuzing solutions -- often where no alternative solution existed -- with great success.”

In support of direct-fire weapon system, the Armaments Center developed a small 5.56 mm low recoil direct-fire weapon and associated fire control capable of being mounted on UAS, that provides point target engagements at stand-off ranges.

Working with industry partners, the Armaments Center is developing small arms fire control for dismounted Soldier that can be directly applied to UAS, taking advantage of a small form factor. The demonstrator can perform aided target recognition, advanced target tracking and shooter aim augmentation, all while implementing common fire control interface standards all available for L-UAS applications.

Lastly, the Armaments Center understands the importance of defense-industry partnerships, which have been critical to accelerating and enhancing the successful delivery of Armaments Center capabilities to the Warfighter.

Cooperative research and development agreements (CRADA) between the Armaments Center, UAS platform manufacturers and lethal payload developers have been and continue to be established to allow collaborative technical discussions with industry about Armament Center technology efforts. Collaboration on technologies such as the Picatinny CLIK specification and fuzing solutions, as examples, lead to mutual experimentation that benefits government and industry.

Through CRADAs, industry partners have seen the Picatinny CLIK specification from its inception, providing valuable feedback on the implications of the specification to platform and payload integration from lessons learned in the development of current solutions.

Picatinny Arsenal is the Joint Center of Excellence for Guns and Ammunition and the home for the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center.