showed its armed Stinger UAV, part of its advanced soldier system, at Singapore Airshow 2018. Far from being a conventional UCAV, this is essentially a double quadrotor UAV that mounts a 5.56mm Ultimax light machine gun.
Indeed, manned-unmanned teaming was the most obvious new element of a soldier system being developed partly in conjunction with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). As well as the Stinger, a small tracked and weaponised UGV and micro-UAVs are available for use by soldiers.
The Stinger uses the ST Kinetics’ Ultimax weapon on a gimbal mount because of its relatively low recoil forces, said Benjamin Ho, head of ST Kinetics’ soldier system division. Fitted with a 100-round drum magazine, the Stinger could be used by a fast combat response team to give elevated fire support. It could also be used by a scout team or for local protection.
The Stinger would be deployed from a vehicle, or carried by a two-to-three-man team. Firing tests were conducted beginning in 2017 using a joystick control, these were successful according to Ho. However, development continues to make the weapon more accurate and improve its control intuitiveness.
The aim is to eventually be able to control the Stinger using the SHielded ADvanced Eyewear System (SHADES) that combines ballistic glasses with a heads-up device showing critical mission data via augmented-reality imagery.
ST Kinetics is also working on controlling the micro-UAVs using brainwaves. Simplistic flight control has been achieved so far, and the aim will be to integrate it with SHADES in the future as well.
Source: Shephard