The whitepaper highlights the high total ownership cost associated with FPV and legacy loitering munitions currently on the market, noting that most are single-use and represent a spent cost whether or not they successfully engage a target. By contrast, recoverable LMUAS can be retrieved if target conditions change and can be used with inert payloads for training, making them more cost-effective and easier to operate and maintain.
The paper also emphasises how new recoverable LMUAS, such as the FLIR Defense Rogue 1™, provide greater precision strike capabilities to warfighters operating at the tactical edge. Rogue 1’s patented gimballed warhead allows users to ‘point’ and deliver munitions with increased accuracy, enabling the lightweight system to disable armoured platforms by targeting vulnerable areas.
“Recoverable LMUAS offer small fighting units a big advantage when they can train more efficiently, deliver precision effects on the battlefield, and yet be able to reuse a system when target conditions change up to the last second,” said Dave Viens, vice president of US Business Development at Teledyne FLIR Defense. “As our ‘Use it, Don’t Lose It’ whitepaper points out, the atmospheric littoral has quickly become the key battlespace warfighters must control – and dominate – to defeat our enemies in modern conflicts.”
Viens added: “We believe the critical technologies embodied in the Rogue 1 lethal UAS offer distinct advantages to traditional ‘one-way’ FPV drones, giving combat units the edge they need to control the atmospheric littoral.” The paper outlines how next-generation technologies, including machine learning and artificial intelligence tools like Aided Target Recognition (AiTR), will expand the capabilities of loitering munitions in future operations.
Other key findings of the whitepaper include the operational disadvantages of ‘One-Way Attack’ and FPV drones in terms of cost, training, use case, development, lethal effect, and precision. The report also notes that military-grade quadrotor loitering munitions equipped with advanced fuzing and precision payloads are well-positioned to meet emerging tactical demands.
Teledyne FLIR Defense whitepaper USE IT, DON’T LOSE IT: The Case for Recoverable and Reusable Loitering Munitions.
