Dedicated drone munitions could unlock modular mission potential
The STM Tunga smart munition system is intended to be deployed from UASs. (Photo: STM)
Top attacks have proven effective against heavily armoured vehicles in Ukraine. A new family of uncrewed aerial system-delivered munitions is looking to press that advantage further.
Uncrewed aerial systems (UASs), particularly smaller aircraft, were originally developed for reconnaissance missions with some variance into attack, such as Israel Aerospace Industries’ Harpy. An increasing number, however, are being used in the ongoing Russia/Ukraine conflict for offensive missions.
These can range from dropping a small payload aimed at individuals or larger ones capable of knocking out armoured fighting vehicles (AFV) on their upper surfaces where they are at their weakest. Until recently, many of these top-attack weapons were improvised from existing munitions such as mortar bombs, but bespoke designs are now being mass-produced.
Turkish company STM (Savunma Teknolojileri
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