Rheinmetall has a new “GameChanger” drone (so they say) with an official “Rheinmetall Combat Drone” moniker that only a German company could love. I don’t see it as an actual gamecharger, but it is pretty interesting: a fixed-wing drone that can drop three other quadcopter drones (or, technically, loitering munitions), each of which can then be guided to the target.
The Rheinmetall Combat Drone is based on the German arms maker’s Luna NG reconnaissance drone and can carry the Hero-R type loitering munition.
“The Rheinmetall Combat Drone is the game changer for protecting your troops and fighting tactically relevant targets,” the company stated.
“Effectors as payloads transform the multipurpose drone from a sensor-to-shooter system into a highly efficient means of reconnaissance with com/network relay and SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) capabilities.”
The NG is the latest in the Luna family of reconnaissance drones, with an endurance of 12 hours and a data link range of 100 kilometers (62 miles). Satellite Communication would provide it with increased range.
The robust fiberglass composite drone has a take-off weight of 40 kilograms (88 pounds) and a service ceiling of 5,000 meters (16,404 feet).
The runway-independent vehicle can be launched with a rope hoist catapult and landed with a parachute and has stealth features with low acoustic, thermal, and radar signatures.
There’s an official video, but Rheinmetall has disabled embedding. So here’s a random Ukrainian guy (judged entirely from the trident on his hat) who’s evidently offering commentary on the drone, and has thus embedded most of the Rheinmetall video into his own. The relevant portion starts around 1:42 in.
Rheinmetall is a very solid MilTech company, but they tend to publicize things well in advance of commercial availability. (They’re hardly alone in this.) As such, I wouldn’t expect released versions to show up in the Russo-Ukrainian War. But they might send a few there for field testing.
I can see use cases for this weapon, especially for hunting down high value targets deep behind enemy lines. But this is sort of like the Cadillac Escalade of drones, while Ukraine’s flying yeet of death is more like an electric scooter: much shorter range, much more annoying, and much more cost effective for their intended task.
The Russo-Ukrainian War is probably cramming decades of drone development into white hot years of combat evolution (as wars tend to do), and every world military needs to be paying attention.
Tags: drone, Germany, loitering munition, Military, MilTech, Rheinmetall, Russo-Ukrainian War, video
[…] Cuba, and Cubans living in rice-producing Camagüey stand for hours in line for rice BattleSwarm: Rheinmetall’s “GameChanger”, also, Ukraine Crossed the Dnipro? (Take Two) Behind The Black: India’s PSLV rocket successfully […]
“The Russo-Ukrainian War is probably cramming decades of drone development into white hot years of combat evolution (as wars tend to do), and every world military needs to be paying attention.”
Which is likely a true statement, and something that isn’t exactly new in terms of military history.
It’s not even unique in Russian history, as this same situation obtained during the Russo-Japanese War, albeit with slightly different trajectories and entirely different players.
I suspect that a lot of the lessons of Ukraine’s war with Russia aren’t going to be learnt very well by the bigger powers; I also suspect that the people who do learn the most from them will be the little marginal ones on the side, who’ve got a lot to fear from their bigger neighbors.
For those that aren’t paying attention, we’re in the midst of another one of those “Revolution in Military Affairs” that the wonks and pundits like to pronounce upon. The major question is, will this be a minor blip in the matrix, or will this truly change the paradigm for it all?
I suspect that there will be a lot of missed opportunities going forward, a lack of real and effective preparation, and that after the next major war between peer-level powers, a whole lot of recrimination about how all of these lessons were missed. Oh, and they’ll treat what they do know as something unprecedented and completely unforeseen… Same way they dealt with answering the questions of “Why weren’t you prepared for WWI? Didn’t you see the Russo-Japanese War? Didn’t Jan Bloch write entire books on this subject, presciently warning you lot…?”
For other examples, see the IED campaigns in Iraq/Afghanistan, and ask why there were never any post-mortem examinations of exactly why we weren’t prepared to be dealing with those issues.
For a real head-scratcher, ask yourself why on earth the Soviets, who were the ones that taught all that crap to the various Arab and other Third-World armies from WWII onwards, were no more prepared than the US to be fighting that sort of conflict. Both the Soviets and the US had the solution for route clearance as follows: Put conscript soldier with mine detector in front of truck, have him walk. South Africans and Rhodesians had all these specialized armored vehicles purpose-built for the job, but not the superpowers… I still sit here going “WTF? Really?”
They’re never, ever prepared for the war we’re going to have, no matter what.
Also this.