Military Procurement International Vol. 19, No. 7, April 1, 2009
Copyright DAPSS S.A., 200
9, Switzerland. It is unlawful to reproduce any of this publication without written permission from the publisher.
AUSTRALIA
Insect
vision to guide weapons?
On March 9, at the Australian International Air Show in Avalon, Minister for Defence Science Warren Snowdon announced that studying how insects see and navigate has resulted in the development, by the Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO) and several Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), of a smart weapon seeker guidance technology known as Bioseeker.
It is planned to incorporate the final Bioseeker technology into an Australian-developed Cybird Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for testing in the second half of 2009. The test will involve guiding the UAV to strike a moving land target.
According to Snowdon, “This novel research will lead to a new weapons systems capability which will allow our Defence Force to strike moving targets in the air and land environments.”
The Bioseeker technology has a range of possible defence applications, including improving the performance of the so-far unguided 2.75in rockets carried by the Australian Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH), various other air-delivered weapons and shoulder-fired or mortar-based land weapons.