Unmanned combat aerial vehicle

An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), also known as a combat drone or drone, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is usually armed (aircraft ordnance), such as with missiles. Aircraft of this type have no onboard human pilot. These drones are usually under real-time human control, with "the human's role in UCAV system [varying] according to levels of autonomy of UCAV and data communication requirement[s]".

Equipment necessary for a human pilot (such as the cockpit, armor, ejection seat, flight controls, and environmental controls for pressure and oxygen) are not needed, as the operator runs the vehicle from a remote terminal, resulting in a lower weight and size than a manned aircraft.

While several nations possess and manufacture unarmed UAV, only the United States, Israel, China, Pakistan and Turkey are at present known to have manufactured operational UCAV as of December 2015.

History

One of the earliest explorations of the concept of the combat drone was by Dr. Lee De Forest, an early inventor of radio devices, and U. A. Sanabria, a TV engineer. They presented their idea in an article in a 1940 publication of Popular Mechanics. The modern military drone as known today was the brainchild of John Stuart Foster Jr., a nuclear physicist and former head of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (then called the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory). In 1971, Foster was a model airplane hobbyist and had the idea this hobby could be applied to building weapons. He drew up plans and by 1973 DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) built two prototypes called "Praeire" and "Calere", they were powered by a modified lawn-mower engine and could stay aloft for two hours while carrying 28-pounds of load.

DRDO AURA

AURA is an autonomous unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV), being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation for the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy. The design work on the UCAV is to be carried out by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA). Details of the project are classified.

The UCAV will be capable of releasing missiles, bombs and precision-guided munitions. The programme is in its project definition stage. The design is in line with what former DRDO chief controller for Aeronautics said in 2007, that India's combat drone would be a stealthy flying-wing concept aircraft with internal weapons bay and a turbofan engine.The UCAV's design is similar to Northrop Grumman's B-2 Spirit.

Description

The ADA describes the AURA as a "self-defending high-speed reconnaissance UAV with weapon firing capability". The first images released as part of a presentation shows the UAV as having a stealth design. The AURA will cruise at medium altitude and will be capable of carrying two or more guided strike weapons with on-board sensors for targeting and weapon guidance. The flight control system and data link packages of Aura (unmanned combat aerial vehicle) will be designed and developed jointly by ADA and Defence Electronic Application Laboratory.

Dassault Aviation

Dassault Aviation SA (French pronunciation: ​[daso]) is an international French aircraft manufacturer of military, regional, and business jets, a subsidiary of Dassault Group.

It was founded in 1929 by Marcel Bloch as Société des Avions Marcel Bloch or "MB". After World War II, Marcel Bloch changed his name to Marcel Dassault, and the name of the company was changed to Avions Marcel Dassault on 20 January 1947.

In 1971 Dassault acquired Breguet, forming Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation (AMD-BA). In 1990 the company was renamed Dassault Aviation.

The Dassault Aviation Group is headed by Eric Trappier since 9 January 2013.

In 2015, Dassault Aviation is a multinational company employing almost 11,745 people, including 9,000 in France, with a commercial presence in over 83 countries and its activities are centered on the following areas:

Dassault Falcon 7X

The Dassault Falcon 7X is a French large-cabin, long range trijet manufactured by Dassault Aviation, the flagship offering of their business jet line. It was first presented to the public at the 2005 Paris Air Show.

Development

The aircraft has over 200 orders to date. It has received its type certification from both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on 27 April 2007. The first 7X, MSN05, entered service on 15 June 2007; the hundredth was delivered in November 2010.

In 2001, the Falcon 7X, at approximately $35 million (pre-production order price), was nearly $10 million cheaper than its nearest competitors in the long range, large cabin market segment, the Gulfstream G550 and Bombardier Global Express. Its 2007 cost was $41 million.As of 2008, the approximate unit cost of the 7X is $50 million (which was no longer less expensive than the Global Express, at $40M). It conducted high altitude airport tests at 14,500 ft in Daocheng in 2014.

Battlefield 4

Battlefield 4 is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by Swedish video game developer EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and published by Electronic Arts. It is a sequel to 2011's Battlefield 3 and was released on October 29, 2013 in North America, October 31, 2013 in Australia, November 1, 2013 in Europe and New Zealand and November 7, 2013 in Japan for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Battlefield 4 was met with positive reception. It was praised for its multiplayer mode, gameplay and graphics, but was also criticized for its short and shallow single-player campaign mode, and for its numerous bugs and glitches. It was a commercial success, selling over 7 million copies.

Gameplay

The game's heads-up display (HUD) is composed of two compact rectangles. The lower left-hand corner features a mini-map and compass for navigation, and a simplified objective notice above it; the lower right includes a compact ammo counter and health meter. The top right displays kill notifications of all players in-game. On the Windows version of the game, the top left features a chat window when in multiplayer. The mini-map, as well as the main game screen, shows symbols marking three kinds of entities: blue for allies, green for squadmates, and orange for enemies, this applies to all interactivity on the battlefield. Battlefield 4 options also allow colour-blind players to change the on-screen colour indicators to: tritanomaly, deuteranomaly and protanomaly.