A U.S. Army attack drone operator operates a suicide drone during an exercise in Germany. The Army now has the ability to use drones to strike with bunker buster bombs. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
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The United States Army paired a new bunker buster warhead created with 3-D printed components with a small Unmanned Aircraft System, allowing the service to deliver ground-penetrating explosive power from a suicide drone for the first time.
In a significant leap forward for battlefield technology, the U.S. Army successfully tested a new warhead with a suicide drone at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama on March 26.
U.S. Army
The Army’s new Bunker Rupture and Kinetic Explosive Round, abbreviated as BRAKER, drastically expands the U.S. military’s previous aerial strike capabilities. Designed to destroy heavy fortifications and targets below ground, bunker buster munitions have traditionally been large rounds dropped by aircraft.
The BRAKER, a relatively small ordnance housed in a 3-D printed shell, is the first weapon of its kind designed to be mounted on a small one-way attack drone.
It was designed in early March and successfully tested only weeks later at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama in a process defined by remarkable speed. A dozen BRAKER warheads were produced using additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, before a small suicide drone carrying a round successfully destroyed a bunker on a test range.
The BRAKER warhead is housed in a 3-D printed shell.
U.S. Army
The project was spearheaded by the U.S. Army Capability Program Executive Ammunition and Energetics based at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.
“Our Picatinny team went from concept to live-fire in two weeks,” Col. Vincent Morris, the team leader, said in a statement. “BRAKER proves our ability to rapidly develop and safely deliver devastating effects from small unmanned aircraft systems.”
Going forward, the BRAKER warhead will be attached to drones using a universal attachment device for drones also invented by the Army, according to Morris.
Designed by the same team, this standard drone mount is called the Picatinny Common Lethality Integration Kit, or Picatinny CLIK. It draws inspiration from a standard rail used by the Army to adapt rifle mounts and will allow the service to saddle drones with different types of payloads.
The Army's Picatinny CLIK device is a standard mount for drones that allows soldiers to easily equip them with diverse types of payloads.
U.S. Army
The use of a bunker buster warhead with a small Unmanned Aircraft System drastically expands the U.S. military’s capability to unleash ground-penetrating munitions.
The Army can now strike with bunker busters using drones flying at eye level and at low altitudes, reducing reliance on aircraft. The warheads can potentially be used to destroy enemy strong points not only in contested areas but behind front lines.
Both the BRAKER warhead and drones used to deliver it are cheap, expendable and easy for the Army to replicate, simplifying costs associated with supply and demand.
Taken together with the development of the Picatinny CLIK universal drone mount, the Army now has a new weapon that profoundly advances U.S. military capability to deliver far-reaching explosive power with minimal industrial output.
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