Armed RQ7 Shadow

[fredymac]

How small of a drone is practical for dropping munitions before you just make the drone itself a kamikaze bomb? The RQ7 is at the margin where you really can't carry a serious bomb. One of the new small munitions like Viper Strike might fit but I would guess it will cut pretty heavy into range and endurance. That assumes it can get by that landing gear.

See 2:04 mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXg_Yfj9xKw

 

[Avimimus]

I think it depends on the target - and how accurate you are in bombing it. You can build a 80 gram air-bursting round with a 6m lethal radius against infantry... a non-airbursting round with similar performance weighs about 130 grams.

 

[TomS]

There's a whole set of possible UAV armament a lot smaller than Viper Strike -- things like 81mm mortar bombs with guidance kits, the Thales Fury glide bomb, etc.

Here's a rundown of some armaments discussed that could fit the RQ-7 and similar small tactical UAVs.

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/mortars-from-aircraft-the-shadow-knows-05226/

 

[Arian]

Pyros: http://3dprint.com/81850/3d-printed-guided-missiles/

 

[Ian33]

A sweet UAS, nice to see it get some teeth