At the end of 2022, Elbit Systems offered a small but terrifying capability for urban warfare environments, named LANIUS. LANIUS is suitable for any complex environment and can search and attack, which is equivalent to loitering munitions in complex environments.
The design is based on racing drones which allows LANIUS to utilize high degrees of speed and maneuverability to essentially rush a target before exploding. It also has artificial intelligence, the ability to search and attack autonomously, and even has power-saving features that lurk in wait.
LANIUS is small in size, with a top speed of 45 mph, a maximum takeoff weight of 2.75 pounds, and a limited flight time of just seven minutes.
Israel also has a micro-suicide drone: the SPIKE FIREFLY loitering bomb, which was developed by Rafael Advanced Systems. It is a micro-optical tactical loitering ammunition and has a very unique design. It is mainly used in urban combat to enhance the close-range precision strike capabilities of small ground forces such as squads and platoons of infantry, Marines or special forces.
FIREFLY is shaped and sized like a milk carton, which is only 3.15×3.15×15.75 inches, the total weight is 6.6 lbs, and the omnidirectional fragmentation warhead weighs 0.77 lbs.
Hello everyone, welcome to MASA Military.
At the end of 2022, Elbit Systems offered a small but terrifying capability for urban
warfare environments, named Lanius.
Lanius is suitable for any complex environment and can search and attack, which is equivalent
to loitering munitions in complex environments.
The design is based on racing drones which allows Lanius to utilize high degrees of speed
and maneuverability to essentially rush a target before exploding.
It also has artificial intelligence, the ability to search and attack autonomously,
and even has power-saving features that lurk in wait.
Lanius is small in size, with a top speed of 45 miles per hour, a maximum takeoff weight
of 2.75 pounds, and a limited flight time of just 7 minutes.
Because its endurance is not long, Elbit Systems designed a mothership for it.
Three Lanius can be deployed simultaneously on a large hovering multi-copter drone to
carry them close to the target, then they follow orders to attack.
They are like micro-suicide drones who are ready to attack at any time, ready to die
at any time in order to eliminate the enemy.
The combination of the UAV mothership and Lanius not only makes up for the shortcomings
of Lanius' short flight time, but the UAV mothership can also serve as a relay node
for aerial data, playing a role in connecting drones and operators in dense urban environments.
What's even scarier about Lanius is that it can perform many of its actions autonomously.
Lanius is designed to conduct GPS navigation, scanning, and mapping all in complex urban
combat environments.
This capability is achieved through the drone's artificial intelligence technologies, powered
by an NVIDIA Jetson TX2 processor, allowing the drone to formulate a 3D map of its surroundings,
which is then fed back to the operator through a handheld remote device.
This capability enables Lanius to identify doors and windows and fly indoors.
It is able to continuously fly and scan inside buildings, identify combatants and non-combatants
inside the building, and then decide to attack combatants, which is equivalent to increasing
urban combat capabilities.
But in a situation where enemies and hostages are mixed, relying on robots to distinguish
between friends and foes is a very difficult problem.
To address this uncertainty, Lanius requires operator approval to engage targets when manned.
Lanius' ability to operate autonomously when the network or controller connection
is lost allows it to rely on artificial intelligence to autonomously perform reconnaissance or
attack missions in environments such as underground tunnels.
Lanius can not only perform tasks independently, but can also cooperate in formation and launch
attacks against multi-person combat groups.
In this Gaza operation, it is unknown whether the Israeli army will test this micro-suicide
drone to reduce casualties in street fighting and tunnel fighting.
Israel also has a micro-suicide drone, the Spike Firefly loitering bomb, which was developed
by Rafael Advanced Systems.
It is a micro-optical tactical loitering ammunition and has a very unique design.
It is mainly used in urban combat to enhance the close-range precision strike capabilities
of small ground forces such as squads and platoons of infantry, marines, or special
forces.
The Firefly adopts a principle similar to that of a coaxial twin-rotor helicopter.
The wings can be folded along the direction of the fuselage, the bracket is retractable,
and the whole package can be packed into a cylindrical container for easy portability
by a single soldier.
Firefly is shaped and sized like a milk carton, which is only 3.15 x 3.15 x 15.75 inches.
The total weight is 6.6 pounds, and the omnidirectional fragmentation warhead weighs 0.77 pounds.
The Firefly can fly at a speed of 37.3 mph and dive at a speed of 43.5 mph.
It is guided by an operator using a tablet with an interface designed to be easily used
by dismounted infantry.
With 15 minutes of flight time, it is designed for non-line-of-sight operations in an urban
area where snipers or other adversaries might tie down a platoon.
It has certain artificial intelligence capabilities, and its control modes are divided into autonomous
flight according to track points and manual remote control flight.
Firefly is equipped with an advanced multispectral seeker capable of detecting, identifying,
tracking, and locating extremely flexible targets.
It uses the same technology as other Spike and Raphael systems, meaning it has automatic
target recognition and uses AI.
It can also land and have its battery swapped out, or swap out the payload for another battery,
doubling its flight time to 30 minutes.
The entire Firefly drone system includes three drones and one controller, with a total
weight of about 33 pounds.
The system was first ordered by Israel Defense Forces in 2020, but the company has been constantly
updating and refining the weapon, especially with lessons learned from other conflicts
such as Ukraine.
Compared with the Lanius, Firefly's AI capabilities are not that strong, but its simple interface
design can reduce cognitive load, which is a strong selling point of it.
Okay, that's all for today.
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