A Man-Portable vertical take-off ISTAR UAV system

ongoing

The contemporary military landscape is rapidly evolving, necessitating advancements in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to enhance the capabilities of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces. Despite significant strides in UAV technology, there remains considerable potential for enhancement, particularly in the domain of single soldier portable UAVs. The recent events caused by the Russian aggression to Ukraine have underlined how trench warfare is still an essential part of military operation. When the operations are performed in hard to reach and urban environment, handheld laser designation systems are often used to provide precision strike capabilities. A better, safer approach would be to use a man-portable UAV with laser designation capability instead. However, usually these systems are expensive, complex, heavy, and only larger platforms have the sufficient payload capacity to include the target designation capability. The losses of drones in the Ukraine war highlight that expensive platforms aren't universally effective. Instead, their application is restricted to specific operational scenarios, and a broader implementation runs the risk of being unsustainable. On the other hand, the operational advantages that unmanned platforms can provide are very well established. To provide a new solution to the issue, Origin Robotics (Latvia) together with consortium partners Aktyvus Photonics UAB (Lithuania) and LEOSYS Laser and Electro – Optic Systems GmbH (Germany) plan to develop MPortISTAR, a mini (less than 15kg), man-portable vertical take-off UAV with integrated laser target designator, compatible with standard NATO laser-guided precision munition. The platform will demonstrate cost-effectiveness, amounting to only one-fifth of the expenses associated with large UAVs. This makes it capable of assuming target acquisition tasks from larger UAVs at a significantly reduced cost.