Boeing Dominator UAVs Launch Like Missiles, Refuel Each Other, Kill Themselves

Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 5 of August , 2008 at 3:27 am

This concept vid of the 3 foot long, 100 pound Dominator UAV from Boeing is a few years old, but not only do I like the idea of UAVs launched like missiles (enabling conventional military aircraft to deploy them on the fly, as it were), but the cute part is that whole flocks of Dominators can autonomously refuel themselves from larger UAVs. Such capabilities would make semi-disposable drones like the Dominator quite versatile, and if they end up being “affordable” as Boeing says, there’d be no reason not to deploy a bunch of them as needed and then crash them into important things. What’s more likely to happen (and this may not be a bad thing) is that the concepts embodied in the Dominator will show up later on in more specialized UAVs.

Oh, and BTW, I’m totally sucking right now. Uh, that would be, metaphorically. At the whole updates thing. Don’t worry, I’m not letting any robot news slip, and you can expect a bunch, nay, a horde, of juicy bot news. Soon. I promise. And there will be some kind of prize or something to help me absolve my guilt over having a ::cough:: real job.

[ Futurefirepower ]

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Category: Military

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