The Jackal drones that carry the rosette of Royal Air Forceplatforms capable of remotely launching missiles light air-surface, air-air, ground-air and ground-surface developed by Thales Air Defense, seem to be the result of the “technical” improvement of the helidrons armed and improvised on the Ukrainian battlefield. Where the new rules of combat are being learned in the era of remotely piloted vehicles: the so-called “drone war”.
The Jackal in the hands of London
This UAV developed by FlyBy Technologyclassified as Jackal (“Jackal” in English, ed) is a drone with the appearance of a large and sophisticated quadcopter equipped with 8 motors that allow it to take off and land vertically, VTOL, reaching decidedly high speeds for its category.
The Jackal, immortalized in a demonstration video with a gray livery similar to that of the old Sea Harrier fighters, with the famous “roundel” of the Royal Air Force in the modern version called “low visibility” (low visibility, as used on all new generation aircraft used in combat, ed) can carry a payload of 15 kilograms and achieve a range of over 100 kilometers.
Being used as a UAS, Unmanned Aircraft System, for logistical purposes or converted into a UCAV, Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicleby installing a launcher of the type in the main section Lightweight Multirole Missile Thales.
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Armed with Martlet missiles, fast and lethal
Thales’ system allows this new drone to launch Martlet missiles guided by a laser sensor against stationary or moving targets with the same effectiveness as helicopters on board from the Royal Navy of the Wildcat type. British Fleet Air Arm version of the AgustaWestland AW159 multi-role helicopter produced by Leonardo.
The driving system multimodallaser guidance and/or semi-active laser guidance and infrared terminal homing, launches a missile with a 3 kg explosive head with a two-stage engine and a range of 8 km for a maximum speed of 1.5 mach. Just enough and eliminate or inflict serious damage on a wide variety of targets.
If we consider the effectiveness of the commercial drones “modified” in the field by the Ukrainian special forces in the first phase of the conflict with Moscow, and we take their effectiveness into account, we can already imagine the lethal range of one jackal conducted by British special forces, such as a team of Royal Marines, on the front line.
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