Flies without an airfield, stays in the air for more than 10 hours: A new military drone presented in the US

Flies without an airfield, stays in the air for over 10 hours: New military drone presented in the US

According to Breaking Defense, this medium-range drone was developed for operation without an airfield and advanced ground infrastructure.

The aircraft launches using a catapult or a mobile device mounted on a truck. For landing, a special support structure is used instead of a regular runway.

Troublemaker is designed for conducting reconnaissance, collecting data, acting as a decoy to distract enemy assets, or carrying out one-way strikes.

If the mission does not end with the destruction of the aircraft, it can be recovered and reused. The company emphasizes this very flexibility as one of the key aspects of the project.

Reusability could reduce costs, but the actual savings will depend on the drone's price, the resources required for its refurbishment, and the conditions of repeated flights.

Ideal Aerosmith stated that the Troublemaker can also be used as part of a swarm of drones. However, detailed information regarding the level of autonomy of the devices, their inter-communication system, and the stability of control in GPS-denied environments or under electronic warfare conditions was not provided.

According to the company, 26 Troublemakers have been produced so far. Currently, low-rate initial production is underway, with approximately two drones being manufactured per week.

The manufacturer stated that if demand increases, this figure can be brought to 20 per week using existing infrastructure. This is not confirmed orders or current production volume, but rather the potential capacity of the facility.