Micro Air Vehicles in WinMBT

[MarkSheppard]

Linka

Snipped for brevity and summarized to avoid copyright problems.

After over a year of testing and further development, the U.S. Marine Corps are sending the seven ounce Wasp Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) to Iraq and Afghanistan.

----------

Basically it's a small (13" Wingspan, 7" Long) Micro UAV which can stay in the air for 90~ minutes.

It's launched by a single man throwing it into the air, and
it's controlled by a single soldier using a game-boy like controller device.
It can hover like a helicopter
35-75 KPH Speed
10 km range (limited by the distance of the transmitter)
Has a Infrared camera

I'm just wondering how these will be represented in WinMBT, as more and more nations acquire these smaller UAVs which can actually be controlled by the troops themselves in the field, rather than a large UAV that's controlled from a control trailer back at base.

[thatguy96]

What's the flying time? Is it within the limits of what a round of SPMBT would be? Couldn't you just then create a UAV under an existing helo class and then modify its weight and the carry capacity of affected infantry so that they could carry it?

[MarkSheppard]

90 minute flying time. I've also thought about making it a helo class; but then that means it would automatically "run away" when it's routed or damaged, which doesn't really apply to an UAV, they're designed to be expendable.

[Mobhack]

The best bet is probably a size 0 UAV, with a very large EW factor, to make them more difficult to hit.

To simulate the difficulty of hittiong - maybe add armour and hit points ?.

As to "some bloke throws it in the air to launch" - who cares? - there are no "backpack planes". Since it has a 90 minute loiter and a guidance range of ~10 km (300 hex circle), it can be assumed to be launched off map. So the current UAV class will do fine.

Cheers
Andy

[rfisher]

Wouldn't it be easiest to represent it by just having the thrower (a FO unit probably) having a very large vision rating?

[Mobhack]

There already are FOOs with large vision ratings, but these represent those with TI sights or GSR, i.e. they are limited to LOS. A plane can see "over the hill".

Cheers
Andy

[rfisher]

I suppose I'm suggesting that in the same way as vision over 40 represents those technologies that can see through smoke, there should be another increment above that can represent units receiving reports from sources that ignore terraqin heights like the above UAVs that linger over the battlefield, but also satelite intelligence, or (and I may be very wrong about how these work here!) surveilence planes like AWACS and Nimrods?