Category:Drones

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This is a consolidated page covering the behavior and operation of all drones.

Naming conventions

Drones are a relatively new addition to NATO STANAG standard, and so are in their infancy, but Steel Beasts has developed a system of letters to identify the drone's type and role, taken from other NATO STANAG identifiers used for aircraft. NATO should adopt a similar standard at some point, and it could be said that Steel Beasts is pioneering this area.

UAV = Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
UGV = Unmanned Ground Vehicle
...modifier in parenthesis
(R) = Recon
(I) = Intercept
(M) = Munition (the drone is a suicide drone; its body is a munition and the drone will destroy itself)
(A) = Attack (the drone carries weapons that it fires, but does not destroy itself)
...mobility type identifier...
V = VTOL
...special properties identifier separated by a dash...
LR = Long Range (large vehicle type drones)


Standard Controls

Non-vehicle drones have a set of standardized controls in the form of on-screen buttons, when you are located in the controlling infantry unit. These may do different things when you left-click the mouse on them, depending on the button's icon.

Drone fkeys.png

F1: The soldier's 1st person eye view.
F2: The soldier's 1st person view, looking in the direction of the deployed drone - the drone controller view. The drone can be flown from this view.
F3: The drone's camera view.
F5: The map view.
F7: The unit's commander position.
F8: The unit's external view.

Launch and Recovery

Launch and recovery of drones is relatively simple. To launch the drone you must first deploy it.

Drone deploybutton.png

This button deploys the drone and prepares it for launch. Note that this icon can differ, depending on the drone (the drone's silhouette may appear differently).

Drone recoverbutton.png

This button recovers the drone from the ground; the drone is picked up by the infantry unit and the battery is replaced. Note that this icon can differ, depending on the drone (the drone's silhouette may appear differently).

Mission Control

Drone missioncontrolbuttons.png

The drone's flight path and behavior are controlled by buttons on the Mission Control row of buttons. The button will illuminate depending on what mode the drone is in.

Drone HomeButton.png

The Home button is used to have the drone return roughly to where it was launched (Libelle), or where the controlling unit currently is located (Munin), depending on the drone.

Drone MANButton.png

The MAN button is used to have the drone enter a manual flight mode, where the user controls the drone with the ASDWX keys. Additionally, the MAN button will illuminate if the user overrides the drone by using the ASDWX keys while the drone is returning home, or on a route.

Drone NAVButton.png

The NAV button is used to have the drone enter a navigation flight mode, where the drone is following a plotted route. Note that when the operator plots a route for the drone on the map, the NAV button must be pressed in order for the drone to embark on the route.

Drone OrbitButton.png

The ORBT button is used to have the drone enter an orbit around the view's center. In other words, in this mode the drone will orbit around where the camera is currently pointing on the ground.

Camera Operation

Top Left: Camera on/off, Top Center: NAV / TGT camera toggle (Libelle), Top Right: Camera FOV toggle Bottom Left: Thermal fusion toggle, Bottom Center: Thermal/day toggle, Bottom Right: Thermal polarity toggle
Camera controls are done with a variety of buttons that may or may not be present on the drone, depending on the drone's camera properties.

Fire Control

The munition drone's targets are engaged by pressing the various buttons on the drone's Fire Control Panel.

Drone firecontrolpanel.png

When a target is in view, most drones will highlight valid targets with a red box. The target is then selected in one of two methods:
DroneFCP Target.png

This button is used to manually select a target. After left clicking this button, you must left click on a valid target in view, at which point the target will receive a cross hair.

DroneFCP Caret.png

The other method is to use caret button, which cycles automatically through the visible valid targets.
In either case, once a target is in view and is selected, a red cross hair will appear:
Libelle drone, TGT camera, T-72 target locked


DroneFCP Armed.png

Once a target is selected, the drone must be armed in order to engage it. Left click on the safe/armed switch to arm the drone.

DroneFCP Fire.png

When the drone is armed, and a target is selected, a Fire button will appear when the drone is within parameters to engage. In the case of the Libelle drone shown here, the Fire button will not appear unless the drone has come to rest, for example.

Aerial drones/UAVs

Libelle

General specifications:

Name: UAV(M)V Libelle
Type: Munition
Method of Attack: Top attack, EFP smart munition
Target Type: Anti-armor
Flight Type: VTOL
Counter Techniques:
  • This drone can be countered by constant movement from the target. Additionally, a constantly moving target will force the drone to expend battery at an accelerated rate as the drone maneuvers to follow the target.
Special Considerations:
  • The warhead is an EFP, so essentially its a KE penetrator that is formed by the explosion. Therefore, the lower the drone is to the target before firing the warhead, the more effective the penetration of the EFP will be. However, the lower the drone is the target, the increased chance that the drone will be seen and heard, increasing the likelihood that someone will shoot the drone down, or spot the drone and begin evasion.
Libelle LandButton.png
Unique Characteristics:
  • Communicates with other Libelle drones. When looking at the ground, other Libelle drones will project a small red box below their position, which allows multiple Libelle drone operators to quickly see that drones are flying above enemy vehicles, to help prevent drone collision and to help with target attack coordination to increase the chance that the drone operators will attack different targets.
  • The Libelle also has a land button which causes the drone to automatically descend where it is, and land on the ground below.
  • The Libelle has two different cameras available: NAV and TGT. NAV is the horizontally facing camera used for flight, and TGT is the downward facing camera used for targeting.

Munin

General specifications:

Name: UAV(R) Munin
Type: Recon
Method of Attack: None
Target Type: N/A
Flight Type: Airplane
Counter Techniques: N/A
Special Considerations:
  • The drone is extremely susceptible to wind and cannot be launched down wind if wind speed is too high. If flying into the wind, it will travel extremely slow and the operator must take wind direction and speed into account when determining endurance and range.

Swingblade AT (unofficially referred to as "SB600")

General specifications:

Name: UAV(M) Swingblade AT
Type: Munition
Method of attack: Impact, tandem HEAT (Javelin ATGM warhead)
Target Type: Anti-armor
Flight Type: Airplane
Counter Techniques:
  • This drone can be countered by hiding in dense woods or, to a lesser extent, remaining close to buildings. In regards to urban terrain, the drone operator has to take the direction of attack in mind and this restricts how quickly and effectively the drone can be employed.
  • The drone can be also be countered by a sudden evasive maneuver just before impact, which can cause the drone to miss or may cause a glancing impact.
SB600LaunchButton.png
SB600DetonateButton.png
Special Considerations:
  • This drone does not return home; it cannot be recovered.
Unique Characteristics:
  • This drone has a special launch button. When pressed the drone with launch from a tube, fired out like an ATGM, and the wings will swing into place.
  • When armed, this drone has a detonate button which causes the drone to detonate in flight. The detonate button would be used if you don't want the drone to continue flying after LOS loss, or if it is over friendly forces when it is about to run out of battery (the drone will detonate on impact with the ground).

Quadcopter

General specifications:

Name: UAV(R)V Quadcopter
Type: Recon
Method of Attack: None
Target Type: N/A
Flight Type: VTOL
Counter Techniques: N/A
Special Considerations:
  • Drone currently uses the old Quadcopter flight model.

Bullitt

General specifications:

Name: UAV(I)V Bullitt
Type: Defense
Method of Attack: Impact
Target Type: Anti-drone
Flight Type: VTOL
Counter Techniques: N/A
Special Considerations:
  • Can be given to normal rifle teams (A teams). Drone is automatically deployed by the infantry with Defend tactic but will not automatically be deployed in forests.

Vehicle drones (non infantry-deployed drones)

Sperwer

See the UAV Sperwer page.

S-100 Camcopter

See the UAV S-100 page.

Ground drones (UGVs)

Generic UGV

See the UGV page.

Pages in category "Drones"

The following 4 pages are in this category, out of 4 total.