Professor Wayne King-Meiouf of the University of ProximaRecently i attended a DDS public briefing on the HCS' forthcoming Sprite-NG drone. It is their answer to the DDS' Ferret though shouldn't be seen as a copy by any means (if anything Ferret borrows heavily from the original Sprite UCV which is no longer in service).
Truthfully Sprite-NG shares very little with Sprite, the HCS started with a clean sheet of paper aiming to design "the ultimate spacefighter". Whereas Ferret is a bit like a manned space fighter they modified into a drone the Sprite-NG takes advantage from the fact there is no soft organic component to it and thus do not have to worry about changes in inertia or G-forces. It has ultra agility able to change its travelling angle by up to 270 degrees within a second (and smaller changes of direction in fractions of a second).
The DDS have been considering how they counter this new weapon, not so much fearing war against the Clones but because like the DDS the Clones are active exporters of military technology so sooner or later they might come against an enemy with Sprite-NGs. Dr Underwear from DDS Research says that Sprite-NG may be too agile for current generations of TPM-2s and even laser cannons to fight. He said the DDS would have to look again at improving tactical systems and response times. He also said it was likely the Sprite-NG would have the Ferret for "breakfast".
Thus the DDS are now looking at how they improve the Ferret, the third generation is already in development but that will still be inferior to Sprite-NG. We can probably expect radical changes for the 4th generation, likely to incorporate "inspiration" from the Sprite-NG design. It is likely a 4G Ferret will move the engine and include a 270 degree (or even greater) vector thrust system. The DDS still lead in datalinking and AI but these will have to be greatly improved to keep this lead.
Ferret and the concept of small UCVs came of age in the ABBO War but the galaxy does not stand still. The DDS will have to keep thinking on new ways to improve the breed and to improve the integration of Ferret into their overall portfolio of technology.
