Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Air Power will take a new form in the use of UAVs. They will change lives, save lives, and reduce costs. Airplanes have increasingly become a major part of humanities since the Great War (World War I), being able to go faster than the speed of sound, carry tons of items, they are equipped with major electronic systems, and can perform more acrobatics than the human body can withstand. But one common denominator has stayed the same; it requires a human to control the vehicle in flight causing risks to the pilots and crew. Today, however, technology has advanced to such a state that communicative links are now available around the world, allowing the control of an unmanned aircraft from a base station. A vision is that an operator would first plan the attack on a mission support computer and load the strike profile into the vehicle. During the mission, changes could be data-linked via a secure communications system. Sitting at a control station an operator would be able to coordinate not just one vehicles action, but those of an entire package of unmanned aircraft. This topic of UAVs has mixed opinions between combat pilots to business executives on their use in the armed forces and use for
Unmanned aircraft are a reality and are here to stay. The UAV capabilities are developing a lot faster than the evolution of manned aerial flight has over the past hundred years. As of today, society has seen UAVs used for offshore weather reconnaissance, which provides on-time weather updates to sea vessels, fisherman, and coastal residents on weather patterns keeping them informed of potential weather dangers, preventing a flight crew from flying into hazardous storms. The US military, during the Kosovo conflict used approximately two dozen or so unmanned aircraft to identify target areas, search for the enemy to prevent the continued ethic cleansing, and locate Surface-to-Air missile (SAM) sites which greatly placed coalition pilots in harms way. Unmanned aircraft usage as intelligence vehicles were extremely effective and important in helping identify targets for the bombing campaign. They were instrumental in ending conflict, in short time with no loss of life to our pilots. It is worth note that in the past 20 years the Pentagon has spent two billion dollars on unmanned vehicle research and on the aircraft themselves. This seems like a lot of money, but in relation to other expenses it is quite cheap considering that one B-2 stealth bomber cost the taxpayer two billion dollars. For this fact alone, some military experts believe the next century could see the end of manned combat aircraft altogether. All branches of military service are finding uses for unmanned aircraft. "The Navy has tested unmanned aerial vehicles flying reconnaissance flights in front of a Carrier Group providing over 50 hours of non-stop flight up to 100 miles from the group" ("Predator" 1). Just like when Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic, "a civilian company the Insitu Group led the engineering effort of having the first unmanned aircraft fly across the Atlantic in 1998 controlled from the United States" ("Economical" 2). Commercial and economic groups are seeing the possibilities of using UAVs to locate resources and to identify erosion patterns in a cost effective way. commercial ventures. The current times show that unmanned aircraft technology is breaking into new frontiers just like when "the Wright Brothers flew their first manned airplane at Kitty Hawk in December of 1903, which only traveled 120 feet, less than half a football field in distance" (Hirsch 376), and now look where society is! Concentrating on UAVs for warfare serves the greatest benefit to the US in lives and costs. The US Air Force and our NATO allies the United Kingdom (UK), Royal Air Force (RAF) are assessing the possibility of unmanned fighter aircraft (UFA). The UK RAF has recently stated that they are c
Some common words found in the essay are:
UAVs Warner, Air Vehicle, World War, Sydney University, F-16 F-15, Staff June, Vietnam War, Information Revolution, Asia History, Powers' U-2, unmanned aircraft, aerial vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, missions risk, surface-to-air missile, latitude longitude, unmanned combat, information revolution, wilson 1, fly low, aircraft fly, unmanned aircraft fly,
Approximate Word count = 1819
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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