Uas White Paper

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White Paper :

Unmanned Aircraft Systems

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Written By: Northrop Grumman (IS)

07/31/2009

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) White Paper

Background

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Overview

According to the Department of Defense (DoD), Unmanned Aircraft (UA) are “powered, aerial vehicles that do not carry a human operator, use aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expendable or recoverable, and can carry a lethal or non-lethal payload.” The DoD further stipulates that an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is, “that system whose components include the necessary equipment, network, and personnel to control an unmanned aircraft.” Specifically, the subsystems that constitute an UAS are: airframe, propulsion, payload, on-board flight control, data link and ground control.

The military is the primary user of UASs; the DoD estimates that it has more than 5,000 UASs in service. Every branch of the armed forces has an UAS program to develop aircraft with a variety of mission goals. For example, the U.S. Army has been developing the Fire Scout, a type of UAS, for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering missions. The U.S. Air Force is focusing its resources on the Predator B drones for tactical strikes and weapons delivery. UASs have also found their way into other sectors of business. Small UASs have been used as hobby aircraft for years. Today, several governmental organizations and businesses are looking to adopt UAS technology in their operations. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has successfully used drones, such as the Aersonde UAS, to safely look into the eye of hurricanes and FedEx and UPS have expressed interest in developing UASs for cargo delivery in the future.

Unmanned Aircraft Program Office (UAPO)

In recent years, UASs were mainly used for military purposes. This...