Issues with Management of Uav's

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

John Smith

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

AMGT 201

Abstract

The military is currently pursuing the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as a viable avenue to exploit the air and space as mediums for attack on enemy forces. This new means of offence poses three primary challenges: stealth capability, logistics demands, and maintaining an acceptable mission readiness rate. Various branches of the armed services are hopeful that the UAV will be the final solution to the problem of overcoming each of three of these obstacles.

Since the origin of civilization, the world’s armies have all struggled with staying one step of head of each other. In order to accomplish this, they must gather as much intelligence as possible and develop more advanced technological warfare for all possible modes of attack. These modes of attack have evolved with time, to include air and most recently space. Currently, the technology that is being pursued to exploit the air and space mode of attack is the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). No matter what mode a military utilizes for attack or intelligence gathering, it will always present three main challenges, which are stealth capability, logistics demands, and maintaining an acceptable mission readiness rate. Today’s military is hoping that the UAV will be the final solution to overcoming all three of these challenges.

The challenge a military must face prior to considering any technology for use as a weapon or resource is the logistics involved with deploying and maintaining it. The unmanned aerial vehicle has a very low life-cycle cost compared to a standard jet or plane with the same capabilities. This was evaluated when the military first decided to start integrating UAVs into their fleets. Col. Robert E. Chapman, USAF stated in an early briefing for the justification of utilizing the UAV over the F-16 in the destruction of enemy air defenses, known as “DEAD” missions that...