Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Current Uses and Potential Applications of UAV Technology



Current Uses and Potential Applications of UAV Technology

Introduction

One of the most focused areas of Aeronautic Engineering in the 21st century includes the Mechanical flying vehicles and one of the most focused technologies is the UAV or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Technology. The technology offered a number of applications in various military and civil domains since the year 1916. However, there have been several developments in UAV Technology that in turn supports and facilitates the innovation, implementation and utilization of different new vehicles that would further help in achieving more rigorous military purposes. The aim of this paper is to discuss the application of the technology in the recent times.

Thesis Statement

UAV Technology supports and facilitates the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that are robotic aircrafts flown without pilots and are used for military, civil and agricultural purposes.

Discussion

An unmanned aerial vehicle can simply be defined as an aircraft or a flying vehicle that is capable of flying without any assistance or intervention on board. However, the flight of this aircraft is usually controlled through two ways. These include the use of remote control by the pilot in another vehicle or on the ground and use of the computer technology in the vehicles that offers autonomous flying (Lai & Fox, 2009, pp.40). These aircrafts or mechanical flying vehicles are also known as drones.

It must be noted that UAVs in the past were simple the remotely piloted vehicles. However, autonomous control in the last decade or so has been increasingly employed in these aircrafts. Moreover, with the passage of time, there has been introduced a wide range of UAV sizes, shapes, characteristics and configurations. As a result, different UAV with different specifications are used for a number of varying purposes. However, the UAV aircraft technology is predominantly deployed for three major purposes (Rango et al, 2006, pp.159). These include military and other related special operation applications, growing number of various civil applications and public common use and scientific purposes.

Military Applications

There are various characteristics and properties of the UAV aircrafts that makes it just the perfect solution to a number of controversies and issue related to military of any individual country. In fact, the overall global investment of two Billion US dollars was reported by various countries in the year 2002. This only indicates the importance of these aircrafts in the military and defense sectors of different nations (Nounami et al, 2012, pp. 2). The figure below shows the expenditure on UAV technology by different countries with little expenditure by Europe and Britain.

However, UK has started to focus on the area and revealed its Watchkeeper UAV procurement plan.

The radar systems, the GPS and the sensor hierarchy in the UAV aircrafts make them the best choice for carrying out the three most important military procedures and practices. These include inspection, reconnaissance and aerial surveillance. However, the more interesting part is the fact that the aircrafts achieve these aims in the most complex and ...