UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Introduction

The UAV is an acronym for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle which is an aircraft with no pilot on board. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are remotely piloted or self-piloted aircraft that can carry cameras, sensors, communications equipment or other payloads. They have been used in a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering role since the 1950s and more challenging roles are envisioned including combat missions (Lawrence, 2000).

With respect to combat operations, the ISR mission provides a level of planning, analysis and targeting support as never seen before in the history of warfare. ISR operations have given military leaders the ability to not just adapt, but in a large degree to control the many changing aspects of the battlefield. They do this through improved technology and process design as well as a keen desire to deliver vital information to combatants in the field.

The integration of UAVs in ISR missions has enhanced the success rate of missions as some UAVs are especially designed for surveillance using cameras and sensors. This has avoided the risk of human loss as well. Thus, UAVs cater the ISR missions very effectively (Air Force Doctrine Document, 2007).

History

In 1916, in the USA, the aircraft was born with the Aerial Target, known as target aircraft. A number of improvements had followed its creation. During and after the First World War, radio controlled pilotless aircrafts had emerged, with remote-controlled aerial torpedoes operated by waves of wireless telegraphy and carrying a gyroscope.

The first French UAV was designed, built and tested in 1923 at Etampes by Engineer Maurice Percheron and Captain Max Boucher, but the French army found no interest in that new technology (Newcome, 2004).

The next phase in the 1930s was the use of self-target aircrafts in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America where Radio plane OQ-2, small unmanned aircraft, was built in large numbers.

The German army developed vectors in 1938, guided remotely as anti-ship flying bombs and antitank radio- tracked wire-guided vehicles.

The great rise of UAVs dates from the War of Korea and that of Vietnam. At that time of the Cold War, the drone had been developed as confidential by the United States of America as a means of strategic superiority and breaking capability to enable surveillance and military intervention in the enemy without incurring human risks. This superiority had been gained through technological innovation, especially in the fields of automatic and transmissions ...