Expendable Remotely Piloted Vehicles for Strategic Offensive ...

Advantages and Disadvantages ofRemotely Piloted VehiclesTable 6 is a GAO illustration of advantages and disadvantages of RPVsfor military missions. 9 The greatest advantage for RPVs is pilot risk, andthe greatest disadvantage is recovery. 10 Although this view is based upon1980s technology and does not directly deal with cruise missiles nor expendableRPVs, the advantages and disadvantages are still pertinent. Thefollowing sections of this chapter will address each area of advantage ordisadvantage in greater detail. Using the same 21 areas developed by theGAO, comparisons will be made between four aircraft categories designedto conduct strategic attack. The four categories are manned aircraft,cruise missiles, reusable RPVs, and expendable RPVs. Within an area,each asset’s advantage or disadvantage will be judged relative to the otherthree assets. In certain areas, an asset will more clearly warrant eitherhaving a major advantage (represented by the symbol “● ”) or else as havinga major disadvantage (represented by the symbol “◦”). An asset havingcounterbalancing advantages and disadvantages (represented by thesymbol “”) may have some ill-defined boundaries. At the end of each section,a rank (symbol) will be given to each asset according to the evidence.A chart at the end of this chapter will display the compiled results.Pilot RiskPilot risk is a major handicap for manned aircraft, and it is the greatestadvantage for UAVs. 11 Heavy air losses during World War I led to the followingBritish Air Staff statement which remains applicable today: “Theair force have never been unwilling to face heavy losses; but it must be realizedthat highly trained pilots cannot be replaced with the same ease asinfantry soldiers.” 12 Simply stated, manned aircraft put pilots at riskwhereas UAVs do not. While this is obvious, the importance of pilot riskdeserves greater discussion.As stated before, it is not possible to put a price on the life of a human;but many factors can make the high value of a pilot even greater. For example,a shortage of pilots can have serious repercussions. During theBattle of Britain, the British were producing all the aircraft they needed;but it was pilots they had trouble replacing. On the German side, the Luftwaffecreated and suffered a pilot shortage by taking the air war overBritish territory. If an RAF pilot was shot down and survived, he was ableto fly and fight another day. On the other hand, if a German pilot was shotdown and survived, he was captured and taken out of the war.Search and rescue (SAR) of downed pilots and aircrew personnel is anemotional and enduring issue. The Vietnam War saga of “Bat 21” representsthe great sacrifice that Americans are willing to risk to rescue oneairman. Debate continues on this case study as to whether the moralefactor associated with saving one comrade was worth the heavy cost in41