Expendable Remotely Piloted Vehicles for Strategic Offensive ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Aircraft Flight PerformanceAircraft flight performance in normal situations is an advantage for allmanned and unmanned aircraft. Today’s current systems perform whattheir designers intended them to do, and they do so remarkably well. Withadvanced research into aerospace technologies, future systems are likelyto demonstrate even greater improvements in flight performance. This isnot to say major developmental problems will not occur nor that maintenancerequirements will be trivial. Design and development challengeswill always be present in the pursuit of better flight performances formanned as well as unmanned systems.It is areas of exceptional conditions that distinguish the diff e re n ttypes of vehicles from one another. For example, in hazardous, boring,or fatiguing conditions (ranked in a previous section), the perf o rm a n c eadvantage goes to UAVs. For emergency or unforeseen conditions (to beranked in a later section), the perf o rmance advantage goes to manneda i rc r a f t .Relative Ranks for Aircraft Flight Performance AreaManned AircraftCruise MissilesReusable Remotely Piloted VehiclesExpendable Remotely Piloted Vehicles●●●●ReliabilityAs with flight perf o rmance, reliability is an area of advantage acro s sthe diff e rent types of manned and unmanned aircraft. Te c h n o l o g i c a ladvances in airframe materials, propulsion systems, avionics, fuels,sensors, and other equipment have made every modern US aerial vehiclevery reliable. This is not to say aircraft problems and losses do noto c c u r. Even the highly advanced and extensively maintained B-2 experienceda serious in-flight emergency when all cockpit displays wentb l a n k . 6 1Manned and reusable unmanned systems require maintenance, logistics,and other support in order to operate at optimum levels of performancecapability. However, the US military effectively meets these requirementsin order to maintain a consistently high level of mission readiness.The performances of manned aircraft, RPVs, and cruise missiles duringthe Gulf War have shown this area to be an advantage for all these airpowerassets. For example, Pioneer, Pointer, and ex-drone UAVs flew 522missions during Desert Storm compiling 1,640.9 hours of flight and sufferingonly one loss. 62 While reliability remains high for all US aerial vehicles,some require more support (particularly in the area of systems) thanothers in order to achieve and maintain it.55
Relative Ranks for Reliability AreaManned AircraftCruise MissilesReusable Remotely Piloted VehiclesExpendable Remotely Piloted Vehicles●●●●SystemsDespite the crashes highlighted in the press, manned military aircrafthave reliable systems. However, compared to UAVs manned aircraft havemore systems and require tighter tolerances on their specifications. Thisis because backup and redundant systems must be built in, and a varietyof pilot/crew support systems are required to sustain a countlessnumber of safe flights. 63 In turn, these systems increase the cost of maintenanceand the training required to keep them operating at their highestpossible levels of reliability.Stealth aircraft pose additional re q u i rements and constraints on airc r a f tdesign and maintenance. The B-2 bomber is an extreme example of an aircraftthat contains advanced operating systems and re q u i res more maintenancesystems in order to achieve reliability, maneuverability, and stealthiness.Pilots and maintenance specialists acknowledge that it “re q u i res moresystems knowledge” to fly and maintain the “highly unstable B-2.” 6 4RPV controllers also require advanced systems to operate their aircraft.In comparison to manned aircraft, however, these systems are fewer andless stringent in tolerance requirements because the survivability of apilot is not at stake. Future RPVs and new versions of cruise missiles willlikely incorporate redundant systems in order to assure a high degree ofoperator control. Compared with aircraft requiring man-in-the-loop control,however, cruise missiles hold the advantage in the area of systems.Relative Ranks for Systems AreaManned AircraftCruise MissilesReusable Remotely Piloted VehiclesExpendable Remotely Piloted Vehicles◦●Performance under Emergency or Unforeseen ConditionsP e rf o rmance under emergency or unforeseen conditions is an area of advantageto manned systems because a human decision maker is physicallyp resent to assess and respond to the situation. This, however, is assumingthe pilot has not been injured and remains mentally and physically capableof responding. Cruise missiles have the greatest disadvantage due to the inflexibilityof their autonomous operation. RPVs, both reusable and expend-56
Page 1 and 2:
Expendable Remotely PilotedVehicles
Page 3 and 4:
ContentsChapterDISCLAIMER . . . . .
Page 5 and 6:
AbstractThe future holds an acceler
Page 7 and 8:
AcknowledgmentsI thank all the stud
Page 9 and 10: aircraft. Incorporating the added d
Page 11 and 12: UAVs were more easily defined when
Page 13 and 14: Chapter 4 answers the question: Why
Page 15 and 16: Chapter 2History and BackgroundWe h
Page 17 and 18: The Wright brothers are deservedly
Page 19 and 20: aerial bombs), the British took the
Page 21 and 22: UAVs during World War II to a few g
Page 23 and 24: On 27 October of that year, another
Page 25 and 26: United States to look beyond reconn
Page 27 and 28: ary 1996, Gen Ronald R. Fogleman, A
Page 29 and 30: 29. Shaker and Wise, 28.30. Michael
Page 31 and 32: Chapter 3Strategic Offensive Airpow
Page 33 and 34: ombs, as well as a high sortie rate
Page 35 and 36: It thus follows that future air cam
Page 37 and 38: possible for small formations to ac
Page 39 and 40: spite the successes, it is easily p
Page 41 and 42: The transmissions used by a control
Page 43 and 44: 33. Air Force Scientific Advisory B
Page 45 and 46: diverted 75 percent of its B-29s aw
Page 47 and 48: Table 6Remotely Piloted Vehicle Adv
Page 49 and 50: million dollars each. The unit flya
Page 51 and 52: Relative Ranks for Fewer Design Con
Page 53 and 54: mission) the open bomb bay doors si
Page 55 and 56: Relative Ranks for Flight Noise Are
Page 57 and 58: Owens also stated that the military
Page 59: All forms of manned and unmanned ai
Page 63 and 64: KEY: ● Major Advantage Counterba
Page 65 and 66: 7. “Report: Military Crashes Down
Page 67 and 68: 62. McGonigle, 34.63. Ibid., 33.64.
Page 69 and 70: expendable RPVs, American political
Page 71 and 72: cybornaut activates engine thruster
Page 73 and 74: Chapter 6ConclusionConstant evaluat
Page 75: one role. A countless combination o
show all

Expendable Remotely Piloted Vehicles for Strategic Offensive ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?