Assessment of Nonlethal Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Integration With Combat Aviation Missions
Abstract
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide potentially important advantages over manned systems in the conduct of scout, reconnaissance, and surveillance operations over enemy-controlled territory. These advantages are generally considered to include avoiding the personal and political penalties of death or capture of crew members, employing relatively inexpensive platforms that could be considered expendable under certain high-payoff operational conditions, frustrating air defenses with their small size to achieve greater survivability than their manned counterparts, and providing a more cost-efficient operation from the standpoint of acquisition, sustainability, deployability, and operating environment requirements. Typically, UAVs operate independently of other systems. The Army is interested in the potential for UAVs to contribute directly to combat aviation missions; how that contribution could be achieved; and what the implications would be for UAV and helicopter characteristics and for operational tactics, techniques, and procedures. This research developed concepts of employment for UAVs integrated with primary combat aviation missions, including scouting and reconnaissance, attack, security, and air assault. Of particular interest was the "Bird Dog" concept, wherein a crew on the aviation team exercises positive control over the UAV during the mission. Assessments and conclusions presented in this briefing are primarily based on qualitative analyses from which we intended to provide an informed basis for determining the most critical issues that need comprehensive analyses.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA428342
Entities
People
- Monti Callero
Organizations
- RAND Corporation