Continuously Available Battlefield Surveillance

Abstract

The question of what is necessary for the US to provide its fighting forces with continuously available surveillance of the battlefield is considered. The anticipated technological improvements forecasted to 2025 all support the conclusion that sufficient capabilities will exist should the US government choose to collect them into a single system. The resulting unmanned system will likely be a lighter-than-air vessel capable of operating for months or a stealthy derivative of the RQ-4 Global Hawk. The single largest hurdle for either system is the lack of political and military support for expanding existing unmanned systems. An Air Force sponsored survey conducted with several military, corporate and university experts which supports these conclusioins is also presented.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA497522

Entities

People

  • James P. Lake

Organizations

  • Air War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Combat Areas
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Electronically Scanned Array
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • Solar Cells
  • Terrorists
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Time Sensitive Targets
  • Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare
  • Weapons Effects

Readers

  • Economics
  • Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs