Unmanned Aircraft Systems and the Next War

Abstract

The Army has been incredibly successful in introducing Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) from corps level to platoon. Although still relatively new to combined arms operations, UAS are revolutionizing how the Army fights. In 2003, the Army deployed 13 aircraft for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Some 10 years later, about 1,200 unmanned medium and large aircraft are in the field. This number increases significantly when small UAS (SUAS) are included. Today, just counting medium and large platforms, the Army has more UAS than the U.S. Navy and Air Force combined. Collectively, Army UAS have flown almost two million deployed hours.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA577429

Entities

People

  • Michael F. Spigelmire
  • Timothy Baxter

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Control Systems
  • Defense Planning
  • Doctrine
  • Ground Control Stations
  • Information Operations
  • Leadership Training
  • Military Science
  • Training
  • Unmanned
  • Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Unmanned Systems
  • Vehicles
  • Warfare

Readers

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Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs