History of UAS

Introduction

The origin of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can be traced back to the era of the first two World Wars where such technology was primarily used to deliver payloads that could destroy distant enemies, which eventually led to long range intercontinental missiles and the myriad of UAS variants today. The infamous World War 2 V-1 Flying Bomb, or Doodlebug, that devastated London and other cities in the war, and the AQM-34 Ryan Firebee that were used in the Vietnam war, shared similar concepts with today’s UASs (Army-technology.com, 2012). Current UAS technology enables the transmission of real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information from enemy territories. While UAS has been primarily used for military applications, there are also numerous benefits of UAS for commercial applications such as search and rescue, wildlife preservation, border patrol, building inspections, etc. One of the major applications of UAS today occurs over conflict zones such as the Middle East where warfare has been widely dominated by the extensive use of UAS in the fight against terrorism. Of these UASs, the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-1C Sky Warrior, and the MQ-9 Reaper, are equipped with offensive capabilities (Callam, 2010).

MQ-1 Predator UAS

            The MQ-1 Predator UAS was developed in the early 1990s and is the first operational long endurance UAS that originated from U.S. government project GNAT 750 (Strickland, 2013). Built by General Atomics, the Predator is constructed from graphite epoxy composites that is very light. Powered by a four-cylinder piston engine, it cruises at about 84 mph. The underside of the UAS holds electro-optical and infrared video cameras with radars and satellite antennas incorporated into the nose. Originally designed for reconnaissance and forward observation roles, the Predator was adapted by U.S. Forces to carry weapons and successfully fired the first AGM missile over Afghanistan with almost total invulnerability. This gave rose to the advent of Predators and other similar offensive UASs that became an integral part of combat operations in Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya (Whittle, 2013).

Future Evolution

            The Predator is not designed to defend itself against any attacks till date. According to Callam (2010), the Predator UAS is useful against low-intensity and insurgency warfare, where the adversaries do not have any air defenses against any intruding UAS. In high and medium-intensity conflicts where the defensive capabilities are desired, unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), with the ability to defending itself and flying at higher speeds to avoid surface to air missiles, will be expected to be used to suppress enemy defenses ahead of any ground mission (Callam, 2010).

Conclusion

The MQ-1 Predator UAS offers the benefit to surveil and attack hostile forces at a distance that poses no danger to any military unit that uses it. It will continue to remain a vital asset to U.S. operations in the fight against global terrorism until such time when better technology comes on board that delivers mission success with lesser collateral damage.

 References

Army-Technology.com (2012, November 15). UAV evolution – How natural selection directed the drone revolution. Retrieved from http://www.army-technology.com/features/featureuav-evolution-natural-selection-drone-revolution/

Callam, A. (2010). Drone wars: Armed unmanned aerial vehicles. International Affairs Review, 18(3). Retrieved from http://www.iar-gwu.org/node/144

Strickland, F. (2013). The early evolution of the predator of the Predator drone. Studies in Intelligence, 57 (1). Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol.-57-no.-1-a/vol.-57-no.-1-a-pdfs/Strickland-Evolution%20of%20the%20Predator.pdf

Whittle, R. (2013, April). The man who invented the Predator. Air & Space Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/the-man-who-invented-the-predator-3970502/