Miragedriver
Brigadier
Recently the international business consultancy Frost and Sullivan reported that over the last eight years Israeli manufacturer’s sales of UAVs at a worth of more than $4.6 billion.
Just more than half of the deals in 2005-12 were with European states, primarily Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain.
A particularly large number of drones supplied to Britain's Watch keeper UAV program, which is a joint project between Israel's Elbit Systems and the French defence multinational Thales. Watchkeeper drones are based on Elbit's Hermes 450 aircraft
As these aircraft continue to evolve will we see a proliferation in all sectors of military aviation?. The UAV/drone is an excellent remote sensing platform which allows flexible monitoring scope and areas, and can send back relatively accurate and clear images. By contrast, satellite remote sensing systems tend to send back low-resolution images, and manned aircraft are limited in monitoring scope. These aircraft make great maritime reconnaissance aircraft. First, they can fly long duration over the sea at a time. Second, they can adjust their flying height to capture clearer photos of targets. Third, they can work day and night on both sunny and rainy days, and adapt to new weather conditions quickly. The most important thing about UAVs is that they can help avoid military casualties. As they are unmanned vehicles that carry no risk to the safety of remote operators, UAVs can fly for more than 10 or 20 hours over the sea conducting reconnaissance missions and real-time monitoring of the country's territorial waters.
For the foreseeable future, manned fighter aircraft will continue to dominate airspace, but militaries are going more to the unmanned aircraft which could in the future have weapons and manoeuvre capabilities beyond the endurance of human pilots.
So the question is: With the high cost of (manned) aircraft acquisition, pilot training and limitation of manoeuvrability, do you see Air Forces embracing a more unmanned combat aircraft air force? A mix of both? Or just limited to patrol recognisance and high risk missions.
Thank you all for your comments
Just more than half of the deals in 2005-12 were with European states, primarily Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain.
A particularly large number of drones supplied to Britain's Watch keeper UAV program, which is a joint project between Israel's Elbit Systems and the French defence multinational Thales. Watchkeeper drones are based on Elbit's Hermes 450 aircraft
As these aircraft continue to evolve will we see a proliferation in all sectors of military aviation?. The UAV/drone is an excellent remote sensing platform which allows flexible monitoring scope and areas, and can send back relatively accurate and clear images. By contrast, satellite remote sensing systems tend to send back low-resolution images, and manned aircraft are limited in monitoring scope. These aircraft make great maritime reconnaissance aircraft. First, they can fly long duration over the sea at a time. Second, they can adjust their flying height to capture clearer photos of targets. Third, they can work day and night on both sunny and rainy days, and adapt to new weather conditions quickly. The most important thing about UAVs is that they can help avoid military casualties. As they are unmanned vehicles that carry no risk to the safety of remote operators, UAVs can fly for more than 10 or 20 hours over the sea conducting reconnaissance missions and real-time monitoring of the country's territorial waters.
For the foreseeable future, manned fighter aircraft will continue to dominate airspace, but militaries are going more to the unmanned aircraft which could in the future have weapons and manoeuvre capabilities beyond the endurance of human pilots.
So the question is: With the high cost of (manned) aircraft acquisition, pilot training and limitation of manoeuvrability, do you see Air Forces embracing a more unmanned combat aircraft air force? A mix of both? Or just limited to patrol recognisance and high risk missions.
Thank you all for your comments