UAV Reform

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are not new to the battlefield. This technology has been around since the early 90’s. Earlier in its lifetime, these aerial drones have primarily played the role of surveillance or reconnaissance. These small, lightweight planes are able to stay in there air for extended periods of time. These traits make them perfect for scouting missions and are ideal when the military needs to gather more information about an area or a specific target.

Only within the last 10 years has the Air Force decided to strap 2 hellfire missiles onto the wings of its primary drone, the MQ-1 Predator. As the Air Fore saw it, there was no need to have a drone scout-out a target and then have a manned jet or ground personnel risk their lives to destroy it. It is much more efficient to enable the drone to take the target out itself, thus saving time, resources, and potential casualties. This new use for the Predator UAV became standard and the preferred method of destroying targets. UAV technology soon found itself on the fast track to military production and use.

As these drones were rushed into combat, major problems began to develop. Many of the pilots of these vehicles had not undergone proper flight training in order to fly correctly and without complications. There have been 79 accidents between 2005 and 2010, primarily due to pilot error. One such incident happened as a pilot mistook the landing gear switch for the engine “kill switch.” Instead of a routine landing, the plane was damaged beyond repair. In addition to these accidents, many innocent civilians have died as a result of poor planning and the explosive shrapnel of the missiles. An estimated 50 civilians are killed for every insurgent that is taken out.

In light of all that has transpired with these aircraft, we should not continue to put little effort in the training and design of these aircraft. Millions of dollars and thousands of lives has been the price of a rushed production. The United States Air Force needs to step up to the plate and take responsibility for what has happened. A reformation of the UAV program needs to take place that will not only effectively train drone pilots, but also increase the accuracy of its missiles and lower the blast force that could potentially kill innocent bystanders. This Air Force blunder has gone on for too long.

Cause and Effect

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are relatively new to the battlefield. Because of this, the training required for a soldier to pilot these vehicles is very basic. The time it takes to be "certified" to fly these aircraft is vastly smaller than Manned Aircraft. This aircraft and of the "cockpit" that the pilot flies it from is also relatively crudely designed with some major flaws only now becoming apparent.

Due to these before mentioned problems, these aircraft has a lot of obstacles to overcome. Numerous crashes and accidents involving these aircraft have been reported. Most of these accidents are due to pilot error which is mostly caused from insufficient flight training. Some of these accident, however, are due to major design flaws. One case in particular is that the "kill switch" and the landing gear switch were positioned right next to each other and a pilot mistook one for the other. The result was a catastrophic crash instead of a routine landing. I submit that these problems need to be addressed and fixed before the UAV can indefinitely claim air dominance in todays wars.

The other side of the argument

Recently, i have come across a couple of articles that argue that UAVs are doing more harm than good. Both of these articles give statistics of crashes that have been caused by human error as well as malfunctions in the systems themselves. They also give statistics of deaths that the missle-equipped predators have caused. One tactic that i saw in the article by David Zucchino was that not only does he list facts, but he throws in words of his own to describe the facts. In doing this, he alters the information to give the feeling that he wants his readers to have regarding this information. For instance, he gives an example of how technicians retrofitted some UAVs with "off -the-shelf equipment at Radio Shack and Best Buy." The fact is that they got equipment from Radio Shack and Best Buy. When he adds the words "off-the-shelf", it gives the reader the impression that it is crummy equipment when in fact their equipment is the same type of equipment used in many military applications.

http://www.ncjolt.org/blog/2010/04/09/drones-under-attack-congress-debate-use-uavs-war-terror-0

http://www.homeland1.com/homeland-security-products/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-uav/articles/847069-accident-reports-show-us-drone-aircraft-plagued-with-problems

My standing on the UAV vs Manned Aircraft

As i have studied the topic of aerial drones through these weeks, my stance has changed a couple of times as i have gathered different information on the subject. When i first started with this topic, my stance was that the UAV was the way of the future and that eventually all military aircraft would be unmanned. The United States Air Force has even outlined specific drone planes that will fill the roles of current aircraft from spy planes, to fighters, to tankers and cargo planes. As i progressed through the research of this topic, I uncovered a lot of incidences of civilians killed by drones and drone accidents/crashes. That got me to think that maybe these drones are not as great of an idea as we first thought. As i have further researched this topic, i have found that the vast majority of the accidents/crashes were caused by pilot error and not the fault of the UAVs programming or design. Furthermore, the reported civilian deaths have been the result of various reasons. Some have been from the marking of targets by a random citizen who was paid for every target he market for the drone to kill, others have been because of the drones hellfire missiles being shot into residential areas knowing that these missiles are not completely accurate and have a big blast radius. Currently my position on this argument is that the UAV program has a lot of potential, but at this point in time, primarily due to human error, the system is lacking the support and training that it desperately needs. Government funding has gone to buy more and more UAVs but i submit that most of this money should go to further training of pilots and to further advance the methods used to fly these drones. The UAV has many advantages. Dont let inexperience keep these planes from the skies!

Key Terms

To really understand the role of UAV's and why they are such a key element in today's military, it is helpful to have a base understanding of some terms that are associated with these aircraft.

First is UAV itself. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is the term used to describe aircraft that do not have a pilot inside of the plane.
Autonomous flight is a term used to describe certain types of UAV's that can be pre-programmed with a mission and then sent on their way without any further guidance from a human.
A Pilot is a human that is in control of the aircraft, either from inside the cockpit or remotely from a safe location.
Some UAV's are sent on Reconnaissance missions which means that the aircraft with fly to a target location and take aerial photographs for further study and analysis.
Surveillance is similar to reconnaissance, but differs in that instead of taking static pictures of a target, the aircraft with continue to fly around a target and monitor any changes or movement.

These few terms help to understand some of the roles that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have and how they operate.

Political Cartoon

In this cartoon by Andy Singer, a young boy is depicted playing a video game with a concerned looking mother over his shoulder. The young boy tells his mother that he is flying a remote control drone in Afghanistan. The general subject and main point for this cartoon is to play with the concept that the military’s use of remote controlled aircraft is similar to a kid playing a video game.

The military has shown increased emphasis on video games throughout the past decade. The army has even gone so far as to create a video game called "America's Army" to help as a recruitment tool.

In terms of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles, there is striking resemblance to the skills of an avid gamer and the skills of a UAV pilot. Although the military is going to great measures to create the sense of realism that is needed in actual combat, there is still the "Playstation feel" to handling the controls of a plane. To some, it may seem more like a quick game of "Call of Duty" rather than an actual military mission with human lives at stake.

Image used from politicalcartoons.com

http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/65bd080d-2690-4b82-9e3d-b9567e3c1401.html

UAVs and the Operational Commander: Don’t keep MAV grounded!

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA503043&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

the above link is written by:

Joshua A. Sager

LCDR USN

In Joshua's article, he starts out by sharing deductively about how the major premise of the unmanned aerial vehicle has begun to appear all over modern day battlefields. After his introduction with a brief history on UAV's, he begins to share the minor premise of how the UAV's have failed so far in the current war setting and points out specific reasons why and where the current UAV platform is lacking.

One major fallacy in his argument is when he discuses the lack of communication with the UAV in overcast weather. Although clouds do affect the communication link from pilot to aircraft, in typical overcast weather the change is hardly noticeable at all. To put it on perspective, dish network customers do not loose their reception when it is overcast. It is only in moderate to severe storms that the connection to the satellite is interrupted, but most of that is due to physical obstacles blocking or on the dish. The author of this article fails to mention that information, and instead leads the readers to believe that he aircraft cannot function if there is any cloud in the sky.

Overall, the argument is very well presented and entices the reader to side with the authors belief.

www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/air-force-plans-for-all-drone-future

David Axe has reported from Iraq, Lebanon, Japan, East Timor, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chad, Nicaragua, Kenya, Gabon, and other countries. He regularly writes for The Washington Times, C-SPAN, and Wired.com. He has written books on war including “Army 101”, a nonfiction book about the ROTC in the time of war.

www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/world/asia/05drones.html?adxnnl=1&ref=unmannedaerialvehicles&adxnnlx=1305087961-UyrUW9tU9+TR22y25tr34g

Jane Perlez has been the chief correspondent for The New York Times in Pakistan since 2007. Before then, she has served as the Bureau Chief for Vienna, Warsaw, and Nairobi. Before reporting for The New York Times, she was a reporter for The Daily News based out of New York.

Air force to transition to drone planes?

We currently live in an age where technology allows for many things to be controlled by computers or controlled remotely. This concept has even penetrated into the military battleground. The concept is that instead of risking human lives in Air force missions, a plane specially equipped with cameras and radios could be controlled from clear across the globe, thus keeping the pilot out of harms way.

The Predator UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is one of the Air forces remote controlled planes. Equipped to handle reconnaissance, combat, or support missions, this versatile aircraft is just as effective as its manned alternative. Outfitted with a 360* rotational full-color camera, the pilot is able to see anything and everything that the drone sees, all from the safety of home! Imagine waking up Monday morning to a cold winter day, driving a short couple of minutes to a bunker at Hill Air Force Base and immediately take flight in a plane in the scorching deserts of the middle-east. After an intense aerial dogfight and successfully destroying a key target, you are able to be back home with your family in just a matter of minutes!

links:

Unmanned Airforce

Predator Drone