The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) have come a long way from the first officially recognized UAS known as the Kettering Bug which was developed in 1918 (Stamp, 2013). The initial use of UAS was primarily by the military and was for dropping bomb payloads on enemy territory compared to today where a UAS is used both for civilian and military use.
While both the military and civilian UAS perform different unique missions, there are some missions that are similar. One mission that is similar to both the military UAS and the civilian UAS is search and rescue mission. A great example of a military UAS used for search and rescue is the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 global hawk which is used to record intelligence, surveillance and reconnaisance data(U.S. Air-force, 2014) and in civilian mission could be used for search and rescue of refugees that are stranded in the Mediterranean sea (Mcnabb, 2015) as well as search and rescue of individuals that have been declared missing.
The strength of the RQ-4 lies in its ability to fly more than 34 hours at a stretch and stay as high as 60000 feet with the operator still able to view high resolution Imagery (U.S. Air-force, 2014) while its weaknesses are mission critical components fail at high rates resulting in poor takeoff reliability, high abort rate, low mission capable rates and a high demand for maintenance support (Reed, 2011).
In order to correct the weakness, the reliability of critical components fitted on the RQ-4 should be improved on and there should be better maintenance support plan for the UAS.
For future cross over/correlated missions/task, it will be in the interest of UAS manufacturers to leave room for the possibility of crossing over of a military UAS to a civilian UAS and vice-versa when they are been developed, hence this will reduce design time and cost of manufacturing a new UAS.
References:
Mcnabb, M (2015, October 5). Military Drones Re purposed for Refugee Rescue
http://dronelife.com/2015/10/05/military-drones-repurposed-for-refugee-rescue/
Reed, J (2011, June 7). The RQ-4 Global Hawk's Continuing Woes
http://www.defensetech.org/2011/06/07/the-rq-4-global-hawks-continuing-woes/
Stamp, J (2013, February 12). WORLD WAR I: 100 YEARS LATER
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/unmanned-drones-have-been-around-since-world-war-i-16055939/?no-ist
U.S.AIRFORCE.(2014, October, 27). RQ-4 Global Hawk
http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/FactSheets/Display/tabid/224/Article/104516/rq-4-global-hawk.aspx
John,
ReplyDeleteThe advancement that has been made since the Kettering Bug in 1918 is truly phenomenal. To think that the actual UAV was the bomb and that the wings would be timed as to detach from the aircraft at a specific engine rotation in the early beginnings in the development of UAVs is amazing. Fast forward to the RQ-4 that you reference in your piece in which the UAV has been developed into an intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance machine.
Your comparison and application of military UAV in the search and rescue mission has many interested. There has been an establishment of a volunteer search and rescue network called S.W.A.R.M. (Search With Aerial Rc Multi-rotor). This organization is a worldwide volunteer search and rescue network with over 1,100 SAR Drone Pilots dedicated to searching for missing persons (“SAR Drones. Org,” n.d.).
This article highlights the fact that search and rescue by traditional methods can be very costly. With the use of UAVs the cost can be substantially reduces and the risks mitigated. In addition to locating the UAV could also be used to provide much needed supplies until a rescue team can reach the people in need.
The drawback being realized with UAV technology is the pushback by the public due to the negative stigma associated with the use of this technology in civil application ( “SAR Drones. Org,” n.d.).
References:
SAR Drones. Org. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://sardrones.org/
John, your blog looks great, nice work!
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