Military use of Drones!

by, Scott Amack

Agenda• History • Current State of Drones• Future State of Drones

History• British Kites (1806)

o Lord Thomas Cochran of the HMS Pallas o Dropped propaganda leaflets on the French coast

• Austrian Balloons (1849)o Battle with Venice using tethered balloonso Contributed to the collapse of the Venetian Revolt

• Civil War (1863)o Patents issued for unmanned aerial bombardment balloono Confederate army want to annihilate General Grants armyo Consensus was that these forward thinkers were crazy

History• Nikola Tesla (1898)

o Remote Control Patento Remote boat bomb

• Aerial Torpedo (1938)o U.S. Navy Developedo Curtiss "N2C-2“ Remote Controlled Droneo Successful test attack on destroyer 20 miles away

• Japanese Balloons (1944)o Fire Balloons carried explosiveso Attack on U.S. soilo 6 confirmed deaths

History• Radiation Testing (1946)

o Remote Control B-17 Flying Fortresso Launched from ground controlo Piloted remotely from another aircraft

• MQM-57 Falconer (1955)o Remote controlled reconnaissance droneo Carried camera payload and flares for night time o 30 minute flight time

• Model Ryan 147A/B (Firebee) (1962)o Recon flights over China and Vietnamo Used for SAM detectiono Chinese shot down 5 droneso U.S. adopted “no comment” policy on drone usage

History• Israel vs. Syria (1982)

o Electronic Decoyso Electronic Jammerso Resulted in minimal loss of life

• DARPA Amber Project (1984)o First inverted v-tail drone o Used for Reconnaissance and ELINT (electronics intelligence) o Remote Cruise Missile

• Predator (1994)o Developed using information learned from Amber Projecto First mission Spring 1995 Albaniao Initially created for reconnaissance

History• Reaper (Predator B) (2001)

o Designed for long endurance high altitude surveillanceo Carries 15 times the payload of the predatoro 1st hunter-killer drone for tactical combat o moved from using UAVs primarily in intelligence, surveillance, and

reconnaissance roles before Operation Iraqi Freedom, to a true hunter-killer role with the Reaper

Current State• Reaper

o Added capability for increased payloado Increased fuel capacity for 37 hour enduranceo Built in suppression of air defenseso Electronic Jamming o Integration of Gorgon Stare “Video Like” surveillanceo New York Air National Guard unit fully transitioned from F-16 pilots to

Reaper pilotso The Reaper has a range of 3,682 mi (5,926 km) and an operational

altitude of 50,000 ft (15,000 m)

Current State• Global Hawk

o Used as replacement for U2 spy planeo Wide area search imageryo High resolution spot mode

• Predatoro Used to kill prominent Al-Qaeda Operativeso 195 in operation (2009)o 70 lost to air crasheso 55 lost to operator error, equipment failure, or weather o 4 have been shot downo 11 lost to operational accidents on combat missions

Future State of Drones• Micro Air Vehicles

o Long Term Usageo Blend into Environmento Silent Monitoringo Work in Swarmso http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z78mgfKprdg

References• http://

www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/rpav_home.html

• http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=44164

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Model_147_Lightning_Bug

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MQ-9_Reaper• http://

www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/rise-of-the-drones.html

• http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=16040