Deadly UAVs of Modern Warfare

Like the extermination of dinosaurs that dwell at the early years of the planet some 160 million years ago in the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous period, technology seem to follow the same natural pattern, leaving the old to start something new.  

History has it that it started as early as 1916 in what was known as A.M. Low’s aerial target. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs), drones or the present Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) evolved through the years and its existence has now come to threaten the phase out of fielded combat/fighter aircraft for its place in the National Defense inventory. Way back in the 1950’s during the cold war, drones, with the shape of small aircraft is loaded/ towed after a mother ship where it was left in the sky, loaded with remotely operated cameras, they could loiter in high altitude and take photographs of the target before being retrieved. Its evolution over the years with the development of computers and miniaturized electronic components has gone a fast pace eversince. Now they could perform multi-tasks including the equipage of weapons that could hit its target from a distance. Consider these for example;

RQ-2 Pioneer- was introduced in 1986 and manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and had been utilized by US, Singapore and Israel over the passed years. It is powered by a piston engine and had been utilized for a variety of roles such as Artillery Targeting and Acquisition, Control of Close Air Support, Reconnaissance and Surveillance, Battle Damage Assessment, Search and Rescue, Psychological Operations among others. It has a range of 185 kilometers and could remain airborne for 5 hours at 200 km/hr speed.

GNAT 750- the General Atomics GNAT is a reconnaissance UAV developed in the US in the late ’80s, it took the air in 1989. It is powered by a Rotax 912 piston engine and attains a speed of 212 km/hr and could remain airborne for 48 hours.

Aerosonde “Laima” – is a small UAV manufactured by Aerosonde Ltd. of Australia. Originally developed by Insitu, an American company that was later acquired by Boeing. Powered by an Enya R 120 model aircraft engine, it carries a small computer, meteorological instruments and a receiver for GPS navigation. It has a cruising speed of 140 km/hr and an endurance of 21 hours at a 3,000 km range. On August 1998, one variant named Laima completed a 2,031 mile (3,270 km) flight across the Atlantic Ocean. It was by far the first recorded crossing of the Atlantic by UAV.