UAVs: Not So Expendable Anymore

By Julie Weckerlein

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) or drones, are sophisticated pilotless aircraft that serve as the eyes and ears for our troops on the ground. These vehicles routinely embark on risky reconnaissance missions that were previously performed by pilots. UAVs evolved tremendously over the years and are now an essential part of our mission, especially in remote locations where rough terrain makes things difficult.

Early on, survivability of the UAV was not a primary focus. Their main purpose was simply to reduce the need to send soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines into risky situations. They were intended to be inexpensive and expendable. But over time, these machines have become more complex and play an even greater role in helping our troops accomplish their mission. Today, when a UAV does occasionally go down, a ground unit has been sent to recover it. Due to the rising cost of platforms and sensor packages as well as recent combat losses, the UAV community is considering survivability enhancements. And although there is no loss of life directly associated with the loss of a UAV, the potential loss of life, within units on the ground that depend on the UAV, is substantial. Survivability techniques and technologies developed for manned aircraft can be considered in order to offer cost-effective survivability enhancements for UAVs; but the vast amount of data from numerous sources made the task daunting.

Enter the Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center (SURVIAC). SURVIAC recently teamed  with the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Combat Survivability Division (CSD) to conduct  two workshops specifically focused on enhancing survivability for UAVs, bringing together experts across  the aircraft survivability community to collaborate on leveraging existing technology to apply to  unmanned systems. After the initial workshop, participants walked away in strong agreement that  survivability should be formally considered in the design of all UAVs.

The second workshop focused on developing a total survivability solution. Participants recommended that the ideal solution include modular components, multi-platform capability, and should leverage existing sensor payloads. They also agreed that establishing self-protection requirements for UAVs is essential to ensuring our troops have the necessary eyes and ears to accomplish their mission. Summary reports on both workshops are available through SURVIAC, which can be reached via the IAC website at http://iac.dtic.mil.

The success and the survival of so many soldiers, sailors, sirmen and Marines is due, in no small part, to the intelligence and support provided by UAVs. Now that we depend on these UAVs, we need to ensure that they can survive as well.

The Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center (SURVIAC) is one of ten Information Analysis Centers (IACs) established by DOD and managed by the Defense Technical Information Center. SURVIAC The Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center is a DoD Center of Excellence responsible for acquiring, archiving, analyzing, synthesizing, and disseminating scientific and technical information related to all aspects of survivability and lethality for aircraft, ground vehicles, ships and spacecraft, to conventional homeland security threats including conventional, directed energy, and asymmetric warfare.