The Hindu : Combat UAVs, cheaper and deadlier

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 08, 2003

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Combat UAVs, cheaper and deadlier

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE FEB. 7. Top Gun was a nice Hollywood movie. But glorifying human air combat by ignorance or by design is lagging behind reality. In the foreseeable future, if scientists and engineers, rather than pilots, have their way, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) will replace aircraft piloted by human beings with as much, if not more, deadly efficiency.

Modern day UAVs can carry payloads in excess of 400 kg, operate with multiple redundancy (back-up) avionics, are fully automated, and can be guided via satellites to make trans-oceanic flights. They fly as low as 3,000 feet and as high as 33,000 feet and carry sophisticated cameras and radars.

UAVs were always popular for reconnaissance. Their attack capabilities are only now gaining ground, with companies such as Lockheed Martin Aeronautics (makers of the F-16 fighters), to name one, investing in developing such futuristic UAVs.

There are two strong reasons to use UAVs: One, no life is put in danger, and two, a sophisticated UAV is 10 times cheaper than a modern fighter aircraft. Most modern armed forces around the world now use one or more type of UAV — indigenous or purchased.

Israel, which pioneered the UAVs over the last 25 years, has over a dozen types. "Eight are in operation with 22 customers around the world," said Ovadia Harari, vice-president and chief operating officer of Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., at an Aero India seminar here.

Mr. Harari put UAVs in perspective: "The top decision-makers in the air force of a country are all pilots." In other words, the use of UAVs beyond reconnaissance, for tactical warfare, has an obstacle more in terms of mindset than in terms of technology.

In the early days of the UAVs, when they were still just drones, the MTBL (mean time before loss) of a UAV was about 400 hours of flight, Mr. Harari said. That is, it was okay to lose one, after it had done some 400 hours of flying and spying. Today, the MTBL is 10,000 plus hours. In the real world, Mr. Harari says, the challenge will be to make UAVs on larger and more complex platforms: the Global Hawk, which was used in Afghanistan, or the UAV the Americans used to kill an alleged terrorist in Sudan are examples.

The one constraint that has to be overcome is keeping the cost low. A typical combat aircraft costs about $25 million. The UAV will have to be built for a tenth of that, he says.

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