| on 29-07-2007 22:11 |
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US Taking War to the Next Level
The U.S. Air Force has unveiled
a 25-year program for developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The
document lays out a strategy for the project and lists the necessary
technologies for this new field of aviation.
Military experts say UAVs will
mainly carry air-to-air and air-to-surface guided missiles, as well as
smart aviation bombs and cluster bombs, including submunitions with
different guidance systems. In the future, new kinds of weapons systems
may be installed on UAVs. Currently, work is focused on two areas:
adapting available weapons for use on unmanned craft and developing
new, specialized weapons.
During the NATO campaign in
Yugoslavia, UAVs were employed only for reconnaissance purposes. In
Afghanistan, however, troops used a strike craft called the Predator
for the first time, detecting and destroying militant groups of various
strengths, their bases and sites for launching unguided missiles.
The wide range of available
guided weapons makes it possible for UAVs to carry out their missions
alone or in conjunction with manned aviation. Because of the enormous
payload carried by UAV craft, it is safe to assume that developers will
continue to look for ways to make guided aviation weapons smaller.
Directed-energy weapons are
also likely to be added to the traditional arsenal of weapons and
electronic countermeasures already mounted on UAV craft.
The global spread of UAV
technologies has encouraged many do-it-yourself projects using
unclassified methods. So these weapons of the future could also be used
by terrorists as a sort of kamikaze robots.
Yury Zaitsev is an analyst at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Space Research.
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