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uas industry

The aeronautics industry is continually changing, led in many cases, by technologies developed for specific military missions and projects.

In almost all cases, these technological developments are eventually adopted for civil use.

In the last ten years, the successful use of composite airframes and structures in military aircraft has been dramatic. Composite airframes to a large extent contribute to the stealth features of these planes. Airframe structures made of carbon are lighter than steel or aluminium and contribute to more fuel efficient airplanes. Together, their use indirectly reduces the overall cost of manufacture, improves durability, reduces maintenance requirements, and extends the endurance or range of flights.

Carbon fibre can be woven with a combination of different basic materials and shaped to improve performance and/or meet specific mission requirements. Most recently, carbon wings and tails are being be infused with electronic component or grids, which further reduce overall costs of production and maintenance.

The US government has used carbon composite based structures in a number of airborne reconnaissance and weapon systems. Most of the early uses were in manned aircraft. In the last ten years, it has increasingly been used in unmanned aircraft, “UAS”, including the “secret” RQ-170 UAS lost to Iran in 2011.

Boeing has led the sometimes “bleeding” edge use of these technologies and applications in building aircraft for civilian use.

The unmanned aeronautical system market is one of the fastest growing segments of the aeronautical industry.

Application Areas

The three main application segments are military, civil and civilian. The use of carbon fibre in UAS’s is becoming more prevalent for military missions and will become essential to meet the growing market for non-military government agency civil missions, and eventually the broader range of purely civilian applications.

Military

The UAS military sector has been mainly focussed on the Iraq and Afghanistan theatres. As those wars wind down, UAS’s are being used more and more in missions against specific insurgent actors and activities mainly in a number of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African. Autonomous stealthy missile carrying UAS’s are being used primarily in these asymmetric wars.

Most countries around the world are adopting a strategic policy of using Special Forces for these wars and for unforeseen wars of the future, replacing in many cases the use of tradition military units. These forces in many cases are based and operate just off shore. An array of different types of UAS’s are ideally suited to support Special Forces missions.

The uses of UAS’s are similar in both types of warfare, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, targeting, and combat. They can be launched and returned to variety of vessels, including carriers, destroyers and smaller ships.

Civil

The Civil sector has been mainly focussed on several different types of protection activities. States are increasingly engaged in actions to protect their territorial rights including oil and gas, fishing, and land. They are also actively engaged in stopping or stemming the smuggling of people, drugs and other contraband materials and illegal immigration. These border and offshore missions are increasing and UAS’s can and are playing a larger role.

Governments and commercial companies are battling tanker and other large ship hijacking with a number of traditional methods, such as the use of convoys and military escorts. Some countries and alliances are beginning to more aggressive and are attacking pirate bases just on shore as a preventative measure or to recover assets.

On board UAS’s are ideal for both on sea protection and in support of onshore missions. UAS’s can provide ISR as well as tactical combat support. They can be armed not only with multiple cameras and sensors but also missiles.

In addition to these areas, governments are experimenting with the use of UAS’s in support of domestic unrest, crowd control, and protection of major events. Some cities are trialling UAS’s in a variety of policing activities. Some specialist organisations are beginning to analyse their use for possible use in support of search and rescue in both normal climate conditions and in extraordinary events such as tsunamis or earth quakes. UAS’s may also support other state sponsored activities including: forest protection, anti-poaching, oil and gas pipeline protection.

The growth in Asia Pacific, is coming from the use of UAS’s in the protection of off shore territorial oil and gas assets and protection against piracy in highly congested and contested water ways.

The growth in Europe, the Middle East and Africa is coming from the use of UAS’ s in the support of local policing, and in a variety of protection services sectors, including tanker protection.

Civilian

The civilian sector includes a wide variety of applications which are now largely served by small fixed wing planes and helicopters. Some of the many applications include: power line and rail line break identification, off shore oil and gas platform surveillance, crop management, aerial geological survey and mapping, flood and disaster assessment, air sampling and early warning of chemical, biological and radiation excessive conditions, weather data collection and environmental monitoring, commercial security at large installations, wilderness and park patrols and monitoring of certain conditions such as forest fires, publicity photography, and private event protection.

While there are some companies active in one or more of these areas, large scale use of UAS’s to replace fixed wing and helicopters is dependent on establishment by government agencies of rules on the use of UAS’s in civilian air space.

These applications can be classified into those UAS’s used in segregated and those used in integrated air space. Segregated areas are those where other aircraft do not normally operate, such as space, flying height, or radio frequency. Integrated areas are where other aircraft normally operate.

Prior to government UAS rules coming into force, some activities have been granted use in segregated areas such as offshore oil and gas platform monitoring and policing.

Both the EU and US governments have placed deadlines of 2015 for their respective civil air and communications agencies to establish a comprehensive set of rules and guidelines.

As usual, military UAS operations are leading the way in terms of setting standards, certification and pilot training for these new civilian rules.

The Viator Series of highly scalable UAS's is perfectly suited for military, civil and civilian applications, without changes to its airframe design.

For further information on the Viator Series' major features, view the following document

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