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FUTURE OF DRONE IN NAVAL WARFARE

Ag S Lt Md Shihab Rahman, (E), BN

INTRODUCTION

1. An Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) known as a combat drone, colloquially

shortened as drone ore battlefield UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for

intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, reconnaissance and carries aircraft ordnance such as

missiles, ATGMs and/or bombs in hardpoints for drone strikes. These drones are usually under

real time human control with varying levels of autonomy. Unlike unmanned surveillance and

reconnaissance aerial vehicles, UCAVS are used for both drone strikes and battlefield

intelligence.

2. Aircraft of this type have no onboard human pilot. As the operator runs the vehicle from

a remote terminal, equipment necessary for a human pilot is not needed, resulting in a lower

weight and a smaller size than a manned aircraft. Many countries have operational domestic

UCAVS and many more have imported armed drones or have development programs underway.

3. Over the last two decades, drones also known RS Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

and Remotely piloted Aircraft (RPAs) have become a vital and rapidly growing component of

airpower. Modern Aire Forces currently train more people to operate drones than conventionally

manned aircraft.

HISTORY

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5. One of the earliest explorations of the concept of the combat drone way by Lee De forest,

an early inventor of radio devices and U. A. Sanabria, a TV engineers. They presented their idea

in an article in a 1940 publication of Popular Mechanics. The modern military drone as known

today was the brainchild of John Stuart Froster Ir., a nuclear physicist and former head of the

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (then called the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory).

Figure: General Atomics MQ – 1 Predator

6. In 1971, Fostere was a model aero plane hobbyist and had the idea this hobby could be

applied to building weapons. Her drew up plans and by 1973 DARPA (Defense Advanced

Research Projects Agency, built two preoto types called 'Prairie’ and 'Calera’. They were

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powered by a modified lawn mower engine and could stay aloft for two hours while carrying a

28-pound (13 kg) load.

ADVANTAGES OF WEAPONIZED DRONES

7. Weaponized drones have been attractive to military planners for three main reasons. First,

they allow extended flexible aerial reconnaissance in a way that manned aircraft and satellites

cannot. Manned aircraft can track developments on the ground only stay in the air for a fraction

of the 24 hours of which a Predator is capable; satellites are confined to programmed orbits that

produce serial snapshots of developments on the ground rather than continuous tracking shots

and they cannot see through the clouds below which drones may fly. With their capacity to dwell

flexibly in the air for long time periods, drones can track insurgents to see where they go, with

whom they meet and what they do, generating important intelligence about insurgent networks

and patterns of life.

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Figure: General Atomics MQ – 9 Reaper

8. Second, GPS technology and a drone's ability to linger in the air, moving slowly while it

awaits the opportunity for a clear shot, drones potentially offer great precision in targeting. It is

claimed that the Reaper drone, equipped with a wider range of firepower than the predator, can

destroy one room of a house without killing those in the other rooms. And third drone warfare

makes it possible to fight without losing pilots.

JOINT UNMANNED COMBAT AIR SYSTEM

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9. Joint Unmanned Combat Ain System or J-UCAS was the name for the joint U.S Navy /

U.S Airforce unmanned combat air vehicle procurement project. J- UCAS was managed by

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In the 2006 Quadrennial Defense

Review, the 7- UCAS program was terminated. The program would have used stealth

technologies and allowed UCAVs to be armed with precision guided weapons such as Joint

Direct Attack Munition (JDAM on precision miniature munitions such as the small diameter

bomb, which are used to suppress enemy air defenses. Controllers could have used real time data

sources, including satellites to plan for sand respond to changes on and around the battlefield.

was later revitalized into UCAS-D, a United States Navy program designed to develop a carrier

based on unmanned aircraft.

OPERATIONAL PROTOCOLS

10. Both critics and defenders of drones err in speaking of them as if they have an essential,

inherent character when it comes to civilian casualties. Critics often represent drone strikes as

inevitably producing large numbers of civilian deaths, while drone defenders often speak as if

drones have potential to strike with high levels of precision and discrimination is invariably

realized in practice. In fact, the degree to which drone strikes kill insurgents and spare civilians is

highly dependent upon the targeting protocols employed and these can be complex and variable.

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NAVAL MILITARY DRONES

11. Patroller is equipped with the high resolution Euroflir 410 EO/IR pod, combined with a

COMENT (communication Intelligence) sensor on a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) detecting

moving targets. Based on this configuration, Patroller contributes to the protection of troops in

the field. It provides data on tactical situations, while also conduct warfare (EW) operations.

conducting Electronic 112, For maritime surveillance missions, the Patroller is fitted with a

multi-mode surveillance radar, enabling the long range detection of maritime activity over a

large zone. This version also includes an Automatic Identification System (AIS) to perform ships

classification.

Figure: Patroller Drone

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13. UMIS in The Box is a MOM transportable solution easy to deploy from shone or

mothership. A is based on the comprehensive naval drone system developed by ECA GROUP

and adopted by several navies such as Belgium and Netherlands, a NATO reference for mine

clearance missions at sea. It is composed of several types of naval drones

(US/AUV/ROVIMIDS), their autonomous systems (LARS- Launch And Recovery systems)

combined to a new generation of command and control (62) software suit UMISOFT which

makes this system totally integrated and autonomous for standoff mine warfare. The crew and

operators are kept safe while controlling a situation from the distance via radio communication

and receiving information or data gathered by USV on AUV and ROV. According to the

mission, the environment or other constraint, the team can choose the drones configuration and

deploy it to work autonomously on remotely operated on the battlefield. Decision making during

operation remains in the hands of the operator.

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Figure: UMIS Drone

14. With its high airboat capacity of up to 65kg, the ANAVIA HT-100 is a transport system

for time critical logistic jobs. The ANANIA HT-100 enables fast delivery of goods to hard-to-

reach areas regardless of weather, season and time of day.

CONCLUSION

15. On the other hand, drones offer the possibility of a more discriminate conduct of warfare,

sparing the lives of innocent civilians because of the deliberateness and precision with which

they can HAL ve strike. On the other hand, because they deployed semi-secretly and can kill

people from the air in countries where there are no ground forces, they tempt to use military

force at or beyond the legal limits of international and domestic law, and to use force in

situations where their predecessors would have been deterged by fear of casualties.

16. The employment of drones requires a paradigm shift for the military decision-making

process. Military strategy and operational art is an important factor in determining if and how to

employ drones. Yet, the military decision maker and planners must view drone employment

from a strategic perspective. Military planners can take advantage of the legal ambiguities of

drones to improve plausible deniability and limit potential liability.

17. Remotely piloted Aircraft are not the perfect choice for every mission. Drones have a

number of drawbacks that must be considered before selecting them for employment. There are a

variety of missions for which the drones may not be the best choice. When a drone is beyond line

of sight from a controller, it is possible to lose control of the aircraft. Similarly, many drones

have more restrictive, weather limitations than their manned counterparts. It is interesting to note

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that military strategy is the primary component driving the typical asset allocation process to

employ Remotely Piloted Aircraft.

REFERENCES

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_combat_aerial_vehicle

2. https://www.britannica.com/technology/military-aircraft/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-uavs

3. https://www.army-technology.com/uncategorised/top-combat-drones/

4. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/a-brief-history-of-drones

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHEoVZVIF-4

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfVIrJmScUw

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