American attack UAVs-Part II

The second article of a perspective an more than 100 years of unmanned flight details some of the major developments in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for combat.

Over the past quarter century, incredible technical advances-in computing capabilities, electronics miniaturization, materials, stealth, weapons accuracy, communications, guidance, navigation, control, and the list goes on-have greatly improved the environment for developing a high-performance, lethal UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle).

A confluence of events has led to the development of the unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) program. The technology development during the first century of flight now allows the achievement of the original version of the Sperry and Kettering combat UAVs (see Aerospace Engineering, November 2003), an affordable and effective attack platform that can eliminate targets without risk to a human operator. The UCAV program is now demonstrating the technical feasibility for this weapon system for the next century.