Deceiving the Enemy: These Are the Drones You Are Looking For

By developing UAVs for physical deception roles to shape an adversary's ability to visually observe and orient to situations, the US military can decrease risk to air and ground combatants during mission execution by causing adversaries to expend resources, delay their reactions, or react incorrectly to tactical situations.

Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

In August 2011, a US CH-47 Chinook helicopter began its descent in a remote corner of Afghanistan to insert elite Special Forces soldiers at an important objective. Unseen by the aircrew or US reconnaissance drones, a Taliban operative fired a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) at the landing Chinook aircraft, causing it to lose control and crash, killing all 38 service members on board.

This situation could be prevented through the use of creative tactical deception relying on UAVs. In this scenario, the Taliban operative-still unknown to US forces-remains hidden. He watches multiple helicopters overfly his position and start decelerating to land in areas near him, in numerous directions. A more vulnerable helicopter catches his eye as it attempts to land. With deadly accuracy, he fires his RPG and destroys it with a single rocket shot. Yet not a single life is lost. The enemy has only destroyed an unmanned, half-size variant of an actual Chinook helicopter.