UAV Airframes and Missions Drive Embedded Computing Choices

Every branch of the armed forces has a need for capabilities delivered from unmanned aerial vehicle/ unmanned aerial system (UAV/UAS) platforms. These unmanned vehicles have proved critical to improving situational awareness with surveillance and data collection, real-time communications, and even armament deployment. Key to the military’s technological approach to a modernized battlefield, new ideas for UAS use and deployment are spurring their expanded development as a priority among the Joint Forces. Enhanced systems are required to enable more sophisticated functionality, weaponization, and longer flight time at greater altitudes. Systems also need to be versatile to support a broader size range of UAS/UAV vehicles, from tanker-sized vehicles all the way down to micro-sized equipment. These diverse requirements are certainly a challenge to designers who must also ensure high reliability when operating in the rugged environment of a battlefield.