UAV's

 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), or “drones” as the majority of the population refer to them as, have an ever increasing range of civilian purposes in the United States.  Film crews have already utilized them for years, providing epic aerial footage for a majority of your favorite TV shows and movies, able to fly overhead without the noise and massive rotor wash of a helicopter, and the costly overhead. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been using a small fleet of Predator B UAV’s since 2007 to patrol our land and sea borders as an alternate to helicopters, yet according to a January 2015 Department of homeland Security Inspectors General (IG) report, it concluded they had no evidence the UAVs improved border security of reduction in drug trafficking. (Scathing Audit On Border Agency Drones Comes As Police Interest Rises, 2015, January 12) How is that you may ask?  Well, my educated guess would be that they are not being utilized effectively, efficiently, or correctly. Not a big surprise for a Federal Government agency, nor is it a surprise in their inaccurate (or flat out misleading) reported costs of operation.  CBP reported that the cost per flight hour was $2,468, yet the IG’s findings were $12,255.  CBP reported in 2013 that the net program cost was $12 million, the IG’s- $62.5 million.  Those are extremely large discrepancies (or deceptions), not lending us to trust what the CBP will do with their planned $443 million in spending to add 14 more Predator B’s to their fleet.  Since these UAV’s are not carrying armament like their cousins in the military realm, they have the ability to carry even more fuel, increasing their loiter time up to 24 hours.  How can they not efficiently and effectively patrol the border again?  Mind-boggling.  The technology is out there; it just needs to be utilized properly.  Branching off topic, aerial Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS) equipped on UAVs to patrol hotspots on the border would make much more sense, you can read about it HERE, currently utilized by small piloted aircraft around the country, so something to think about for aspiring pilots.

There are currently two methods of gaining FAA authorization to fly civil (non-governmental) UAS. The first being Section 333 Exemption – a grant of exemption in accordance with Section 333 AND a civil Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA); this process may be used to perform commercial operations in low-risk, controlled environments.  And the second being a Special Airworthiness Certificate (SAC) – applicants must be able to describe how their system is designed, constructed, and manufactured, including engineering processes, software development and control, configuration management, and quality assurance procedures used, along with how and where they intend to fly. (FAA, 2015)

The FAA proposal offers safety rules for small UAS (under 55 pounds) conducting non-recreational operations. The rule would limit flights to daylight and visual-line-of-sight operations. It also addresses height restrictions, operator certification, optional use of a visual observer, aircraft registration and marking, and operational limits. (Overview of Small UAS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 2015) The complete overview can be read HERE.

I definitely foresee larger UAV’s being integrated into our NextGEN National Air Space with the mandatory Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) requirement coming into effect January 1^st, 2020.  Apparently the FAA has planned for space flights as well, they modified an ADS-B Out prototype designed for the demanding environment of suborbital launch vehicles. Originally designed for unmanned aircraft and general aviation applications, the prototype was first tested successfully on a high-altitude balloon. Then it was launched on a commercial reusable suborbital vehicle to an altitude of more than 70 miles. The ADS-B Out payload transmitted as expected to ground stations in Texas and New Mexico during the entire flight. (NextGEN, 2015)  With this new system we will have traffic de-confliction from the taxiways, all the way up to space it seems.

It will be some time before the uninformed publics’ opinion that UAVs “drones” are just autonomous robotic-flying killing-machines, or spy aircraft sent to invade their privacy, and see them simply as Remotely Piloted Aircraft.  Or…maybe never, who knows.

The application of UAV’s in the military has been a game changer. Period. While I could fill a few pages of their pro’s and con’s, I’ll try to just highlight a few of each especially since by now the Predator and Reaper “drones” have received so much public attention. UAV’s are extremely valuable if you’re one of the troops on the ground, whether that’s providing real-time video back to headquarters, the Tactical Operations Center, or close air support.  Best of all compared to either an attack helicopter or fighter jet, they can loiter overhead for 20 or so hours before returning to base to refuel.  I’ve benefited a few times from UAVs being on station, and have a special place in my heart for the MQ-9 Reaper that made a few hundred Taliban wish they didn’t attack our compound one night.

One of the uses for a high endurance UAV would be to "stare" at the battlefield for a long period of time to produce a record of events that could then be played backwards to track where improvised explosive devices (IEDs) came from. Similar to the aerial Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS) I linked to earlier in this post.

Another great UAV is actually a Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) The RQ-16A T-Hawk is a ducted fan VTOL micro UAV has been in use with the U.S. Multi-Service Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group and others. The gasoline engine powered RQ-16 weighs 20 lbs., has an endurance of around 40 minutes, 10,500-foot ceiling and an operating radius of about 6 nautical miles. Forward speeds up to 70 knots. Sensors include one forward and one downward looking daylight or IR cameras. (RQ-16: Future Combat Systems’ Last UAV Survivor Falls, Sept 19, 2012) Military convoys have been using MAVs to fly ahead and scan the roads. A MAV’s benefit is its ability to inspect a target — a suspicious vehicle, structure, or disturbed earth — from close range, covering ground much more quickly than an unmanned ground vehicle and without putting people at risk.

UAVs, just as Conventional military aircraft, have seen their fair share of cost overruns.  One of the most expensive UAVs is the Global Hawk. Its 2001 cost estimate per aircraft was $61 million, 2006 the cost increased 35% to $82.3 Million (Soaring Costs Not Likely to Slow Down Global Hawk, 2006, May 1). and $131 million in fiscal year 2013.  That’s about what an F-22 Raptor costs.  But, seems the Defense department is willing to pay for a aircraft that can fly at FL 650 for up to 32 hours.

The number of “drone strikes” during this administration has multiplied several times over since the last administration.  Now if you knew me, you’d think I was taking a swipe at Commander In Chief.  Yes and no.  I am 100% all in for eliminating all the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Abu Sayyaf, etc., we can. How we do so is apparently the debate at hand. One can see how it appears the administration (and lets not leave out other intelligence agencies) seems to use drone strikes as a first option, and sometimes an only option, as opposed to using a Special Operations unit (Boots on the ground), or a piloted aircraft.  While some appreciate that our guys aren’t in harms way, it does give the impression to the public that it’s just as easy as a video game to take out a target.  The media is quick to sensationalize a strike that has collateral damage involving civilians, women, and children.  And also quick to point out that our surgical strikes are not so surgical.  Without going off on the horrors of war, it is just that- war.  Collateral damage is part of every conflict, we should be grateful we have advanced technologically, ethically, and tactically, to make every attempt to minimize that loss.  We no longer carpet bomb entire cities just to eliminate one sniper as we did in previous wars.

As I mentioned earlier, I think more UAVs will integrate into our NAS with the upcoming NextGEN transition, thus opening the door for UAV pilot and management opportunities.  Border protection, police departments, search and rescue, wild fire management, hurricane hunters, NOAA, crop dusters, pipe line patrol, geo-mapping, just to name a few.  Not to mention, the Air Force is looking to double the size of their UAV pilot graduates per year, making it the largest pilot training program.

References:

Overview of Small UAS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/rulemaking/media/021515_sUAS_Summary.pdf

Scathing Audit On Border Agency Drones Comes As Police Interest Rises. (2015, January 12). Retrieved from https://www.revealnews.org/article-legacy/scathing-audit-on-border-agency-drones-comes-as-police-interest-rises/

Civil Operations (Non-Governmental). (2015). Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/uas/civil_operations/

NextGen. (2015). file://localhost/Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/update/progress_and_plans/adsb/

RQ-16: Future Combat Systems’ Last UAV Survivor Falls, (Sept 19, 2012) Retrieved from: http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/one-small-step-for-a-uav-one-big-step-for-fcs-class-i-01372/

Soaring Costs Not Likely to Slow Down Global Hawk. (2006, May 1). Retrieved from http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2006/May/Pages/SoaringCosts5337.aspx