Contributions of UAVs to Other Operations

Other Government Support

While the DoD has been focusing on UAVs' value in support of military operations, there is an increasing demand for UAVs to provide non-military services. Moreover, as more UAVs are fielded, more reconnaissance and surveillance applications will emerge, such as:

Nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapon detection and treaty monitoring
Counter-narcotics support
Coastal and border surveillance, and embargo enforcement
Humanitarian and disaster assistance, to include search and rescue, crowd control, and local security operations
International peacekeeping support
Counter-insurgency or anti-terrorism operations.

An example of these extended applications of DoD assets is the Predator Medium Altitude Endurance (MAE) UAV demonstration planned for this Fall for the U.S. Customs Service, in response to Congressional direction, to explore the potential of UAVs to help the customs Service detect, track and apprehend smugglers and their illegal contraband. As requested, we will provide a report of test and evaluation results to the Congressional Appropriations Committees by May 1, 1996.

Arms Control Compliance

UAVs, like many military systems, can be affected by arms control agreements. While arms control does not specifically constrain reconnaissance UAVs, the inherent similarity between cruise missiles and UAVs could place limitations on the development of UAVs. For this reason, the DARO examined the United States' arms control commitments to ensure that all reconnaissance UAVs comply with these agreements. We will continue to monitor advances in the arms control arena and ensure treaty compliance. In addition, to preclude any future misunderstanding about UAVs as weapons platforms, the DARO has made it clear that it has no plans to develop or test armed reconnaissance UAVs.

Civil/Commercial Applications

UAVs are also being considered for an expanding range of commercial applications worldwide, as indicated at the UAV-95 Conference in Paris this past June. Chief among them are:

Synoptic viewing of selected areas, events, activities, or site inspection
Commercial communications relay, or provision of immediate cellular connectivity over an area of interest
Earth environmental monitoring
Transportation and delivery of commercial goods and services.

The use of UAVs for such non- governmental functions is projected to yield a commercial market of $2 billion annually as early as the year 2005.

[UAVs] are being used for more functions every day. The military UAV missions are obvious and have been addressed many times.... The non-military government and commercial unmanned aircraft functions ... however,... will yield a yearly market exceeding $1 billion (U.S.) by the turn of the century ... [and] will likely exceed $2 billion (U.S) by 2005 -- just ten short years away.
The reason for this increase in interest and market size is fairly simple: the use of the "vertical dimension" to gather or relay information is becoming vital to successful operations in the post-Cold War era. Moreover, UAVs may start to replace manned aircraft for the transportation and delivery of goods and services under benign, or routine, conditions.
... [U]nmanned aircraft may perform as effectively and more cheaply than either satellites or manned aircraft. Thus, UAVs complete the array of capability necessary to fully populate this vertical dimension of the rapidly growing information world.
Richard T. Wagaman
Past President, Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVS)
Address at UV-95 Conference, Paris, France
June 1995