Drones - Ideal Reconnaissance Platforms

Many years ago whilst running a multi million dollar flight simulator I used to joke with Pilots that one day robots will be flying surveillance missions, even having dogfights with each other.

Those days have arrived, although so far there is still a pilot in charge, albeit thousands of miles away. But there is the capability of programming the drones to fly a predetermined pattern and report back what they see and hear. In Afghanistan we have seen the same drones loose off a missile or laser guided bomb to take out the target, a whole new dimension of unmanned warfare from a distance.

In August 2009 the USAF began training more drone pilots that conventional fighter and bomber pilots, and predicted the end was in sight for the fighter pilot. Some of us remember the same words forty years ago when missiles were supposed to make manned bombers and fighters a thing of the past. It didn't happen. It's difficult to see the career path to the top including a stint in charge of a video game arcade, although that seems the way of the future.

The huge growth in the use of UAV's both by the military, law enforcement authorities, and corporations has resulted in many requests for tracking the development and deployment of these innovative surveillance vehicles.

They have certainly proved themselves in the war zones, but their ability to quietly loiter over areas of interest, coupled with their ability to search vast areas of water, or land for survivors, intruders or failures in pipelines or transmission lines will give them a growing use in the future. The question of integrating these unmanned aircraft in the overcrowded skies has yet to be answered, and eventually a drone will collide with a manned aircraft.

In the meantime the development of UAV's is going ahead full steam in many countries around the world. In the weeks ahead I will be building this online resource.

Swarm Intelligence and Swarming Drones

We use Swarm Intelligence algorithms to sort out the millions of pieces of information on our information radars, and with billions of calculations determine the relationship to each other and the environment. It isn't that stretch of the imagination to see unmanned armed, or intelligence gathering drones could fly around a target and either see and hear everything, bug the hell out of it, or blow it to pieces from multiple directions at the same time.

The new micro miniature intelligence gathering drones can buzz around like flies in buildings, tunnels, and everywhere humans can fit. They can swarm around a target outside like annoying, but unnoticed Humming Birds. Some researchers claim to have perfected miniature drones the size of a Dragon Fly.

At the other end of the spectrum General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper carries 14 Hellfire missiles and guided bombs. The thought of hundreds of live bombs swarming around a computer defined target has many people very worried. The question that needs to be asked is "Who is providing Air Traffic Control to keep these computer controlled drones and huge passenger aircraft away from each other?" ------ Or put another way "Friendly Fire from an Unresponsive Program!

Teal Group Predicts Worldwide UAV Market Will Reach Nearly $55 Billion

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are the most dynamic growth sector of the world aerospace industry, report Teal analysts in their latest integrated market analysis.

Teal Group's 2008 market study estimates that UAV spending will more than double over the next decade from current worldwide UAV expenditures of $3.4 billion annually to $7.3 billion within a decade, totaling close to $55 billion in the next ten years. (For further details and study availability, contact the respective Teal sales rep in your area at http://www.tealgroup.com/).

"The most significant catalyst to this market has been the enormous growth of interest in UAVs by the US military, tied to the general trend toward information warfare and net-centric systems," said Teal senior analyst Steve Zaloga, one of the authors of the new study. "UAVs are a key element in the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) portion of this revolution, and they are expanding into other missions as well with the advent of hunter-killer UAVs."

The study suggests that the US will account for 73% of the worldwide RDT&E spending on UAV technology over the next decade, and about 59% of the procurement. These US expenditures represent higher shares of the aerospace market than for worldwide defense spending in general, with the US accounting for about 67% of total worldwide defense RDT&E spending and 37% of procurement spending, according to forecasts in International Defense Briefing, another Teal Group competitive intelligence service.

The fifth edition of the sector study, "World Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems, Market Profile and Forecast 2008," examines the worldwide requirements for UAVs, including UAV payloads, and provides ten-year forecasts by country, region, and classes of UAVs.

The 2008 study also provides 10-year funding and production forecasts for the wide range of UAV payloads including Electro-Optic/Infrared Sensors, Synthetic Aperture Radars (SARs), SIGINT and EW Systems, C4I Systems, and CBRN Sensors.

"The payload portion of the 2008 study includes expanded sensor forecasts, including many new systems and system types," said Dr. David Rockwell, second author of the new UAV study. The U.S. Air Force has stated ISR is "the centerpiece of our global war on terrorism," and major RDT&E efforts are bringing large-aircraft capabilities to smaller and smaller UAVs, including mini-SARs and chem/bio sensors.

The 2008 study also includes a UAV Manufacturers Market Overview that reflects the worldwide UAV market "as one of he hottest areas of growth for defense and aerospace companies," said Philip Finnegan, third author of the new UAV study.

The new UAV study will double the number of companies covered. "The dynamism of the UAV market means that European companies are becoming increasingly important, so we will add Thales, Safran and EMT."

"Smaller companies can successfully compete against larger players, as AAI Corp., General Atomics and AeroVironment have all shown," Finnegan said. In addition to continuing coverage of these successful small U.S. companies, new ones have been added, including Insitu, Aurora Flight Sciences, Swift Engineering and Proxy Aviation Systems.

"Our overview tracks the widely varying approaches being taken by these key companies, ranging from outright acquisitions, to teaming arrangements and internal development of new UAV systems," said Finnegan.

"Teal Group already covers the UAV market in its World Missiles and UAV Briefing, which examines the UAV market on a program-by-program basis," said Zaloga. "The sector study examines the UAV market from a complementary perspective, namely national requirements, and includes both a comprehensive analysis of UAV system payloads and key UAV manufacturers."

The Teal Group is an aerospace and defense market analysis firm based in Fairfax, Virginia USA. It provides competitive intelligence to industry and government worldwide

The UAV's