Military UAS, like the Predator, have been used for a variety of purposes including battlefield surveillance, reconnaissance, and direct action missions. The Predator is able to conduct 24 hour long missions, providing a lasting presence in battlespace (US Airforce, 2016). The Predator has a wingspan of 55 feet and weighs more than half a ton (US Airforce). It’s equipped with a 115hp combustion engine and a pusher configuration to propel it to speeds up to 135 mph while carrying a variety of sensors that allow for wide area recon and surveillance (Military.com, 2016). Unfortunately, the Predator, like its manned counterparts, requires a large footprint to facilitate take offs and landings, operations, maintenance, refueling, management, and crew and costs $3,679 per flight hour (Thompson, 2013). For civil purposes without government infrastructure, the use of large UAS like the Predator is unrealistic.
In contrast, for farming, mapping, and surveying, smaller UAS are often sufficient to meet the needs of farmers. With coverage of 600-800 acres an hour, the AgDrone is a fully autonomous, hand launched UAV that can be set up quickly at the convenience of the farmer. It can follow a pre-planned route to locate discrepancies in crops with a variety of sensors (HoneyComb, 2016). One of the primary drawbacks of smaller UAS like HoneyComb is that they don’t have the payload capacity or the energy or fuel capacity to maintain a lasting presence like larger UAS. However, sensor, battery, and solar panel technology is improving and shrinking to fit more capability in smaller spaces. Micro UAS the size of a small insect or bird, will be able to get into the hard to reach places to conduct surveillance that larger drones would not be able to. In the future, I see surveillance and even direct action UAS shrinking in size and cost but able to maintain a lengthier battlefield, or commercial presence. Communicating swarms of sUAS will also be able to operate for long periods of time using solar power. For the purpose of direct action, a disposable UAS will be able to detect, track a target, dive into it or above it, and set off an explosive charge. These smaller, disposable UAS will be far more cost effective than using current expensive UAS systems and weapon payloads.
References:
HoneyComb. (2016). "Agricultural Drone Solution For Scouting & Mapping". Drone & Data Solutions for Agriculture. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.
"MQ-1B Predator". Military.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Oct. 2016, from
http://www.military.com/equipment/mq-1b-predator
Thompson, Mark. (2013). "Costly Flight Hours | TIME.Com". TIME.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.
US Airforce, 2016. "MQ-1B Predator > U.S. Air Force > Fact Sheet Display". Af.mil. N.p., 2015.
Web. 21 Oct. 2016.