THE NEED FOR UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES FOR THE IAF

摘要

UAVs inherently hold numerous advantages over manned aircraft - the most important one being that there is no human being onboard which makes these vehicles considerably more suitable for the dull (monotonous, tedious Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance duties), dirty (involving operating in NBC type hazardous environment) and dangerous (fraught with very high degree of risk to the platform) categories of tasks. No human casualty enters the risk assessment of UAV deployment while the absence of a human onboard permits the design to be maximised for very high performance unconstrained by physiological limitations, especially the 'g' forces that manoeuvering in three dimensions involves. The need for life support systems such as air conditioning and personal Oxygen systems, cockpit escape systems and transparent canopies is obviated. The small size, modest weight, low Radar Cross Section (RCS), low acoustic signals and high altitude envelopes are other operational benefits of UAVs. Crash survivability features are far less rigorous as they need to cater only to onboard systems and not to comparatively delicate humans. In fact, there is no need for a cockpit rendering the airframe design more stealthy and agile.