Armed UAVs in the Future Battlespace - The Need for Command and Control Doctrine

摘要

This paper will primarily seek to answer the following question: With the future proliferation of armed UAVs in the battlespace, can the current Command and Control (C2) doctrine effectively employ the full range of capabilities of these systems. The research focused on the current concept of operations (CONOPS) for the primary system in use, the MQ-1 Predator as well as the Air Force's newest armed UAV, the MQ-9 Hunter-Killer. The future technologies being developed for the next generation of armed UAV systems, namely the Joint Unmanned Combat Aerial System (J-UCAS) and the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotocraft (UCAR) were evaluated in order to access the viable range of missions for future operations. Since both of these programs are joint ventures with planned multi-service employment, the individual service perspectives and the need for joint service doctrine were considered and incorporated as well. Based on the research conducted and analysis of material, it is clear that the full integration of armed UAVs into the future battlespace will require fundamental changes to the current C2 structure and doctrine.