Uninhabited Combat Aerial Vehicles

When US Air Force Capt Scott O'Grady's F-16 was shot down over Bosnia in June 1995, Americans watched anxiously as aircraft and helicopters searched for the missing pilot. When O'Grady was retrieved safely from a Balkan forest, television networks cut to special bulletins.Two months later, an Air Force reconnaissance aircraft also crashed in hostile territory. No attempt to search for the crew was made. The incident rated two lines near the back of most newspapers. Rather than dodging Serbs and eating bugs to survive comfortably, the operators of the Predator unmanned airplane were sitting in an air-conditioned shelter at the USAF's base at Aviano, Italy.-Bill SweetmanPopular ScienceBill Sweetman's description of Capt Scott O'Grady's rescue highlights the fact that today's United States (US) military leaders must be sensitive to political and social pressures to keep friendly casualties to a minimum. The loss of a single airman can have a tremendous effect on an entire military operation. Leaders must also contend with shrinking force structures and decreasing military budgets, while the US armed forces remain engaged around the world and across the conflict spectrum. They must find ways to "do more with less." These realities, which are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, are forcing military leaders to seek new ways to carry on with the business of the United States; and the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a possible solution to this dilemma.