Benefits Of Drones Research Paper

The Benefits of utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles on the battlefield to help support the ground forces and the general military effort can be traced all the way back in United States history back to the civil war. Military leaders quickly realized that through success the immense potential that utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles could bring to the fight. The technology is constantly evolving and is ultimately a game changer for war if applied in the proper manner and could great reduced the amount of Soldiers in harms way and a greater cost effectiveness. Osama bin Laden hated drones, because they work. Drones save American troops from risk of death, kill far fewer civilians than ground troops operations, and make our military more effective

The radio began chattering that a small friendly element was in a valley pinned down by a group of Taliban forces just north of where we were operating. We began to fly in that direction to assist in the suppression of the enemy forces. Once on station the team was still engaging the Taliban forces while pinned down with the lead vehicle disable by a rocket-propelled grenade and they had nowhere to go. Therefore, we began scanning the area to find the Taliban forces. By the time, we located the Taliban forces the friendly element had already suffered massive equipment damage, casualties, and the loss of freedom to maneuver. The JTAC on the ground hastily spouted off a 9-line and told us to call in bound and expect clearance on final. We setup for the shot, called inbound, and received the launch order. The missile struck and took out all three Taliban forces that were laying heavy effective fire down on friendly forces that had no freedom to maneuver. Without the unmanned aerial vehicle, being in that spot silently the friendly forces could have

The cost of an unmanned aerial vehicle that can perform comparable to a similar manned asset is generally a lot less. For example to operate a MQ-1C for 20 hours you would use approximately 560 pounds of fuel versus a comparable helicopter to perform armed reconnaissance operations could use that same amount in approximately one to two hours of flight depending on the aircraft. Fuel economy is just one aspect of the cost effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicles. The big kicker is the cost of the unmanned aerial vehicles and maintenance in comparison to that of a manned aircraft of comparable mission capabilities. The cost to operate AH-64 Apache helicopter is approximately $3,851.18 per flight hour, Rotary Wing (n.d) in comparison to the operating costs of the MQ-1C at approximately $500 per flight hour with very similar combat capabilities. The unmanned aerial vehicle clearly wins in that respect. With the military saving so much money on combat capabilities with the utilization of unmanned aerial vehicles, it can then purchase more resulting in increased combat power for less