Unmanned Aircraft: The Future of Carrier Aviation?
For years members of the defense community have been predicting the end of manned aircraft. Retired Vice Admiral Robert F. Dunn recalled a conversation in 1954 aboard the USS
Wasp (CV-18) when a group of pilots were enjoying an after dinner smoke on the fantail while speculating about the future of carrier aviation. One senior Cobra pilot stated to his comrades that his plane would be the last manned aircraft ever purchased by the Navy. His explanation was that planes were becoming increasingly expensive and guided missiles were the wave of the future. (Dunn, 2011) While his prediction proved incorrect, it hasn’t stopped many from trying to predict what the future of carrier aviation will look
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While it’s imperative that technologies evolve to keep up with the threats of the future, the need for manned aircraft doesn’t look to diminish anytime soon. The advancement of foreign anti-ship missiles, naval capabilities, and anti-access area denial capabilities will undoubtedly make it difficult for unmanned aircraft to survive in environments that are much more hostile than we’ve seen in previous years.
The birth of carrier aviation dates back to the year 1911 when Lieutenant Eugene Ely first landed an airplane on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in the San Francisco harbor. His success not only encouraged the U.S. to develop the concept of naval aviation, but also gave the motivation for other leading countries of the world to follow. (Sitz, 1930) Since that first
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landing, the Navy has projected aircraft carriers as a symbol of our military power overseas.
Throughout the 20th century we have seen carriers at the front of battle in conflicts around the world starting with WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and most recently Libya.
“The aircraft carrier – because of it’s mobility, its versatility, and the capabilities that it
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(Sweetman, 2007)
Unlike the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper used by the Air Force, the UCAS is being developed with consideration for future threats and for operations in contested airspace. While the X-47B is not entirely stealthy like the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor or the future F-35C, it’s being built as a low-observable aircraft with a tailless design intended to decrease the radar crosssection
(RCS), which will make it more difficult for enemy radar to detect. The UCLASS competition is aimed at developing an aircraft fit for the suppression of enemy air defense
(SEAD) mission. This will allow the aircraft to enter enemy airspace and attack SAMs with little chance of being detected. (Harrington, 2010) The S-300, also known as the SA-20 in
NATO terms, is one of the most potent surface-to-air missiles and is seen in many advanced countries such as China, North Korea, and Syria with the most recent development of Iran looking to purchase the missile from Russia. (Harrington, 2010) While the ability to operate near these enemy air defense systems undetected is still yet to be seen, the Navy will certainly be challenged to created an autonomous aircraft that can effectively defeat these advanced
For as long as most of the world can remember aviation has played a major factor in how wars are fought. Starting in World War I the worlds fighting forces began using aircraft to conduct surveillance missions over enemy territory. While these aircraft were not the masters of stealth that todays aircraft are there was no technology to take down these planes at the time. Air-to-air combat was an event that rarely happened and was almost never effective.
Airmen: An Illustrated History: 1939-1949.” Oct. 2012. Vol. 65 Issue 4, pg. 316-319. 4p. Ebsco Host. Tucker, Phillip Thomas, 1953. Web.2014.
In today’s world, the use of airplanes in wars or in everyday life has become a part of how we live as human beings. Removing the air forces of the world is like taking a step back in time when wars were only fought on land or sea. WWI began only eleven short years after the Wright brothers achieved powered flight in 19031 and yet aircrafts were being used for surveillance and eventually combat purposes. It is understood that these aircrafts were primitive, but they laid down the foundation for what we know today as fighter jets. The Fokker Eindecker “revolutionized air combat by successfully employing a synchronized forward -firing machine gun mounted on the engine cowling”2. Because this airplane became the first to successfully use a synchronized machine gun, it allowed its pilots to become the first aerial combat tactitions3.
The U.S. Navy nurtured into a challenging power in the years previous to World War II, with battleship construction being revived in 1937, commencing with the USS North Carolina . It was able to add to its fleets throughout the early years of the war when the US was still not involved, growing production of vessels both large and small. In a conflict that had a number of amphibious landings, naval superiority was important in both Europe and the Pacific. The mutual resource...
Canadian Air Force Office of Public Affairs. (1996). The Flying Career of William Avery Bishop. [WWW Document] Retrieved May 2nd, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/comment/bishop.html
Planes have developed immensely through the years. The Wright brothers developed the first plane in 1903.
- - -, dir. “Tactical Air Control Party Specialist (TACP).” U.S. Air Force. U.S. Air Force, n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2012. .
... aircrafts in their time. Likewise they also sunk a German destroyer and permanently put a German torpedo boat out of action due to damages.
Lawson, Robert L., and Barrett Tillman. U.S. Navy Air Combat: 1939-1946. Osceola, WI: MBI Pub., 2000. Print.
Initially designed as an anti-aircraft system, Patriot became operational in 1985. (Patriot, 2013) Patriot fires a missile from its launching station to engage an aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicle, cruise missile or a tactical ballistic missile. In 1991, Operation Desert Storm had kicked off and Patriot added missile-interception. Patriot anti-tactical ballistic missile capability phase 2 (PAC-2) had the first wartime engagement of a tactical rocket by an anti-tactical ballistic missile in history. Patriot upgraded to the PAC-3 missile that utilizes hit-to-kill technology making it over ninety percent success rate on engagements. Patriot is constantly undergoing improvements and remains one of the most sophisticated air defense technologies in the world today. (Kraus, 2000; Patriot,
Throughout the history of Naval Aviation, one can see a growing force. As new technology and innovations arose and advanced, Naval Aviation improved as well. In times of war and peace, through training and dedication, naval aviators improved their abilities and tactics to produce the fighting force it is today. If by chance, the “revolt of the admirals” had failed, the United States Military would not be what it is today and the Navy could not have the liberty of enjoying the Mahanian concept of commanding the sea.
What Geoffrey Till was trying to portray in his article, “Adopting the Aircraft Carrier: The British, American, and Japanese case studies,” was that aircraft carriers possessed many important functions such as extended reconnaissance, shipping protection against enemy attack, and fire support. Although carriers proved themselves worthy during battle, Till argued that “in the years between the wars, the British, American, and Japanese navies failed to realize fully the contribution that airpower could make to the conduct of war at sea…by the outbreak of World War II, the three navies differed only in the degree of their underestimation of the strategic significance of maritime air power.” As a result of this underestimation of air carriers,
There are many agencies that have the ability to perform Signals Intelligence, electronic reconnaissance and most of all signals intelligence from all available sources inducive to the environment. The United States Army uses the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) as its main entity for signals collection. The Joint STARS platform was designed to provide a highly effective, real-time, collection tool to the ground task force commanders during battlefield engagements, but for the past ten years, the sensor has been used for peacekeeping missions. Army analysts can predict the enemy’s behavior by identifying choke points, potential avenues of approach and operating patterns such as supply routes and logistical points. The analysis gives the ground commander a more complete view of the enemy’s weaknesses. The United States Air Force employs the Joint STARS in a different mission than the Army. The Air Force uses Joint STARS as a battlefield management tool versus a collection tool as used for by the Army. The Air Force uses the platform to provide immediate and direct support to the Air Component Commander and continue to observe the enemy’s movement from a far distance in the sky. Providing essential data to commanders such as size, direction, and speed of the adversaries, with minimum casualties while under battlefield conditions, makes the Joint STARS an extremely effective tool. The Air Force also employs the Predator vehicles, which are unmanned aerial vehicles that are used for reconnaissance.
The surveillance features allow the radar to track up to 2000 planes at within 500 nautical miles at any one...
15 Dec. 2013. McDonnell, Michael. The. The "Flight 19" Flight 19. N.p., n.d. Web.