PKSOI/GLOBAL TRENDS CASE STUDIES A Drone's Strike Away | Page 5

Case Study #1118-08
PKSOI TRENDS GLOBAL CASE STUDY SERIES
feet. But perhaps the FAA’s biggest move was “ending the requirement that only licensed aircraft pilots can fly drones
that are being used for business purposes.” 19 That change lowered the barriers to entry into the commercial drone
business, requiring drone-operators-for-hire to be at least 16 years old and pass a $150 aeronautics test every 24 months.
“I would say the establishment of the drone rules is one of the largest milestones in regulatory history with the FAA,”
drone expert Chris Johnson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering professor and pilot said. “It really opens
up an opportunity for these machines to be viable business tools.” The initial set of rules “help establish what’s right
and wrong — it’s not uncommon today for drones to be in airspace where they don’t belong, Johnson said — and open
doors for better, more coordinated usage from there.” 20
But drones are big business not only for the consumer and enterprise sectors. Government is also increasingly relying
on the remote technology for military and public safety purposes. The US military has been using drones for combat
since 2001 and has rapidly expanded its drone fleet to more than 7,000 by 2012. The Department of Defense budget in
2016 allocated $2.9 billion for more than 50 new drones for combat and surveillance, according to the Bard Center for
the Study of the Drone. 21 For FY 2018, the Department of Defense has allocated at least $6.97 billion for drones and
associated technologies.
Military Drones
Drones for military use are typically classified in three broad categories: UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), UGVs
(Unmanned Ground Vehicles) and USVs (Unmanned Surface Vehicles). 22 UAVs are either remote controlled aircraft
(e.g. flown by a pilot at a ground control station) or can fly autonomously following pre-programmed flight plans or
more complex dynamic automation systems. The US military uses UAVs for missions ranging from reconnaissance to
combat. Most generally, UAVs are capable of “controlled, sustained level flight and powered by a jet or reciprocating
engine.” 23 While a cruise missile can also be considered to be a UAV, it is treated separately on the basis that it is consid-
ered a weapon. To reflect on the complex nature of modern autonomous systems that include ground stations and other
elements besides the actual air vehicles, the US military now uses the term “Unmanned Aircraft Systems” (UAS).
With rapid advances in technology, enabling more and more capability to be placed on smaller airframes, the role of
UASs in military application is advancing at unprecedented levels. UAS range in cost from a few thousand to tens of
millions of dollars and in size from a Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) weighing less than one pound to large aircraft weighing
over 40,000 pounds. 24
UAS no longer only perform target and decoy operations or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mis-
sions, although this still remains their predominant application. 25 Their roles have expanded to include electronic at-
tacks (EA) that jam enemy systems, 26 precision strike missions 27 and combat search and rescue (CSAR). 28 In July 2016,
the US Air Force awarded a $40 million contract to a private “national security solutions provider” for the development
of a Low-Cost Attritable Strike Unmanned Aerial System Demonstrator (LCASD) designed to take drone warfare to
the next level: air-to-air warfare, where LCASDs will be capable of shooting down other aircraft, manned or unmanned.
A novel feature of the LCASD is that it is “runway independent,” meaning it can be launched from rails mounted on
trucks or ships at sea. 29 This, an industry reporter notes,
opens up the possibility of small, lightweight robotic fighter bombers that don’t need airfields in order to oper-
ate. Entire squadrons of LCASDs could be dispersed on the ground, in a camouflaged ready storage position,
and launched on short notice to augment manned fighters. There would be no telltale landing strips dug into
the ground to mark their location, making them much harder for an enemy to spot. 30
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