DRONE TECHNOLOGY

Dr.MUSFERAHISLAMIAT

HASHIM KHANDDP-SP13-BEC-053

JALEES AHMEDDDP-SP13-BEC-029

• INTRODUCTION the term drone is used in popular culture for unmanned aerial vehicles

or UAV ’s. I would like to shine some light upon this term, the history related with it, what influence it has or can have on our lives, and what lies ahead in the future.

• WHAT IS A UAV? As its name implies a UAV is an aircraft without a human pilot on

board. It is controlled by a human on ground via a remote device. It can also be controlled autonomously by using computers.

Historically UAV ‘s were simple remote controlled devices but now the autonomous control is increasingly being employed. The reason being the threat from human errors.

• USES• MILITARY

SEARCH AND DESTROY MISSIONS ANTIPERSONNEL MISSIONS SURVEILLANCE PURPOSES• CIVIL POLICING

FIREFIGHTING

SEARCH AND RESCUE

INSPECTION AND MONITORING OF SENSITIVE SITES (e.g. NULEAR POWER PLANTS).

HISTORYANY SPECULATIONS???

• HISTORY OF UAV ‘s The earliest attempt at a powered unmanned aerial

vehicle was A. M. Low's "Aerial Target" of 1916.[3] Nikola Tesla described a fleet of unmanned aerial combat vehicles in 1915.[4] A number of remote-controlled airplane advances followed, including the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, during and after World War I, including the first scale RPV (Remote Piloted Vehicle), developed by the film star and model airplane enthusiast Reginald Denny in 1935.[3] More were made in the technology rush during World War II; these were used both to train antiaircraft gunners and to fly attack missions. Nazi Germany also produced and used various UAV aircraft during the course of WWII.

Jet engines were applied after World War II, in such types as the Teledyne Ryan Fire bee I of 1951, while companies like Beechcraft also got in the game with their Model 1001 for the United States Navy in 1955.[3] Nevertheless, they were little more than remote-controlled airplanes until the Vietnam Era. DARPA ( Defense Advanced Research Project Agency)

OQ-2A-Radioplane

800px-Teledyne-Ryan-Firebee-hatzerim-1

• The birth of U.S. UAVs (called RPVs at the time) began in 1959 when United States Air Force (USAF) officers, concerned about losing pilots over hostile territory, began planning for the use of unmanned flights.

• CURRENT GENERATION OF DRONES The current generation of drones such as the MQ-1PREDATOR and MQ-9REAPER drones are capable of flying reconnaissance as well as offensive missions from anywhere around the world. The REAPER can stay up to 14 hours in the air when fully loaded. Not to mention its 3000lbs payload which it can deliver on the click of a button. The smaller version of the REAPER the PREDATOR has an even higher endurance of 24 hours but it carries minimal or no payload and is mainly used for surveillance. This version was deployed in Pakistan from 2004 by the CIA to kill so called AL-QAEDA terrorists amongst which most proved to be innocent civilians (source Wikipedia). Since then the presence of these machines has been increasing due to their higher strike rates, ease of operation, minimal costs and other major factors. An interesting fact is that these days the American Air Force is training more UAV pilots than combat aircraft crew all combined. An even interesting fact is that most of the new crew being administered to control these machines are teenaged gamers who are given their training off a XBOX controller.

MQ-1 PREDATORPAYLOAD 450lbs

MQ-9 REAPER

• CONCLUSION• It can be concluded from the above discussion that as with other

man made technologies this technology is also not without its benefits and drawbacks. The need of the time is to research upon its advantages rather than disadvantages. However the mass murder of humans using this technology should be put to a halt as soon as possible. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, has said that the use of drones is not combat as much as ‘targeted killing’. He has repeatedly tried to get the US to explain how they justifies the use of drones to target and kill individuals under international law. The US has so far refused to do so. In a report to the UN he has said the US government (and by implication the UK government) “should specify the bases for decisions to kill rather than capture particular individuals …. and should make public the number of civilians killed as a result of drone attacks, and the measures in place to prevent such casualties”.

THANKS

•ANY QUESTIONS?