Applications for Navy unmanned aircraft systems / Brien Alkire, ... [and others]

Includes bibliographical references (pages 63-66).

Introduction and objectives -- Unmanned aircraft systems in use or development today -- Performance advantages and disadvantages of unmanned aircraft systems -- Applications for Navy unmanned aircraft systems -- Conclusions and recommendations -- Appendix: Summary of equations used in analysis of communications systems.

There has been tremendous growth in demand for unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) by the United States military since 2001, and the Navy is making large investments in a number of programs, including acquisition of high-altitude maritime surveillance systems, demonstration programs for carrier-capable unmanned combat aircraft, and acquisition of rotary and small fixed-wing tactical UASs. In this book, RAND provides an evaluation of the Navy's ongoing and proposed UAS programs and describes the most promising applications of those UASs to the Navy's operational tasks. The book identifies robust communications as a key enabler for UASs in many operational tasks and recommends steps the Navy can take to ensure these communications are available. Additionally, it identifies some operational tasks that are better suited to manned aircraft and recommends limiting investment in UASs for these tasks.

The research described in this report was prepared for the United States Navy. The research was conducted in the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, the Department of the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the defense Intelligence Community under Contract W74V8H-06-C-0002.