The US Army expects to hit 1,000,000 unmanned (UAV) flight Hours by April .The Army says they will need 3,000 UAV operators by 2018 the army will be celebrating this Millstone with displays at the Smithsonian Museum and at The Pentagon.The purpose of UAVs is to take man out of the equation. Meaning no loss of life and lower cost to operate, less burden on the taxpayers!
According to Col. Christopher Carlile, Director of the U.S. Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence “The military attributes that, at least in part, to the adoption of automated methods employed for takeoff and landing. Currently, roughly 90 percent of the hours flown by unmanned aircraft are done in support of combat.”
The Army uses enlisted Service members to take control of their UAV Aircraft and has proven, most effective and unique in the armed services “According to Col. Carlile, aviation is complex and prone to mishap. The Army has found those mishaps can be minimized by allowing unmanned aircraft technology to do "what it does best" -- applying automation wherever possible. While the Army expects to top the one million mark next month, it may be fall before it achieves one million hours flown solely in support of combat operations.” A side note, UAV can range in size from a normal sized small helo or a Cessna to as small as a big insect as seen on the Discovery channel or History channel
This article was written by resident aviation news editor James Abbey with source information taken from Avweb.
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