With the exponentially rising costs of a fighter aircraft and doubts about its survivability, the IAF should consider all viable options, including investments in UAVs in a large measure and create a UAS/UAV segment in the air force that could replace many current missions undertaken by manned aircraft

According to Wikipedia, a disruptive technology or disruptive innovation will help create a new market and value network and eventually goes on to displace an earlier technology. What the unmanned aerial system (UAS) has done to the manned aircraft probably falls in this category. A UAS, also known as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), remotely piloted vehicle (RPV) or as an unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions by human remote control or autonomously with pre-programmed directions. Their largest users are the military. To distinguish the UAS from missiles, a UAS/UAV is defined as a “powered, aerial vehicle that does not carry a human operator, uses aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expendable or recoverable, and can carry a lethal or non-lethal payload”.

The Indian Air Force should take note of an article which appeared in the July 16, 2011 edition of The Economist where it queries if the USA’s F-35 will be its last manned fighter. The high costs of development, delays, and doubts about its claimed performance envelope, have the decision-makers in a quandary whether to go ahead with an earlier decision to acquire 2,443 F-35s over the next 25 years. With the exponentially rising costs of a fighter aircraft and doubts about its survivability in a dense air defence environment, the Indian Air Force (IAF) also should consider all viable options for the future. One of the options available to the IAF is to invest in UAVs in a large measure and create a UAS/UAV segment in the air force that could replace many current missions undertaken by manned aircraft. This may sound like heresy to the dyed-in-the-wool combat pilots, but for once the IAF should be on the correct side of the technology curve and not try to play catch-up later.

UAVs typically fall into many functional categories (although multi-role airframe platforms are becoming more prevalent), these include:

• Target and decoy – providing ground and aerial gunnery a target that simulates an enemy aircraft or missile
• Reconnaissance – providing battlefield intelligence
• Combat – providing attack capability for high-risk missions
• Logistics – UAVs specifically designed for cargo and logistics operation
• Research and development – used to further develop UAV technologies to be integrated into field deployed UAV aircraft
• Civil and commercial UAVs – UAVs specifically designed for civil and commercial applications
• Search and rescue

The employment of unmanned combat aerial vehicles in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been well documented. The US has deployed ‘Predator’ and ‘Reaper’ with deadly effect in the ongoing operations in the Afghanistan/Pakistan zone, though there have been cases of collateral casualties. The USA has always looked at technology to reduce risks to its personnel and the UCAV is the most visible example. China is operationalising the WZ-2000, the Shenyang’s ‘Dark Sword’ and the Zhuhai 2008 stealth strike UCAVs.

Rapid advances in technology are enabling more and more capability to be placed on smaller airframes, which is spurring a large increase in the number of small unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS) being deployed on the battlefield. As the capabilities grow for all types of UAS, nations continue to subsidise their research and development leading to further advances enabling them to perform a multitude of missions. UAS no longer only perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, although this still remains their predominant mission. Their roles have expanded to areas including electronic warfare, strike missions, suppression and/or destruction of enemy air defence, network node or communications relay, search and rescue and derivations of these themes. These UAS range in cost from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions of dollars, with vehicles ranging in weight from less than one kg to over 15,000 kg.