an intresting article i found...
Future Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
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The following is a brief summary of some of the existing unmanned aerial recoinaissance and combat vehicles under development around the world. For the extensive listing of UAVs already in operation check out the Brief Guide to UAVs.
Recoinnaissance UAVs
conventional TO
vertical TO
assisted TO
micro UAVs
Combat UAVs
kamikaze UCAVs
weapons carriers
escorted UCAVs
Recoinnaissance UAVs
Dark Star (US)
Several countries around the world continue developing hi-tech, expensive recoinaissance UAVs. Majority of these aircraft are capable of conventional take-off and landing and are designed to operate over enemy territory for long periods of time and gather a wide variety of intelligence information. Some of the more known UAV designs in this class are the Dark Star and the Global Hawk conventional take-off UAVs developed in the US.
Global Hawk (US)
Recent experience of combat deployment of UAVs, such as during the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, shows that UAVs can be effective if properly deployed within a supported environment. The war in Yugoslavia also showed that such an environment is exceptionally difficult to create in combat conditions within a limited time frame. As the result, NATO completely failed to established real-time battlefield surveillance in Yugoslavia, which resulted minimal damage to the Yugoslav ground forces.
Predator (US) at the Yugoslav Aeronautical Museum
The UAVs also proved to be extremely volnurable to even the most rudimentary air defenses. In the airspace, supposedly dominated by NATO fighters, NATO UAVs were regularly and successfully attacked by Mi-8 transport helicopters. Ground fire also proved deadly to UAVs operating at low speeds and altitudes well in range of all types of anti-aircraft artillery. Even the most advanced UAVs deployed by the US over Yugoslvia, such as the Predator, fell pray to machine-gun fire from the ground.
German CL-289 ate the Yugoslav Aeronautical Museum
The faster, jet-powered UAVs, such as the CL-289 deployed over Yugoslavia mainly by Germany, proved to be even more volnurable and less effective. The German military was even forced to temporarily halt all UAV operations over Yugoslavia after sustaining heavy losses from Serbian air defenses primarily targeting American cruise missiles.
Phoenix UAV of the British Army at the Belgrade Military Museum
One of the biggest losers of the UAV war in the skies over Yugoslavia was the British Phoenix. After a protracted development program and millions over budget, the British Army deployed Phoenix UAVs over Yugoslavia only to see most of them destroyed. The Phoenix UAV control bases also failed to establish real-time communication with their command centers due to the lack of satellite communication equipment.
Yugoslav MiG-29 mock-up
Yugoslavia's highly capable anti-aircraft defenses, which escaped massive NATO attacks practically unscathed, forced NATO to operate its recoinnaissance aircraft at higher altitudes, which resulted in NATO combat aircraft bombing mockup military hardware but more often just empty space.
Despite such significant shortfalls of existing UAV technology, the war in Yugoslavia proved the UAV concept and provided valuable information, now being used to develop a new generation of UAVs. However, the lessons of UAV operations over Yugoslavia seem to appear in a different light to the countries involved. Americans are going with huge, conventional take-off and landing UAVs that can operate at high altitudes for long periods of time and can carry a very substantial payload. Of course, these remarkable aircraft come at a price that, perhaps, only the US can afford. The large size of such UAVs and the extensive ground infrustructure required to operate them add to the problem.
Other countries are working on smaller tactical UAVs, most of which are capable of rocket-assisted take-off and parachute landing. Driven by the war in Chechnya, the Russian military is actively testing its UAVs in combat conditions. These include the small Pchela and Schmel UAVs by Yakovlev Design Bureau as well as larger and faster Tupolev Tu-243 Reis-D jet-powered UAV. Russian designers place emphasis on low cost, high survavibility, as well as ease of deployment and maintenance of their UAVs. This is the approach selected by most UAV designers around the world.
Israel and several other countries are working on the so-called kamikaze UAVs - the latest in the family of "flying bombs." Such UAVs would allow troops in the field to conduct basic aerial recoinaissance operations as well as to engage any valuable targets detected, such as enemy air defenses. This type of UAVs will be deployed prior to an aerial strike against enemy ground forces.
Both the US and Russia are working on UAV designs that will function as platforms for launching long-range air-to-air ad air-to-ground weapons. In the US an unmanned version of the F-16 fighter is under development, while the Russians are working on a large, high-speed unmanned weapons platform for attacking carrier battle groups. This UAV may be similar in size and performance to the Tupolev Tu-123 Yastreb, which entered service in 1964 and remained in mass-production until 1972. This UAV was capable of operating at speeds of up to 2700 km/h and altitude of between 1.8 and 22 km.
I condemn the Imperialist - Christian genocide of the Iraqis , NAtive Americans , Muslims , Chinese , Vietnamese , Somalians , Koreans , .... and others in the Double faced - Disgusting imperialist empire also known as the West .
If its against us Asians, it is treated as a small matter, if the same Incident happens against the west it is an ASTROCITY