Unmanned vehicles are the tool of choice among commanders looking to gain advantages on the battlefields of today and tomorrow.
Unmanned systems are the future of warfare-whether the vehicle of choice is a small iRobot Packbot explorer unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) performing urban reconnaissance for soldiers in Iraq, a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) taking out terrorist targets from the air, or futuristic nanosize unmanned aerial vehicles actually playing the role of the fly on the wall and listening in on enemy conversations.
They can go where humans cannot while adding to the lethality of the force at the same time, increasing the survivability of the men and women that make up that force.
The growth of unmanned systems in the military also translates into opportunities for government suppliers in a market that continues to grow every year, with market estimates for its 10-year future nearly doubling each year as well. One analyst firm sees the U.S. UAV market alone exceeding $17.5 billion in five years. Our supplement contains an article that details some of these market analyst observations.
The Unmanned Vehicles supplement includes senior editor Courtney Howard’s article on the latest technological trends in UGVs. She interviews key players such as Datapath, iRobot, and Foster-Miller. Howard also reveals the latest developments in unmanned undersea vehicles and their growing use by the military.
John Keller gives the latest updates out of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on nano-unmanned aerial vehicles, which are the size of a dragonfly.
Be sure to check out our Unmanned Vehicle Product section as well where the latest electronic products for unmanned vehicles from top vendors are showcased.
This supplement, Unmanned Vehicles, from PennWell, publishers of Military & Aerospace Electronics, is a guideline to important unmanned systems that are helping the military today and in the future.
John McHale
Executive Editor
