Attack of the Drones

Unmanned vehicles are a staple of modern military reconnaissance and warfare. Now they're coming soon to a sky near you

Once, they were just expensive military toys. But drone aircraft -- so-called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles -- have grown up in a hurry.

Following their successful deployment by the American military on recent missions in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, UAVs are being considered for numerous civilian applications.

Last month, for example, American Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told a congressional committee that his department is considering the use of drone aircraft to patrol the US-Mexico border.

"We are very serious in looking at UAVs for both border applications, land and sea," he said. "Where you have wide open spaces, it's a lot easier for us to take a look at some of the technology that is presently employed by the Department of Defense."

Ridge's announcement of the possible future use of drones for border patrol brings us a step closer to a future envisioned by countless writers of speculative fiction, a future in which electronic monitoring is inescapable.

And border patrol is just a start. There are several other potential uses for UAV technology being studied today, and drones are already employed for civilian purposes -- whether you know it or not.

UAVs go to war

The US Army defines a UAV 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 nonlethal payload."

A UAV can be as simple as a model Spitfire controlled by a hobbyist with a remote control on the ground, or as complex as a high-velocity plane controlled from long distances and armed with cameras, sensors and weapons. Close relatives of UAVs are Unmanned Ground Vehicles and Unmanned Underwater Vehicles.

The first large-scale use of drone aircraft was during the Second World War . Small airplanes were used as targets for anti-aircraft gunnery training. Drones were also employed as decoys to confuse enemy gunners.

During the Cold War , drones evolved into useful reconnaissance tools and were widely used by the US military in East Asia from the 1950s to the 1970s.

As remote control technology improved, so did the potential for UAVs to be deployed to the battlefield itself.

UAVs are now capable of tactical reconnaissance of enemy positions and targets, real-time battlefield surveillance and poison gas detection. Of course, with sophisticated imaging systems, UAVs can also be utilized as weapons of remote controlled destruction.

A glance at the UAV arsenals of most major militaries today reveals that they have all either invested heavily in developing or purchasing UAV technology. (Readers seeking more details on the historic development of military UAVs can check out Greg Goebel's exhaustive history .)

Your friendly neighbourhood unmanned vehicle

But while military drones have received lots of publicity due to their role in various US operations, UAVs are also creeping into many aspects of daily life.

The film industry has used them for more than a decade. FlyCam is a Dutch company that has developed and marketed drone helicopters for the film industry for 15 years. FlyCam helicopters shoot complex aerial footage, such as diving into canyons or gliding over waterfalls. The helicopters are remote controlled and capable of carrying photographic, film or digital cameras.

The savings to filmmakers are tremendous, as a single drone helicopter does away with the cost of hiring a conventional helicopter and pilot for aerial footage, and it can be flown at the whim of a director at any time.

Now governments are looking at UAV technology for a number of non-military applications -- many that will put drones in your backyard, not just on some distant border.

Officials with the Ohio Department of Transportation , for example, are teaming with researchers from Ohio State University to conduct test flights of drone aircraft over Ohio's highway network. With drones monitoring traffic from the air, ODOT staff could gain a better handle on traffic patterns and respond quicker to highway incidents.

Most jurisdictions in North America employ stationary closed-circuit cameras or human-piloted helicopters to monitor traffic. The mobility and size of drones would greatly improve traffic monitoring capabilities. Drones could also determine the best routes for emergency or police vehicles to travel to incident scenes. Smaller drones could be directed into tunnels or under bridges. Drones with mounted sensors could even warn of chemical or gasoline spills.

"It's just mind-boggling what the possibilities are," Sam Bonasso of ODOT's Research and Special Programs Administration, which is coordinating the drone research, told The Cincinnati Enquirer .

Test flights are expected to take place over Ohio's highways later this year.

And besides flying cameras and traffic monitors, future civilian applications for UAVs could include:

• Law enforcement
  
• Environmental observation
  
• Crop spraying or sowing
  
• Humanitarian assistance
  
• Search-and-rescue
  
• Communications relay
  
• Air freight
  

Several associations have been formed to advance the development of UAVs for such applications.

One such association is UAVNET . UAVNET is "a thematic network funded by the European Community to advance the development of UAVs for civilian purposes." The association regularly organizes conferences to bring together industry and academic experts to exchange information, develop new policies and launch activities in technological research. (Many research papers are available to the public at UAVNET's website .)

Other groups committed to the promotion of UAV technology for civilian use include the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association .

An invasion of free airspace?

Of course, there are some drawbacks to the civilian use of UAVs. Their size makes for rough going in stormy weather, for example, and their cost remains prohibitive to some.

But perhaps the biggest concern as UAV technology becomes available on a wider scale is privacy.

Despite the gnashing of teeth by counter-surveillance agitators such as Steve Mann , the Western world has accepted the virtually ubiquitous presence of cameras in some form or another in urban public places.

Mann would be disheartened to know that there already exist companies such as Spyplanes.com , which offer customers their very own spyplanes starting at a mere US$35,000. (The planes are, however, only available to commercial, government or military customers in the US.)

Are UAVs an invasion of free airspace? Does it depend on what they are used for? Regulations will have to be hammered out, but at present most jurisdictions place UAVs in the same group as model aircraft because of their size and remote controlled nature.

Serious regulation is not likely to occur until UAVs become a regular presence in our skies, which, based on the work of several groups, is not that far away.

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