UAVs and UGVs: Protector or Pest?

Though consumer-level drones have received a lot of bad press in recent times — near misses with aircraft, incidents where members of the public have been injured and flying contraband into prisons — within the defence sector, the high-end versions of this technology have the potential to save lives. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their ground-based equivalents, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), are experiencing ever-increasing proliferation.

Both UAVs and UGVs can be controlled remotely by human operators – who are often in locations that are hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away. They may alternatively even operate autonomously, through the utilisation of on-board computers. Their particular benefit for military use is the fact that they can go into situations that are too difficult or simply too dangerous for humans to enter, thereby ensuring that personnel are not unnecessarily put at risk. Examples include mine clearance, reconnaissance missions, supply transportation and recovery operations. They can also be employed as ‘first foray’ vehicles – i.e. ones that are intended to draw enemy fire (and are expendable), thus evaluating the level of danger and allowing enemy positions to be identified. One critical aspect is that UAV control relies on extremely sophisticated and secure software. This means that even if one of these units was captured it still could not be operated by that party. Despite having possession of the hardware, they would still not have access to the accompanying software, since it has been developed purposely to be difficult to reverse engineer.