October 19, 2000. Copyright 2000. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

ROBOT SPY-IN-THE-SKY IS ÒPOOR MANÕS SATELLITEÓ
By Ken Petrie

LONDON, October 19, Graphic News: OVER the past four years a new generation of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) have increasingly made their mark over the battlefield.

For example, the prototype U.S. Global Hawk -- the size of a regional commuter aircraft -- is designed to stay on station conducting reconnaissance for up to 24 hours with an operational radius of 3,000 nautical miles (5,560 kilometres), sending raw intelligence information back to a collection point by data links.

In May a Global Hawk flew two 30-hour round-trip missions from Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, to Portugal to participate in a ÒKosovo-likeÓ warfighting scenario.

Although various forms of UAVs have been around for a number of years they were first brought to prominence during the 1999 NATO campaign over Kosovo. The U.S. Army Hunter, Navy Pioneer and the Air Force Predator conducted important reconnaissance operations. French and German CL-289 UAVs and the British Phoenix conducted target-acquisition and battle damage assessment missions over Kosovo.

Israel has pioneered the design and development of UAVs and in the past two weeks Israeli Defence Force (IDF) UAVs have been seen observing Palestinian demonstrators in the town of Ramallah on the West Bank.

During the 78-day Kosovo air campaign NATO lost between 20 and 30 UAVs. They were either shot down or suffered technical failure. UAVs complemented spy-in-the-sky satellites in information gathering, flying below cloud and transmitting real-time information.

Fixed-wing aircraft operated above 15,000 feet to reduce the threat from Serbian surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns, and operations were affected by poor weather and cloud cover. UAVs operating at a much lower altitude and below cloud provided intelligence information without putting aircrew at risk.

UAVs can be broadly divided by radius of operation into three categories: long-range, with over 300-mile (500-kilometre) radius of action -- examples are the U.S. Predator and the Gnat; medium-range, with between 60-300-mile (100-500-kilometre) radius of action, such as the Israeli Hunter and Searcher; and short-range, which have a radius of action of up to 60 miles (100 kilometres). Examples include the British Phoenix  and the U.S. hand-launched Pointer with a radius of action of three miles (five kilometres).

The value of UAV systems can be measured by their addition, over the past five years, to many national military inventories.
While satellite reconnaissance remains the preserve of first-rank powers, the Global Hawk -- at a basic price of $15 million -- is described by experts as the Òpoor manÕs satelliteÓ.
/ENDS

Sources: IISS, Reuters