The
is an acronym for ,
which is an aircraft with no pilot on board.
can be remote controlled aircraft (e.g. flown by a pilot at a ground control
station) or can fly autonomously based on pre-programmed flight plans or more
complex dynamic automation systems. UAVs are currently used for a number of
missions, including reconnaissance and attack roles. For the purposes of this
article, and to distinguish UAVs from missiles, a UAV is defined as being
capable of controlled, sustained level flight and powered by a jet or
reciprocating engine. In addition, a cruise missile can be considered to be a
UAV, but is treated separately on the basis that the vehicle is the weapon. The
acronym UAV has been expanded in some cases to
(). The
FAA has adopted the acronym () to reflect the fact
that these complex systems include ground stations and other elements besides
the actual air vehicles.
Officially,
the term 'Unmanned Aerial Vehicle' was changed to 'Unmanned Aircraft System' to
reflect the fact that these complex systems include ground stations and other
elements besides the actual air vehicles. The term UAS, however, is not widely
used as the term has become part of
the modern lexicon.
From
this perspective, most early are
not autonomous at all. In fact, the field of air vehicle autonomy is a recently
emerging field, whose economics is largely driven by the military to develop
battle ready technology for the warfighter. Compared to the manufacturing of
UAV flight hardware, the market for autonomy technology is fairly immature and
undeveloped. Because of this, autonomy has been and may continue to be the
bottleneck for future UAV developments, and the overall value and rate of
expansion of the future UAV market could be largely driven by advances to be
made in the field of autonomy.
Under
the NATO standardization policy 4586 all NATO
will have to be flown using the Tactical Control System (TCS) a system
developed by the software company Raytheon.