How Drones Are Impacting Military Technology

The military was the first industry—as long as 50 years ago—to see the possibilities of using drones for military technology and thus drones have become the primary use in today’s world.

The following are various uses of drones:

  • Reconnaissance missions of critical facilities by hostile groups to gather intelligence on site layout, guard movement, or other information that could help in carrying out a physical attack.
  • Dropping explosives intended to damage critical or sensitive infrastructure, or in transportation hubs and other areas of public gathering.
  • Delivery of weapons or other materials for use in an attack.
  • Providing air support to a ground attack.
  • Target decoys 
  • Combat missions
  • Supervision
  • Research and development

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been an integral part of the military forces worldwide. Military spending continues to be the main driver of drone spending in the coming years. It is estimated that global militaries will spend up to $70 billion on drones by the end of this year.

Surveillance and reconnaissance of probably the biggest military technology/drone applications as well as intelligence gathering and chemical detection. More than 19,000 drones carrying payloads that have video cameras and infrared night vision cameras are in the arsenal of the US Army, Air Force, Marines, and Special Operations.

These drones will play a vital role in the resolution of future conflicts and in the replacement of the human pilot.

UAVs will continue to be applied in various military operations due to their effectiveness and efficiency in reducing losses and enabling the military to execute high profile and time-sensitive missions.

Unfortunately, drones have been most efficient at taking lives and too often, those lives have been the innocent ones due to “friendly fire” or other miscalculations. It is not surprising, therefore, that drones have received attention mostly because of such horrible mistakes.

Skepticism about the usefulness of drones to target supposed terrorist targets in foreign countries, therefore, has grown significantly. Too often drone strikes have led to collateral damage and/or civilian deaths. We should not be surprised, therefore, that foreign nations whose soil has soaked in the blood of these victims have a very negative view of drones. Even though this is true in some cases, the other option—putting boots on the ground—our military argues, would be much costlier in terms of lives and money.

Military and government contractors are partnering with Draganfly to improve personnel and infrastructure safety.

UAVs can easily protect human resources by gathering intelligence without putting a single soldier’s life in danger.

Another function of UAVs is deployment in the service of the numerous industrial facilities in the military. All these facilities need inspection in areas such as refineries, pipelines, seaports, flare towers, main gates, peripheral fences, etc.

Future

UAV technology continues to advance as drones become smaller, quieter and lighter, which enables them to make longer flights with better capabilities. Therefore it makes perfect sense that the appetite of the military for these flying robots will only increase as they will most likely include artificial intelligence and other robotic platforms in the future. They have already proven what an easy and valuable weapon they have been in surveillance, gathering intelligence and their ability to attack and counter-attack with multiple platforms.

There is a lot of speculation concerning the future of warfare. There is no question but that drones have changed, and are changing, the way nations fight wars against each other.

Many of us have already heard of war resembling a video game played on a computer screen at a distant base, where, at the push of a button, UAVs carry out their deadly attack.

Will human soldiers be replaced by robotic soldiers?

We are not sure what warfare will look like in the future. What we are sure of is that there are opportunities in the military today.

A thorough knowledge of these new military technology and how to operate them with great skill, will open up doors for someone who is interested in military service. Deep knowledge of drone technology would be another avenue of opportunity in the military.

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