Essay --

Air superiority will continue to be vital for the preservation of the U. S. Military well into future contingency operations. Airpower is one of the military’s greatest strengths providing global reach and deterrence, and will continue well into the time to come. However, the traditional air missions of air combat and bombing are being replaced by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities only imagined in the past. UAV’s are not only in great demand by forces deployed in Afghanistan, they are also at work in a wide range of civilian applications, from law enforcement surveillance to mundane tasks such as checking remote pipelines or monitoring livestock. 1 The demand is so high that it surpasses supply, which naturally means fast track development of new systems, to meet the needs of increasing requirements. 2 For example, Lockheed Martin is developing a football sized UAV that can fly in and out of the water. This adds to the reach of a submarine by having its own fleet of small flying UAV’s that can search a grid the ...