Applications For Navy Unmanned Aircraft Systems

This monograph presents the results of a limited study performed by the RAND Corporation to evaluate the Navy's ongoing and proposed unmanned aircraft system (UAS) programs and to describe the most promising applications of UASs to operational tasks. Completed in September 2008, the study does not provide an exhaustive look at all DoD missions for UAS. However, it does discuss the strengths and weaknesses of manned and unmanned aircraft for certain missions of importance to the Navy. We emphasized traditional Navy missions rather than Navy contributions to irregular warfare, though we included an examination of a few nontraditional missions such as counter-piracy. The study was sponsored by the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Assessment (OPNAV N81).