Download or read book United States Air Force RPA Vector written by United States. Department of the Air Force and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[This document] balances the effects envisioned in the USAF Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047 with the reality of constrained resources and ambitious national strategy for a complex world. More importantly, as a visionary document, the RPA Vector opens the aperture beyond current austere fiscal realities to explore art of the possible technologies in the 2013-2038 timeframe. The intent is to examine technological advances necessary to enable the Air Force's future RPA force. The large-scale, complex, force-on-force scenarios that drove much of the military's 'traditional' approach to planning are no longer sustainable. The Air Force will continue to plan in an effort to prepare for potential scenarios, whatever they may be. The Joint force will need to be smaller, leaner, adaptable, and make selective investments to meet its missions for United States national security at home and abroad, and the Air Force will play a significant role in this effort. RPA and the effects they provide will continue to have an important role as we rebalance the force toward the Asia-Pacific region. The essential problem for future joint forces will be to project military force into an operational area and sustain it in the face of armed opposition."--Executive summary, page iii.
Download or read book Rpa Vector written by United States United States Air Force and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-05-09 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The character of future international conflicts represents a complex and unpredictable set of challenges that necessitates a significant shift in the United States' approach to warfighting. Strategic guidance in Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense reinforces that -...the United States will continue to take an active approach to countering...threats by monitoring the activities of non-state threats worldwide, working with allies and partners to establish control over ungoverned territories, and directly striking the most dangerous groups and individuals when necessary. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Vector-Vision and Enabling Concepts: 2013-2038 balances the effects envisioned in the USAF Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047 with the reality of constrained resources and ambitious national strategy for a complex world. More importantly, as a visionary document, the RPA Vector opens the aperture beyond current austere fiscal realities to explore art of the possible technologies in the 2013-2038 timeframe. The intent is to examine technological advances necessary to enable the Air Force's future RPA force.
Download or read book Towards Predicting Completion for United States Air Force USAF Remotely Piloted Aircraft RPA Training written by Jade B. Driggs and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civilian and military use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) has significantly increased in recent years. Specifically, the United States Air Force (USAF) has an insatiable demand for RPA operations, that are responsible for fulfilling critical demands in every theater 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (United States Air Force, 2015). Around the clock operations have led to a manning shortage of RPA pilots in the USAF. The USAF MQ-9 0́−Reaper0́+ Weapons School trains tactical experts and leaders of Airmen skilled in the art of integrated battle-space dominance (United States Air Force, 2015). Weapons Officers for the MQ-9 platform are also critically under-manned, with only 17% of allocated slots filled (B. Callahan, personal communication, January 28, 2016). Furthermore, the leading cause of training attrition has been attributed to lack of critical thinking and problem solving skills (B. Callahan, personal communication, January 28, 2016); skills not directly screened for prior to entering the RPA pilot career field. The proposed study seeks to discover patterns of student behaviors in the brief and debrief process in Weapons School, with the goal of identifying the competencies that distinguish the top students in Weapons School.
Download or read book Remotely Piloted Aircraft and War in the Public Relations Domain written by United States United States Air Force and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-12-06 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The well-intentioned author of the article "The Killing Ma-chines," which appeared in the Atlantic last year, offers a lengthy description of a Hellfire missile strike by a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA). The story's protagonist, a "19-year-old American soldier" who entered Air Force basic military training straight out of high school, became an MQ-1 Predator crew member upon graduation. Reportedly, on his very first mission at the controls, the "young pilot" observed a troops-in-contact situation on the ground. The "colonel, watching over his shoulder, said, 'They're pinned down pretty good. They're gonna be screwed if you don't do something.' " The narrative goes on to describe the Hellfire missile strike and the psychological effect it had on the Airman. To a sophisticated military audience, the factual inconsistencies in this account are apparent. Air Force RPAs are crewed by Airmen, not Soldiers. The 19-year-old Airman (an enlisted rank) cannot be an Air Force pilot (an officer rating). The article claims that during his first time at the controls, this Airman finds himself on a combat mission in-theater. In reality, he would have become familiar with the controls at initial qualification training, prior to arriving at his first combat squadron. Furthermore, when colonels speak to Airmen about life-and-death combat decisions, they tend to do so in terms of direct orders rather than leading suggestions. How can Mark Bowden, notable historian and author of such well-received books as Black Hawk Down, commit such factual errors? The answer is simple. Information about Air Force RPA operations is rarely available-and when it is, it usually proves unreliable. This article contends that because an information vacuum exists with respect to US RPA operations, well-meaning people cannot gain adequate knowledge to develop and share an informed opinion on the most important RPA questions. It calls this dearth of information "the epistemic problem."
Download or read book Air Force and Space Digest written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Image operations written by Jens Eder and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2016-12-14 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Still and moving images are crucial factors in contemporary political conflicts. They not only have representational, expressive or illustrative functions, but also augment and create significant events. Beyond altering states of mind, they affect bodies and often life or death is at stake. Various forms of image operations are currently performed in the contexts of war, insurgency and activism. Photographs, videos, interactive simulations and other kinds of images steer drones to their targets, train soldiers, terrorise the public, celebrate protest icons, uncover injustices, or call for help. They are often parts of complex agential networks and move across different media and cultural environments. This book is a pioneering interdisciplinary study of the role and function of images in political life. Balancing theoretical reflections with in-depth case studies, it brings together renowned scholars and activists from different fields to offer a multifaceted critical perspective on a crucial aspect of contemporary visual culture.
Download or read book Normalizing RPA Operations written by Calvin B. Powell and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The United States Air Force Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) community developed under a state of constant combat-surge operations and is rapidly approaching 65 sustained RPA combat air patrols (CAPs). As a result of this combat focus, the community has not experienced normalized garrison operations. As the requirements in United States Central Command's (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) begin to lessen, other Geographic Combatant Commanders (GCCs) are requesting additional RPAs. This transitional phase provides an opportunity to normalize RPA operations. The Air Force should take advantage of this shift in global operations to establish a normalized steady state operational framework for the RPA community. To accomplish this, the USAF must ensure consistent strategic emphasis on RPA steady state sustainability and readiness, counter poor international and domestic public perceptions of RPAs, provide operational priority to dedicated training, and establish a method for centralized global management that maximizes RPAs' inherent economies of scale. These steps are necessary to facilitate full spectrum readiness for all geographic combatant commands."--Abstract.
Download or read book The Problem with Pilots written by Timothy P. Schultz and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illuminating look at how human vulnerability led to advances in aviation technology. As aircraft flew higher, faster, and farther in the early days of flight, pilots were exposed as vulnerable, inefficient, and dangerous. They asphyxiated or got the bends at high altitudes; they fainted during high-G maneuvers; they spiraled to the ground after encountering clouds or fog. Their capacity to commit fatal errors seemed boundless. The Problem with Pilots tells the story of how, in the years between the world wars, physicians and engineers sought new ways to address these difficulties and bridge the widening gap between human and machine performance. A former Air Force pilot, Timothy P. Schultz delves into archival sources to understand the evolution of the pilot–aircraft relationship. As aviation technology evolved and enthusiasts looked for ways to advance its military uses, pilots ceded hands-on control to sophisticated instrument-based control. By the early 1940s, pilots were sometimes evicted from aircraft in order to expand the potential of airpower—a phenomenon much more common in today's era of high-tech (and often unmanned) aircraft. Connecting historical developments to modern flight, this study provides an original view of how scientists and engineers brought together technological, medical, and human elements to transform the pilot's role. The Problem with Pilots does away with the illusion of pilot supremacy and yields new insights into our ever-changing relationship with intelligent machines.
Download or read book Our Robots Ourselves written by David A. Mindell and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-10-13 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[An] essential book… it is required reading as we seriously engage one of the most important debates of our time.”—Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age From drones to Mars rovers—an exploration of the most innovative use of robots today and a provocative argument for the crucial role of humans in our increasingly technological future. In Our Robots, Ourselves, David Mindell offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the cutting edge of robotics today, debunking commonly held myths and exploring the rapidly changing relationships between humans and machines. Drawing on firsthand experience, extensive interviews, and the latest research from MIT and elsewhere, Mindell takes us to extreme environments—high atmosphere, deep ocean, and outer space—to reveal where the most advanced robotics already exist. In these environments, scientists use robots to discover new information about ancient civilizations, to map some of the world’s largest geological features, and even to “commute” to Mars to conduct daily experiments. But these tools of air, sea, and space also forecast the dangers, ethical quandaries, and unintended consequences of a future in which robotics and automation suffuse our everyday lives. Mindell argues that the stark lines we’ve drawn between human and not human, manual and automated, aren’t helpful for understanding our relationship with robotics. Brilliantly researched and accessibly written, Our Robots, Ourselves clarifies misconceptions about the autonomous robot, offering instead a hopeful message about what he calls “rich human presence” at the center of the technological landscape we are now creating.
Download or read book Air Force actions needed to strengthen management of unmanned aerial system pilots written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2008, the Air Force has more than tripled the number of its active-duty pilots flying RPAs, which is the term the Air Force uses to refer to unmanned aerial systems such as the MQ-1 Predator. Due to increases in demand, RPA pilots have had a significant increase in workload since 2007. GAO was asked to evaluate the Air Force's approach to managing its RPA pilots as well as their quality of life and promotion rates. For this review, GAO evaluated the extent to which the Air Force (1) has used a strategic human-capital approach to manage RPA pilots; (2) has addressed concerns, if any, about the working conditions of RPA pilots that may affect their quality of life; and (3) analyzes the promotion rates of RPA pilots. GAO analyzed personnel planning documents, Air Force studies, and officer promotion data. GAO also interviewed unit commanders at selected Air Force bases and Headquarters Air Force officials and conducted focus groups with RPA pilots. While the results of these focus groups are not generalizable, they provide valuable insights. GAO recommends that the Air Force update optimum crew ratios; establish a minimum crew ratio; develop a recruiting and retention strategy; evaluate using alternative personnel populations to be pilots; use feedback from RPA pilots; analyze the effects of being deployed-on-station; and analyze the effect that being an RPA pilot has on promotions. The Air Force concurred with four recommendations and partially concurred with the remaining three recommendations.
Download or read book The Swarm the Cloud and the Importance of Getting There First written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-17 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For all the ink spilled over remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) technology, knowledge of RPA culture remains in its infancy. Continuing the debate about culture, we argue first for the urgency of achieving manned-remote fusion in air warfare. Second, we maintain that the limiting factor in realizing that future is not technological but cultural. That is, until the RPA community finds its voice and place in the larger service, this evolution of airpower remains unlikely. The task at hand does not call for reinventing airpower but rediscovering it. Many of our Air Force greats have much to say about building a culture of technical warriors. We simply need to apply the ideas of Gen Henry "Hap" Arnold and those like him to the enterprise of remote aviation.
Download or read book Demystifying RPA Operations Post OEF written by David Van Pelt and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "President Obama's opening statement in the US National Security Strategy (NSS) states, "As influence extends to more countries and capitals, we will build new partnerships in every region, and strengthen international standards and institutions... Our long-term security will come not from our ability to instill fear in other peoples, but through our capacity to speak to their hopes." As Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) draws to a close, the United States has an opportunity to rebalance its forces and focus on this principle of the NSS. Since 2004, there has been an emphasis on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) full-motion video (FMV) platforms and their unique ability to bring real time situational awareness to a multitude of users. Yet, this unique capability also brings new challenges. Covert action by government agencies utilizing remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) to track and kinetically attack terrorist operatives has proven successful, however, it has come at a cost to the reputation of the entire RPA force and ISR community. Consequently, 'drones' are now viewed by many in the United States and abroad as purely covert weapons of death and destruction. This needs to change as it leads to a negative impact on US policy and serves to help the cause of the enemy. RPAs, and their manned ISR aircraft cousins, are awareness enhancers, capable of a multitude of missions including humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery. This paper explores benefits of utilizing US Air Force FMV ISR assets to strengthen multilateral partnerships across Combatant Commands (COCOMs) and revitalize the reputation of the RPA and ultimately US foreign policy."--Abstract.
Download or read book Autonomous Horizons written by Greg Zacharias and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-04-05 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr. Greg Zacharias, former Chief Scientist of the United States Air Force (2015-18), explores next steps in autonomous systems (AS) development, fielding, and training. Rapid advances in AS development and artificial intelligence (AI) research will change how we think about machines, whether they are individual vehicle platforms or networked enterprises. The payoff will be considerable, affording the US military significant protection for aviators, greater effectiveness in employment, and unlimited opportunities for novel and disruptive concepts of operations. Autonomous Horizons: The Way Forward identifies issues and makes recommendations for the Air Force to take full advantage of this transformational technology.
Download or read book RPAs written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2018-04-12 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A historian's occupational disease is to find old precedents for practically everything new that comes along. And that is true for remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) as well. In one way they are merely the continuation of the millennia-old human longing for methods of striking or observing one's enemies while remaining safe. The purpose of this essay is to briefly explore that which is old, to dwell for a time on what seems to be new, and to conclude with some speculations about the future of unmanned systems. George Patton once remarked that the object is not to die for one's country, but rather to make the other guy die for his. Thus, one way of looking at the history of military development is seeing it as an eternal search for standoff and precision to discover what one's enemy might be doing, or to strike him blows with minimum risk to one's health.1 That is often achieved through skill with minimal force rather than brute strength as with David and Goliath. So, too, it is with Predator operators at Creech AFB, Nevada, reaching across the world to see and then strike with small Hellfire missiles launched from Predator or Reaper RPAs. Precision-guided munitions (PGM), cruise missiles, and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) have long shared these characteristics, but none of these can be reused-- guidance and propulsion systems are consumed with each round. RPAs have had much in common in the development of the technology with those, but are intended for reuse of the power and guidance apparatus.
Download or read book The Military Revolution and Revolutions in Military Affairs written by Mark Fissel and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-12-05 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Military Revolution and Revolutions in Military Affairs updates two central debates in military history--the one surrounding the concept of military revolution, and the one on military affairs--whilst advancing original research in both fields. Only a handful of publications consider the military revolution and the RMA in tandem. This book breaks new ground conceptually and appeals to an exceptionally large and diverse readership. Comparative revisionist studies of the military revolution and RMA better enable us to comprehend the historical continuum and reveal the new RMA for what it is. And for what it is shortly to become. This book presents original contributions within the "epicentre" of the military revolution debate, the 1500s, with an emphasis on gunpowder revolution (offensively and defensively). The connections with the Revolution in Military Affairs are then made explicit by scholars, a practitioner, and an analyst, with an emphasis on airborne lethal autonomous weapons systems. This is a chronologically broad and unique methodological approach to a historical debate that begs for clarification as we enter an era where killer robots will almost certainly take from humans their monopoly on violence.
Download or read book Cyborg Futures written by Teresa Heffernan and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-11-26 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together academics from evolutionary biology, literary theory, robotics, digital culture, anthropology, sociology, and environmental studies to consider the impact of robotics and AI on society. By bringing these perspectives together in one book, readers gain a sense of the complex scientific, social, and ideological contexts within which AI and robotics research is unfolding, as well as the illusory suppositions and distorted claims being mobilized by the industry in the name of bettering humanity’s future. Discussions about AI and robotics have been shaped by computer science and engineering, steered by corporate and military interests, forged by transhumanist philosophy and libertarian politics, animated by fiction, and hyped by the media. From fiction passing as science to the illusion of AI autonomy to the business of ethics to the automation of war, this collection recognizes the inevitable entanglement of humanity and technology, while exposing the problematic assumptions and myths driving the field in order to better assess its risks and potential.
Download or read book The Future of US Warfare written by Scott N. Romaniuk and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an interdisciplinary analysis of the future of US warfare, including its military practices and the domestic and global challenges it faces. The need to undertake a comprehensive analysis about the future of warfare for the US is more pressing today than ever before. New technologies and adversaries, both old and new, have the potential to revolutionize how wars are fought, and it is imperative that policy makers, military planners, and scholars engage with the latest analyses regarding these new threats and weapon systems. The primary aim of this book is to provide a clear and comprehensive depiction of the types of conflict that the United States is likely to become involved with in the future, as well as the methods of warfare that it may employ within these struggles. While a number of scholarly books have previously considered some of the potential features of US warfare in the future, many of these writings are either outdated or have limited their focus to just one or two of the main types of warfare that may occur and omitted consideration of the others. This book intends to remedy this deficiency in the literature. The volume consists of thematic chapters which address the key issues relevant to the future of US warfare, including cyber warfare, asymmetric conflicts, drone warfare, and nuclear strategy. Through the provision of a series of analyses by leading international academics, the volume provides an important interdisciplinary examination of the different areas of warfare that the United States is expected to use or encounter in the future. This book will be of great interest to students of US foreign policy, military studies, strategic studies and International Relations in general.
