Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Robotic Air Warfare 1917-2007 (New Vanguard 144)

• Publisher:   Osprey Publishing
• Number Of Pages:   48
• Publication Date:   2008-10-21
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   1846032431
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9781846032431

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are the most dynamic field of aerospace technology, and potentially the harbingers of new aviation technology and tactics. They have only emerged from the shadows in recent years, but in fact have been in use for decades. After some limited use in World War II, UAVs began to emerge as a substitute for manned reconnaissance aircraft in the 1950s for missions deemed too dangerous to risk an aircrew. Used in significant numbers in the Vietnam War as well as less-heralded missions such as spy flights over China in the 1950s and 1960s, the contemporary UAV began to emerge in the 1980s. This book examines the development of this unique and mysterious technology, revealing how it has changed combat through the years and speculating on its potential to transform the nature of warfare in the future. Steven J Zaloga examines the pioneering use of UAVs conducted by the Israeli air and the use of UAVs during Operation Desert Storm. Packed with rare, recently declassified photographs and detailed full-color cutaways, this title goes on to investigate the wide deployment of UAVs over Iraq and Afghanistan today, and considers the possible future of the UAV as an actual military weapon.

I had just read a Zaloga book on tanks. I was to read two more Zaloga tank books in the next few weeks. He's a very good writer and a real expert - on tanks. Alas, this subject doesn't benefit from his sagacity and judgment. This is just a list of models. You can get more and more recent information from Wikipedia.

This is a beautifully illustrated book on a subject that has received a lot of media coverage lately. It is written in the style of a guide to museum exhibits but it is the pictures that tell the story, so don't expect too many technical details. There are illustrations and photographs on every page, most of them in color. Sometimes they do not follow the sequence of the text, for example the illustration of Boeing's X-45 appears in the `Early Days' section opposite a photograph of the WW1 vintage Kettering Bug. However, with only 48 pages one can read the book from cover to cover and then go back and enjoy the pictures a second time. The author has done a splendid job compiling this history of robotic aerial vehicles, but it is a pity he restricted himself to military versions. Perhaps there will be an enlarged second edition?

Steven J. Zaloga's UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES: ROBOTIC AIR WARFARE 1917-2007 offers a detailed survey of the design, development and history of warfare machinery through the ages. From the early development of the technology to how it's changed combat over the years, UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES is an excellent addition to military libraries, as is other series titles from Osprey. An excellent military library pick.

From an Osprey Publishing series that hits so many home runs it's suprising to see such a weak effort as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Robotic Air Warfare 1917-2007. The title of the book gives a hint to it's falure, 90 years of history covered in what turns out to be less than two dozen pages of actual text (I'm not counting the captions as text as many of them just repeat information in the text of the book). The scope of the book is just to large to be covered properly in such a small booklet. As an example, the ground-breaking Aphrodite Program gets "covered" in one sentence that also mentions two other projects. On the plus side the book is well illustrated in the Osprey tradition and it makes a fine pictue book (The two stars are for the illustrations). The pictures don't save the skimpy text however and this is perhaps the only book from this fine publisher that I am sorry I purchased.

Osprey's New Vanguard No. 144, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Robotic Air Warfare 1917-2007, provides a quick look at the various attempts to develop remote-control aircraft. Normally these type of survey titles have to cover far too much ground to be more than a superficial introduction to a subject, but as introductions go, this is a fine one. Although the emphasis is upon American UAV developments since the Vietnam War, the author does spend some time discussing Soviet, NATO and Israeli developments. The volume begins with an introduction that takes a brief look at the dawn of robotic warfare when the British tried to develop an unmanned "aerial torpedo" toward the end of the First World War but the technology was too immature. Zaloga notes that the early development of unmanned systems with closely intertwined with the quest to field fire-and-forget cruise-type missiles. In the Second World War, the technology had advanced to the point that the United States actually built and used radio-guided assault drones in the Pacific. The author then moves into a section on "Cold War Spies" that describes the first tactical reconnaissance UAV, the American SD-1, which became available in the 1950s. However, the American use of UAVs finally became a realistic capability during the Vietnam War based upon a whole new series of air frames that were based on aerial target drones. The author also discusses the US Navy's DASH anti-submarine drone and spends several pages on Soviet UAVs in the 1960s/1970s. There are also short sections on Israeli and European UAVs. About halfway through the volume, the author reaches the modern era when he begins to discuss UAV use during Desert Storm in 1991 and Operations OIF/OEF in the 21st Century. Sub-sections discuss the development of long-range endurance UAVs as well as the emergence of unmanned combat vehicles (UCAVs). Although the author offers some conclusions on the future of UAVs, he avoids becoming unduly speculative. Overall, this is a very good survey for only 48 pages and it is both attractive and well-written. It does have a few weaknesses that may render it less useful for some readers. Aside from the Global Hawk, there is little performance data (e.g. range, ceiling, speed) presented for most of the UAVs. This survey is almost exclusively focused on air-frame and ground-control developments, leaving room for almost no discussion of sensor collection capabilities (which is really the heart of what most UAVs do). This is particularly important in regard to the development of all-weather sensors (SAR) or long-range sensors (LADAR, LOROP), over the traditional daylight-only, overhead optical systems. Finally, the author did provide some specific examples of actual UAV use in combat, but these were rather superficial. Nevertheless, the author does succeed in packing a considerable amount of information into a very small package and most readers will probably wish there had been an extra 20-30 pages. Graphically, the volume is very attractive. It has seven color plates by Ian Palmer: the TDR-1 Assault Drone (1944); the D-21B Tagboard (1970); the Soviet DRB-1 Yastreb (1973); the Firebee Drone in combat (1969-2003); the RQ-1 Predator (2004); the RQ-2 Pioneer (2003) and a two-page cutaway of the RQ-4 Global Hawk. The volume also has a large number of very good photos, most of which are in color. The author provides a short, but adequate bibliography that points the way toward more in-depth sources available.

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