Drones are a technological necessity for modern-day effective warfighting - key to fighting WOT, mapping weather and satellite imaging - Next Gen key to effective airspace coordination
Aluise 12 (Susan J. Aluise is president and executive editor of National News Syndicate, “Big Bang to Big Bucks: Drones Are Coming to a Sky Near You”, 2/28/12, AD: 07/10/12, http://www.investorplace.com/2012/02/drones-coming-to-a-sky-near-you-avav-noc-txt-ba-baesy-rtn/ | Kushal)
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been the tech stars in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — as well as in the more amorphous War on Terror. But with final combat operations in Afghanistan scheduled to end in December 2014, manufacturers of UAVs (also called drones) are looking toward their next market opportunity: commercial applications here at home.¶ Congress and President Barack Obama gave the nascent commercial drone industry a shot in the arm earlier this month, ordering the Federal Aviation Administration to craft a plan to open up U.S. airspace to thousands of unmanned drone aircraft by 2015. The new mandate was part of the agency’s $64.4 billion funding bill, which includes money for its fuel- and time-saving NextGen air traffic control system. Now the FAA will need to safely work drones into the national airspace mix as well.¶ The law requires the FAA to permit police, firefighters and other first responders to launch their own UAVs within 90 days — as long as the drones fly above 400 feet and don’t weigh more than 4.4 pounds. By next year, the weight limit rises to 55 pounds. The agency has an aggressive timetable in which to develop safety regulations and specify technical requirements.¶ Why the big push for putting these unmanned drones into U.S. airspace? Simple — it’s big business. The applications appear endless for these pilot-less aircraft — which range in size from AeroVironment’s (NASDAQ:AVAV) 3-inch-long Nano Air Vehicle to Northrop Grumman’s (NYSE:NOC) RQ-4 Global Hawk, whose 116-foot wingspan is larger than that of an Airbus A320.¶ Drones can be used for everything from to border control to law enforcement surveillance to infrared heat detection for firefighters. They also can be used for mapping, remote monitoring of oil fields and industrial sites or for agricultural and weather applications. Advocates say the commercial applications of the technology are limitless.¶ Of course, those applications also could include shooting video through windows of private homes and streaming it to YouTube or setting up cheap, 24/7 surveillance of celebrities. A coalition of privacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Consumer Watchdog last week sent a letter to Acting FAA Administrator Michael Huerta urging him to make privacy concerns paramount in the agency’s rule-making process.¶ “The increased use of drones poses an ongoing threat to every person residing within the United States,” the privacy advocates said. “Private detectives are starting to use drones to track their targets. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has deployed street drones in other countries to supplement the images of StreetView. Criminals and others may use drones for purposes of stalking and harassment.”¶ Safety issues are perhaps a greater concern in drone operation, since even the most high-end aircraft with the most skilled operators have been known to crash or collide with other aircraft. A U.S. drone crashed in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, apparently because of a technical problem.¶ And last year, one of Textron (NYSE:TXT) subsidiary AAI’s RQ-7 Shadow drones collided with a U.S. Air Force C-130 transport in midair over Afghanistan. Although the transport plane landed safely, it sustained significant damage to the wing — including a ruptured fuel tank.¶ Still, this is a huge business opportunity for UAV manufacturers to find new commercial business. And many so-called “dual use” technologies were born military and developed wildly lucrative commercial business applications — two examples being nuclear technology and GPS.¶ Looking at the commercialization of drones from an investment perspective, here are a few key companies that could benefit if the market soars as high as some advocates believe:¶ Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) Insitu subsidiary develops the ScanEagle and NightEagle drones.¶ Northrop Grumman has an extensive family of drone aircraft including the Global Hawk, Firebee, Bat and Hunter.¶ BAE Systems (PINK:BAESY) offers the “flapless” Demon drone.¶ Textron’s AAI subsidiary produces commercial UAVs that include the Shadow family as well as Aerosonde and Orbiter.¶ AeroVironment’s commercial UAVs include the Wasp, Raven and Global Observer lines.¶ Schiebel Technology is privately held and produces the Camcopter UAV, a rotorcraft that can deliver a wide range of video applications.¶ General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is privately held and best known for the Predator and Grey Eagle families.¶ Raytheon‘s (NYSE:RTN) Missile Systems has developed the stealthy Killer Bee drone.¶ Bottom Line: Although privacy is a rallying cry for many, individuals have virtually no privacy rights today when it comes to being photographed outside. Manufacturers and users will argue — likely successfully — that the drones pose no greater threat than traffic cameras or security cameras at stores and ATMs. Photographing individuals inside their own homes might be a bit of a sticky wicket for commercial drone advocates, however.¶ Still, the FAA will have to walk a tightrope if it is to permit widespread, yet safe, operation of vast numbers of commercial drones of all types in the national airspace. Expect the FAA to issue tight restrictions on operations near airports, to require advanced onboard sensors that can steer the drones away from aircraft and perhaps even require operators’ licenses. Expect the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and other agencies to keep a close eye on the potential for diversion of drones by potential terrorists.
Cooper 12 (Rich, staff writer for Defense Media Network, “Droning On Around Us”, 06/09/12, AD: 07/12/12, http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/droning-on-around-us/ | Kushal)
Look, up in the sky … It’s a bird! It’s a plane. It’s a … drone?¶ While those are not words we are ultimately familiar with, they are words we may very well be saying in the coming days in the skies above the United States. While model airplane enthusiasts have long enjoyed flying small remote controlled aircraft around open fields and skies for their own enjoyment, advancements in technology have made what was once seen as a hobby into a very real issue of surveillance and civil liberties.¶ Today drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are the tip of the spear in the U.S. arsenal taking out al Qaeda leaders and other bad guys around the world. The recent take down of Al Qaeda’s number 2 guy, Abu Yahya al-Libi in northern Pakistan is just another example of the extensive use of these tools since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began more than a decade ago.¶ When the United States first went into Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks, the American public got its first widescale public exposure to the use and effectiveness of the Predator. Made by General Atomics, the Predator is a UAV capable of not only staying aloft for extended periods of time and beaming back live images of the targeted area below, but delivering one or two Hellfire missiles to extinguish whatever its ground controllers no longer want walking the face of the Earth.¶ The use of the Predator and other UAVs has not only allowed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to be effectively prosecuted, but has saved the lives of American and Allied forces while exterminating people we are better off without. Controlled by remote pilots, often in areas far from the actual battlefields, these tools have put eyes, ears and weapons in places formerly out of reach.¶ So if they are so good at keeping an eye on what is happening around a given area, what would the harm be if we had UAVs flying around the United States? That question, and the response by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, has ignited a debate about the use of these technologies on, or over, American soil.¶ What may give comfort to American citizens in protecting its men and women in uniform and taking out bad guys on a far off battlefield does not necessarily provide much comfort to some people if it flies overhead here in the US.
Drones are the backbone of our modern-day warfighting - they are cost-effective, precise, and safer
Dilegge 12 (David Dilegge is a retired USMCR Intelligence and Counterintelligence/HUMINT office, “Drones Revolutionize US Warfare”, 06/11/12, AD: 07/10/12, http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/drones-revolutionize-us-warfare | Kushal)
They are robots in the sky and some say they are revolutionizing the way the United States wages wars. Drones are playing a growing role in the U.S. military.¶ It is estimated that there are 10,000 unmanned aerial vehicles in the U.S. military's arsenal, in addition to an undisclosed number operated by the CIA - including one that recently killed Abu Yahya al-Libi, al-Qaida's number two leader. ¶ Pakistan objects to the use of drones over its territory. But U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has given no indication Washington will stop using them against terrorists.¶ "We made it clear to the Pakistanis that United States of America is going to defend ourselves against those that would attack us, and we have done just that, we have gone after their leadership and we have done it effectively," said Panetta.¶ Drones are relatively cheap to operate. Their strikes are precise. And they entail no risk to the pilots who operate them from U.S. bases thousands of kilometers away. ¶ At a time of shrinking budgets and growing war fatigue among the American public, the Obama administration has made unmanned aerial vehicles a central component of its new defense strategy.¶ Michele Flournoy is a former top Pentagon official and an architect of that strategy.¶ "The whole realm of unmanned systems is going to revolutionize the force over time," said Flournoy. "We are still in the process of understanding what those systems bring in terms of new ways of operating, new ways of working as a military."¶ By some accounts, that revolution is happening now. UAVs' effectiveness and their small footprint are quickly making them the Obama administration's weapon of choice for U.S. military and intelligence operations.¶ John Brennan is President Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser:¶ "It is hard to imagine a tool that can better minimize the risk to civilians than remotely piloted aircraft," Brennan said.¶ But anti-drone protesters say drones are not risk free and the deaths of bystanders in Pakistan and elsewhere go largely unreported.¶ Medea Benjamin fears that Americans could become desensitized to war.¶ ¶ "The biggest ethical problem with drones is that it makes killing too easy," said Benjamin.¶ For U.S. leaders, armed drones have proven their worth and are the way of the future. Activists want a moratorium until laws catch up with the technology in order to keep it in check.