Air Units to be Composed of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in 2035
The road map regarding the Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV) referred to as the future’s technology was announced. According to STM’s “UAV Road Map”, Air Forces of countries will be composed of unmanned components in 2035.
Within the scope of STM’s “UAV Road Map”, containing in-depth examination of the UAV systems utilized in various tasks in such as defense, communication and logistics; new operation concepts changed with the UAV technologies, UAV systems of the future and requirements and suggestions regarding the systems have been mentioned. In the report, it was stated that UAV systems were acquiring more efficient, economic, reliable and secure solutions compared to the manned air platforms, satellites and other ground systems and emphasized that these systems would be indispensable for the Air Forces in the future.
UAV Industry Gaining Momentum
It was mentioned in the report that the industry related to these systems rapidly grew in the world in line with the increasing popularity of the UAV systems’ utilization in military area and it was declared that as of June 2015, various types of 2,115 UAVs have been produced by 637 companies in 60 countries including Turkey. According to this statement, within the last decade, the number of countries producing UAV systems increased 40% meanwhile the UAV manufacturing companies increased 208% and finally the number of UAV systems increased 289%.
The report touched upon the fact that the first steps towards manufacturing UAV systems in Turkey were taken in the beginning of 1990s, and it conveyed that especially with the studies and activities conducted under the leadership of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM) after 2004, many institutions and associations including STM launched their activities regarding UAV systems.
UAV Systems to be Equipped with Laser Weapon Systems
In STM’s Road Map, crucial foresights on the future UAV technologies were shared with the readers. According to this, when the existing instability in the Middle East, Africa’s reshaped structure, tension growing in the Far East and the potential crisis caused by energy, food and water are taken into consideration; it was stated that the unmanned versions of the war crafts which are the fundamental elements of the Air Forces will be used more frequently in 2035 and after. Another striking fact mentioned in the report is the utilization of laser based energy weapons within UAVs is to start in the near future.
Another fact standing out in the UAV Road Map is related to Big Data enabling the automatic processing and valuation of mass volumes of data. As stated in the report, with the help of the developments in Big Data, it would be possible to automatically process and valuate massive amounts of data derived from the UAV systems by automation and significantly reduce the amount of human interaction as much as possible.
