A new study by the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board suggests that the service branch should fund research efforts that seek to upgrade unmanned aircraft vehicles in order for UAVs to operate in contested areas, Defense News reported Wednesday.
Werner Dahm, chairman of SAB and former chief scientist at the U.S. Air Force, told the publication possible upgrades to UAVs include new weapon systems, communications platforms and radar warning tools.
“They have enough size, weight and power to be able to run these systems, [although] time aloft will go down as you add weight to the system,” Dahm said.
“The study has methodically gone through and looked at different classes of weapons and what could be carried,†he added.
Aaron Mehta reports the study concluded that simulation and modeling software platforms need to be developed in order for drone operators to determine the best approach to run updated forms of RQ-4 Global Hawk, MQ-9 Reaper and other types of UAVs.
