Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: a New Industrial System?

1 I would like to thank the Members and Fellows the Royal Aeronautical Society, a number of people from EADS, Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems and several others in the UAS community both in the UK and Europe for discussing the issues raised in this and the original paper. But all the errors of omission and commission remain mine. The Revolution in Military Affairs — these days often known as military transformation — with its emphasis on network centric warfare and exotic weapons systems, has threatened a comparable revolution in defence industrial affairs. The proposition is that the fundamental changes in defence technology implied by military transformation will challenge the existing structure of defence companies, encourage new entrants and new combinations of players, especially from the wider civilian high technology community, to enter the defence business. In many respects this view has overstated the real changes in the defence sector that have occurred over the past 20 years. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or systems (UAS) sector is, perhaps an exception. UAVs are already having a major impact on operations. 2 UAVs are also transforming the industrial base underpinning the development of new programmes. This entails both a large number of new entrant countries as well as a new set of industrial players. The established defence aerospace suppliers are fast catching up, but they will have to adopt new approaches to design, development and production. This will entail new business models centring on faster cycles and low volume production of individual variants. The emergence of a civil market may also underline the challenges posed to conventional aerospace companies by UAS technology. Although there are several important European UAV programmes underway, fragmentation and divergent national interests are again tending to conspire against a coherent European effort. There is a grave danger that Europe will become dependent on US or Israeli platforms. It is evident that unless Europe sorts its self out very soon, it could lose contact with one of the most dynamic defence and aerospace markets of the 21st century. However, if Europe is to capture the benefits of unmanned aerospace technology, the aerospace industry may also have to embrace new ways of doing business. Two years ago, the Royal Aeronautical Society published a Discussion paper on the industrial background to the UAS phenomenon. Since then much has happened in this most dynamic of aerospace arenas: UAS operations — 'Drone Wars' …