Current remotely piloted vehicle (RPV) applications and proposals cover a large range of vehicle size from a few kilograms mass up to full aircraft size. This raises the question whether mini, midi, or maxi RPVs are required for particular military objectives. A broad spectrum of prospective tasks for unmanned vehicles was analyzed and effective and competitive RPV size classes for different missions were identified. It was concluded that there are four distinct unmanned aircraft classes: mini RPV, weighing less than 100 kp, for observation and harrassment tasks; midi RPVs in the 500 kp class utilized for air defence suppression and surveillance; somewhat heavier vehicles, in the 1 ton class, for combat tasks; and maxi RPVs, weighing more than 2 tons, for special missions.
What Is the Right Size for RPVS
1976
10 pages
Report
No indication
English
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