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The War in Iraq: Weapons
Troops Build Their Own UAVs
by James Dunnigan
May 23, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
Troops in combat zones are eager to get their hands on robotic vehicles, but the
supply is limited. Fewer than a thousand UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and
UGVs (unmanned ground vehicles) have been sent to Iraq so far. So the troops
have been improvising. Radio controlled (RC) cars and aircraft are readily
available from hobby stores, or their web sites. Items can be sent via air
freight to Iraq. The high end RC trucks cost several hundred dollars, but can be
controlled from as far away as 200 meters. These are often carried by troops on
convoy duty, for checking out items on, or alongside, the road that might be
bombs. Just shooting at these objects doesn’t always set them off. But run an RC
car up to it, and ram the object, and you quickly know if it is heavy (and
possibly a bomb), or light (and likely just some garbage.) These vehicles can
also be equipped with wireless video cameras, perfect for checking out what’s
around the corner. RC aircraft, especially the high end ones that cost $500 or
more, can also, with some effort, be equipped with a wireless vidcam. However,
using off-the-shelf equipment, your transmission range is only a few hundred
meters. Most RC aircraft can be controlled up to 500 meters away, and with more
expensive commo gear, nearly twice that. But troops have gotten their own
improvised UAVs into the air (and sometimes shot at as well.) The army calls
these efforts “field expedients,” and they are one reason why the army (and the
other services as well) are scrambling to get official versions of this gear
into the hands of the troops. The government issue stuff is often little
different than what the hobbyist troops are coming up with. The military
versions are more expensive because they have to be built so that any soldier
can quickly figure out how to use them. That takes a lot of effort, and runs the
costs up. But for units that have some RC hobbyists in the ranks, you can make
your own, crude but effective, recon UAVs for under a thousand dollars. The
official versions cost $20,000 or more.
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The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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