The Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) has the potential to reduce significantly the risk to aircrew in military operations and improve mission effectiveness.
Additionally, the attraction of cost effective, readily available assets that are not subject to the physical, physiological and training constraints of human pilots, is self-evident.
QinetiQ’s studies of future capability enhancing systems consider the possibility of using UCAVs in isolation, in swarms and in packages of mixed unmanned and manned platforms.