U.S. losing critical skills needed to weaponize unmanned systems.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Date: 01 July 2009
• Author: Firebaugh, Millard S.
• Published date: 01 July 2009
• Author: Firebaugh, Millard S.

When U.S. forces went into Iraq in 2003, the military had fewer than 170 unmanned aerial systems and only a handful of ground robots. By 2008, the number of unmanned aerial systems had reached 6,358, and ground robots nearly 12,000.

Commanders clearly want armed unmanned systems. But the biggest issue facing weaponization of unmanned systems is the decline in U.S. energetics expertise. These skills are key to the future of armed robots.

So far, unmanned systems have been weaponized by retrofitting aircraft to launch munitions that already exist. For example, the Predator unmanned aerial system was fitted with two Hellfire missiles. The Shadow unmanned aerial system may he equipped to drop 81mm mortar rounds. The Reaper would be armed with up to four Hellfire missiles, two laser-guided bombs and a 500-pound smart munition.

These approaches both rely on munitions made up of yesterday's explosives and propellants, called "energetic materials." A National Academies of Sciences report noted that "using yesterday's energetic materials in today's battlefield systems would be as effective as trying to run a Ferrari on kerosene."

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Energetics specialists should be involved in the development of unmanned systems and their munitions. Proof of that is the development of the M1 tank. It could outrange Iraq's Soviet-made tanks because energetics experts developed high-energy propellant grains, each the same size and including...