Unmanned aerial vehicles to become lighter, faster.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin
• Position: Surveillance

* In the future, the military can expect to have unmanned aerial vehicles that are faster, stealthier and lighter, with longer endurance and can hold heavier payloads.

"[There will be] more focus on making systems that are stealthier, so they can't be detected as easily by the enemies, [and] more autonomous so they can operate more on their own. So, if they lose [a] communication link with the headquarters, they can continue to do their mission," said Phil Finnegan, director of corporate analysis at The Teal Group.

Future unmanned aircraft will also be more fuel efficient, Finnegan said.

While there is a desire to make a more advanced generation of UAVs, the Defense Department also faces budgetary concerns. Even if the Pentagon could find the perfect UAV, would it financially be within the department's reach? Finnegan noted that the Navy has let its Unmanned Carrier-Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program--an initiative to deploy new unmanned aircraft aboard carriers over the next decade--slip by two years. In February, the Navy also canceled its medium-range unmanned aerial system program.

One problem for the UCLASS system is fitting the aircraft on a ship, said Larry Dickerson, an analyst at Forecast International. The Navy has long faced the issue of limited ship deck space, making difficult decisions and picking and choosing which equipment and weapons to bring along. Besides that, other logistical questions have come up, such as whether to bring on specialized maintenance crews, or train existing crews to fix them.

"You can't just put it on an aircraft carrier and say 'go,'" Dickerson said.

As for when the Navy will actually start acquiring the UCLASS, Dickerson said the best-case scenario is in the next 20 to 30 years.

For now, customers are looking to get the most bang for their buck, Dickerson said.

The "Holy Grail" for those buying the systems would be finding one that has the capabilities of a medium-altitude, long endurance (MALE) UAV, but for the price of a tactical system, Dickerson said.

"They are getting more and more expensive," said Dickerson.

With MALE-UAVs "there is more wiggle room" to add features such as various payloads, but Dickerson noted that they require long runways, which can sometimes make them less ideal to use depending on the situation.

Reducing costs is now more important than ever for customers, Dickerson said. Over the last 10 years, UAVs have seen a huge increase in sales, but at the same time...