Unmanned and Smart

Col Mandeep Singh (retd)

Liddell Hart, the grand old master strategist had said, “Even today aircraft are the most effective and economic means of long-range bombardment. And the advent of wireless control of such machines, dispensing with the need for a costly human crew, will immensely augment their advantage.” His prophecy may not have come true in his lifetime but the use of unmanned systems in almost all recent conflicts, including the Nagorno-Karabakh and the ongoing Russo-Ukraine conflicts, has shown that in increasingly complex and technology driven battlespace it is the unmanned systems that hold the promise to provide a breakthrough.

Unmanned systems have proliferated rapidly and their use has only increased in recent years to an extent that for the first time in its history, in 2011, the United States Air Force (USAF) trained more UAV pilots than fighter and bomber pilots combined. Similarly, in 2019 there were more vacancies for drone pilots in the US Air Force than there were for pilots of traditional manned aircraft. Even the induction of unmanned systems has seen a major increase. This is partly due to the increased effectiveness of unmanned systems and partly because of increasing cost of manned aircraft, which makes it difficult for air forces to maintain the required mass. Following the lead, USAF Secretary Frank Kendall revealed on March 7, 2023, that the USAF was planning to field 200 Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) stealth fighter aircraft and 1,000 drones, known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs) in the coming years. The CCAs will be paired with the NGAD and F-35 stealth aircraft, wherein each manned fighter will reportedly fly with a pair of CCAs thus giving the figure of 1,000 CCAs (two CCAs per 200 NGAD platforms and an additional two for each of 300 F-35s). This mix of manned and unmanned systems is expected to provide the USAF an affordable mass and be cost-effective.

On the other side of the globe, China is also working on a programme wherein the twin-seat version of its most advanced fighter jet, the J-20, is expected to operate with a (as yet unspecified) number of drones with the second seat of J-20 used to control the ‘wingman’ drones. The swarm of drones, each of which could carry between four to 10 precision-guided missiles, will increase the firepower of the J-20 even if the aircraft has just four to six ground-strike weapons. The J-20, with its loyal swarm of drones could carry out early-warning and combat reconnaissance missions also. Similar trends, of plans to induct a mix of manned and unmanned systems, can be observed in other areas ranging from Europe to Korea and Australia.

Manned vs Unmanned

Before discussing the trends and their implications, here is a look at the concept of operating manned and unmanned assets. Manned-Unmanned Teaming (M-UMT has been defined by the United States Army Aviation Centre (USA ACE) as “the synchronised employment of soldier, manned and unmanned air and ground vehicles, robotics, and sensors to achieve enhanced situational understanding, greater lethality, and improved survivability.”

The M-UMT operates on five levels. At the most basic level there is only the indirect reception of data sent from an uninhabited vehicle to a manned platform. For example, the UAV can live-stream video to an attack helicopter or close air support aircraft allowing the crew to have information including visuals of the potential targets, but from a safe distance. This can be done by the UAV to a single or multiple manned platforms simultaneously.

At Level-2 there is direct communication between an uninhabited vehicle and an inhabited platform, the former provides data specifically for the manned platform while at Level-3, not only does the inhabited vehicle receive direct transmission of data from the uninhabited vehicle, it also controls that vehicle’s sensor payloads. The degree of teaming further increases at Level 4 as inhabited platform can now control all aspects of the uninhabited vehicle’s operation sans launch and recovery. At the highest level of teaming, the manned aerial platform has total control, i.e., it controls all Level-4 functions with the inhabited aircraft supervising the uninhabited vehicle’s launch and recovery also.

Why M-UMT

It is generally believed that domination of air is essential for success in ground operations. In recent times, achieving and preserving air dominance is becoming more difficult with the air space becoming increasingly contested. Drones have come to become an influential player in the conduct of air operations and offer a means of denying and achieving air dominance in the near future. But drones in themselves will not be able to achieve the desired end state on their own and need to conduct collaborative operations with crewed aircraft.

Another important factor is the need for technologically and numerically smaller air force to have the capability to operate against a superior air force in contested airspaces. To illustrate, the USAF’s current force design reportedly falls far short of the requirements to deter and prevail against Chinese aggression, which is considered to be its prime threat. Similar imbalances exist in different regions and theatres and may well prevail in our case too. In such a scenario there is a need to develop innovative operating concepts and appropriate force size, resiliency, and ability to present complex challenges to adversary’s forces. It is believed that a fami