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Article: Cleared for action: incorporating UAVs into the battlespace.(unmanned aerial vehicles)
- Article from:
- Journal of Electronic Defense
- Article date:
- September 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Horizon House Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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During the Vietnam War, operational unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were called drones and had more in common with cruise missiles than airplanes. The average soldier didn't want anything to do with them. When UAVs were launched, helicopters would land. The pilots didn't trust being near them in the same airspace. James G. Roche, currently secretary of the US Air Force and nominated to be the secretary of the US Army, said in July at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) show in Baltimore, MD, that early UAVs had a tendency to wander off course and disappear from view, only to come back unexpectedly some time later. "Oh, there it is again" is ...