The given slides provide the information on the evolution of UAV in the USA and its scope in the coming time. The slides previews about the drone startups and famous drones build in the USA.

1. BY-
MEDHA GUPTA
DEVENDER SINGH BOHRA

2.  The U.S. military has been, and remains, a world leader in
remote targeted killings. The drone has become central to
U.S. National Security Strategy.
 They provide war managers with intelligence, surveillance,
and reconnaissance (ISR), irrespective of their size.
 The U.S. military’s fleet of drones varies by size, shape, and
sophistication, from the army’s hand-thrown Ravens to the
air force’s Global Hawk, which can reach altitudes of sixty
thousand feet. The drone funding stood at around $284
million in the year 2000.

3.  The Pentagon planned to spend close to $3 billion
on drones by the year 2016. Indeed, the Pentagon’s
inventory of drones increased forty-fold between the
years 2002 and 2010.
 It owns a fleet of around eleven thousand drones
today, hundreds of which are weaponized.

4.  Drones have been used for decades
in various forms.
One of the first recorded uses was
by Austrians in July 1849 after they
launched around two hundred
pilotless balloons mounted with
bombs against the city of Venice.
Samuel P. Langley developed a
range of steam-powered aerodromes
i.e. unpiloted aircraft that were flown
successfully along the Potomac
River near Washington, D.C.

5. The ninety-second flights gave a
glimpse of the future in the hovering
aerodrome.
The practice of aerial surveillance
later emerged in the 1898 Spanish–
American War when the U.S.
military used a camera fitted to a kite
to produce the first aerial
reconnaissance photographs.
Aerial surveillance was used
extensively in the World War I.

6. The evolution of U.S. Drones can be
understood as the passage of five
overlapping phases.
 Phase 1: The Target Drone
 Phase 2: The Flying Bomb
 Phase 3: The Surveillance Drone
 Phase 4: The Hunter-Killer Drone
 Phase 5: The Police Drone

7. The drone was used as a practice
target for military forces in the
early twentieth century.
Developed in UK and US
military shooting ranges, it was
of use by the U.S. Army. Some
iconic drones were hewitt-sperry
automatic airplane and kettering
torpedo.

8. In the interwar period and into
world war II, the drone was
imagined as a kind of flying bomb
to deliver ordinance across the
enemy line. They were trialed
across the english channel and
used by the U.S air force to cross
the battlefield and bomb the nation
state. Some iconic drones were
glide bomb and modified B-17
bomber (aphrodite).

9. During the cold war, particularly
after the Cuban missile crisis, the
drone was seen as a viable
surveillance platform able to
capture intelligence in denied areas.
Under the institutions of U.S. Air
force and strategic command, drones
were used across north Vietnam,
Cuba, and china for the surveillance
of the battleship and to capture
photos i.e. to photograph denied or
dangerous areas. Various Firebee
drones, also known as lightning
bugs, are the iconic drones of this
phase.

10. Post-September 11, 2001, U.S.
Air force, CIA, and JSOC used
drones in a military manhunt
during the war on terror in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen,
and Somalia. The drone has been
weaponized, fusing surveillance
and killing, therefore becoming a
combined hunter–killer, or a
predator. Iconic drones of this
phase are the predator, the reaper
drone, and the raven.

11. The fifth stage sees the drone
refashioned as a policing technology
in domestic law enforcement.
Drones are being used by the police
forces in the U.S. And customs and
border patrol in the cities in the
global north, used by hobbyists and
criminals, to swarm the street and
protect the VIP buildings. Various
quadcopter drones are being used in
this phase.

12. Drone advancement is allied to the
relationship between law and technology.
It is involved in the production of
geographic knowledge and surveillance,
target acquisition, and wider economies of
life and death.

13.  Aerostat
 Reaper
 Predator
 X47-B
 Global Hawk

14. These are 200 ft. long tethered
fabric balloons filled with
helium that float 15000 ft. in the
air from a single cable. They can
lift weight up to 1200 pounds,
including a camera that pans 360
degrees for constant real-time
surveillance. Their virtue is that
they can stay aloft for months at
a time, carrying a heavy load of
intelligence equipment. Their
shortcoming is that they cannot
be moved rapidly for new
assignments.

15. The 36 ft. long reaper, also
called the “Hunter-Killer”
aircraft is the largest armed
drone. It can detect humans
and can fire hellfire air-to-
surface missiles. It could
soon replace the better-
known drone predator. It
has a 66 ft. long wingspan.

16. It is a 27 ft. long drone with
a 55 ft. long wingspan. It is
the Cessna-size workhorse
that has dominated remotely
piloted flight since the
September 11, 2001, attacks.
The pentagon has 169
predators in its inventory.

17. It is the navy’s prototype combat
drone, and the first combat
drone to take off from an
aircraft carrier and land on it. It
is 38 ft. long and has a 62 ft.
long wingspan. It took its first
successful test flight (of 29
minutes) on February 7, 2011.

18. The 44 ft. long UAV, having a wingspan of
length 116 ft., is the largest flying drone. It is
sometimes described as the “Flying Albino
Whale”. Although linked to humans on the
ground, global hawks fly mostly on their own,
guided by GPS co-ordinates they download
from the satellite. They were deployed to
Afghanistan in 2001, providing commanders
with battlefield images. The global hawk flies
higher than the predator and can stay up longer
– for almost two days.

19. The Government of Canada wants to
buy at least three high-altitude UAVs
for Arctic surveillance.
Government agencies want to use
drones for disaster relief, border
surveillance and wildfire fighting.
The private companies are planning to
use drones for a wide variety of tasks,
such as inspecting pipelines and
spraying pesticides on farms.
Recreational drones became popular in
the United States in 2015, with a sale
approximation of one million by the end
of the year.

20. It is predicted by the U.S. Aviation
Officials that there will be 7 million
drones in the sky by the year 2020,
2.7 million of which will be used for
commercial purposes.
Drones are expected to be the most
dynamic growth sector within
aviation in a few years.
The biggest commercial users of
drones would be the real estate,
agriculture, and insurance industries.

21. The president-elect is in favor of
resuming law enforcement access to
military equipment.
The domestic drone industry shall see a
rise in the number of government clients
for drones and its interference technology.
It seems like yesterday the drone industry
was hovering on the horizon, waiting to
realize its immense potential.
However, drones won renewed attention
from investors and manufacturers in the
year 2016 for their innovative solutions in
an array of commercial applications.

22. The greatest impact of drones will be felt in
the future. Drones in the sky, drones in the
sea, drones on land – the future of human
augmentation lies within.