Human Factors Concerning Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Future Operations

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) play increasingly important roles in many modern militaries. The proven success of the UAVs during the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq has created a demand for UAVs with varying functionalities and capabilities. UAVs are currently performing tasks and playing roles of the manned systems in many mission areas. Although UAVs are limited in meeting all the requirements' parameters when compared to the manned systems, their low risk, low cost attributes and critical mission capabilities make them preferable. However, to what extent the UAVs can continue defining tomorrow's military missions is not predictable. There are some skepticism and hesitation about operating UAVs with minimal human oversight and how it influences the operational effectiveness when the limitations of autonomy or constant control needs are accounted. Therefore, it becomes crucially important to find out and apply the best matching between systems and missions considering the type of the mission and capabilities of UAVs. The emerging challenge is to identify the place of the UAVs in operational structures and versatile mission requirements, and possibly provide an integrative solution where both manned and unmanned systems collaborate in achieving given missions in the future of warfare. The aim of this paper is to compare cognitive capabilities of UAVs and manned systems, and evaluate them in the context of anticipated future operating environment. The evaluation will focus on the efficiency of systems on the cognitive domain of information environment and impact on specific missions. The research is expected to contribute to a more informed structural transformation of the modern militaries.