Drone ISR Nov 21- 23 NC Recommended reading: Part 1

Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) is a term coined by the United States Department of Defense(War Department) to define collection assets, typically working in a system of airborne, terrestrial (ground), spaceborne, and sometimes maritime. The main function is to give combat leaders “near real time” updates of the battlefield or logistics maneuvers. Multiple disciplines of intelligence are utilized, including but not limited to: Signals Intelligence, Imagery Intelligence, Electronic Warfare (a subset of Sigint), and as seen in the US’ GWOT and now the Ukraine/Russia war, kinetic strikes. Drones, being the topic of this class will be using the aforementioned.

Drones, specifically the ‘quadcopter’ types are being utilized every day across the globe to enhance troop effectiveness. In an evolutionary concept like warfare, there is constant drive to outsmart, outmaneuver, outgun, and outbuild the enemy. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) became an extremely important weapon/asset in the GWOT over the 20 years of warfare. It gave commanders near 24/7 aerial surveillance of a given area and was very low risk, since it’s unmanned. If it crashes, is shot down, runs out of fuel, no US troops are harmed. The same applies to the modern quadcopter drones. The difference is, the drone is much cheaper than the massive Predator drone or even the tiny ‘Raven’ used and launched by ground troops.

In the current form, these small, fast, and cheap drones are serving as both ISR asset and flying bomb. Countless videos can be viewed of one drone circling high above, recording a smaller and faster drone cruising into a trench or a truck with an improvised RPG, dropping grenades or other IED’s. The ISR concept has not changed, though these suicide drones are recording imagery and killing the enemy, similar to it’s older, giant, and expensive Predator cousin. The importance is that the imagery can provide a very up-close peek at enemy positions, encampments, and communications equipment for the comparatively low cost of $500-$6,000.

ISR has been a critical aspect of battles for decades. With the advent of these cheap, highly capable drones, ISR can now be directly operated by the ground troop that it’s meant to support and guide. Gone are the days of relaying the information from a unmanned or manned ISR plane between the Sigint operator, Imagery Operator, Pilot(s), then to the ground commander’s RTO, to the commander, back to the RTO, to the field RTO, to the field commander, and finally to the warfighter. Now all in a lightweight flying camera operated and viewed directly by the warfighting team.

The Roaring 20’s redux has rapidly become the Soaring 20’s and it’s time we catch up. More to come…