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 In recent
conflicts the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) proliferated,
in support of all types of combat missions. Today, UAVs are
offering various services, including intelligence gathering for
tactical, theater and national level, maintaining patrols on
homeland security and maritime surveillance missions, providing
various force protection coverage, in support of deployed forces
in the West bank and Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iraq. On the
strategic level, large UAVs are performing these missions with
dedicated payloads. However, smaller, tactical UAVs are being
developed to support tactical units with very short range "over
the hill" and "around the corner" intelligence, and assist in force
protection. While each mission requires a different profile and
capabilities, the man portable Miniature Aerial Vehicles (MAV) are
designed to provide reasonably good performance at an affordable
price.
To effectively support the field troops, smaller UAVs are
designed, ranging from backpackable systems to insect-sized "mesicopters",
and miniature "smart dust" sensors. They can be launched by hand,
deployed by larger UAVs, or ejected from artillery or mortar
projectiles, as expendable sensors. These systems are broadly
designated as Miniature Aerial Vehicles (MAV). Current systems are
relatively large for a "micro" designation. However, new electro-opto-mechanical
integrated microSYSTEMs currently in research and development will
enable these systems to be much smaller, and operate autonomously
in concert, to monitor and sense the battlefield, and further than
that engage and defeat a wide variety of hostile forces across
the entire spectrum of conflict.
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