Originally Posted by
PANews
I may be wrong but there seem to be issues with the whole concept of the UAV in SA(R).
The type of craft that may be deployable in the role is going to be pretty large, sophisticated and expensive. The cost of each one is going to far exceed something like the BN2 in the Channel Islands and probably require a 'crew' every bit as large to keep it up there.
The visual capabilities for the search is going to be a fairly standard EO turret which still remains way behind the capability of the mark one eyeball..... rather than a wide view of the situation its going to be a search conducted through something akin to a toilet tube.
Perhaps in the future prices will come down sufficiently to enable the development an automatic system that takes SLAR and intelligent EO that can 'see' targets in the water and alert a ground based operator [of several different uav] to interrogate the find. All very Dan Dare pilot of the future stuff and probably 30 years off. Then to consider is whether you want one manned multi-capability asset sitting on the ground waiting for a SAR mission and flying 2-3 times a week or multiple unmanned craft sitting on the ground and undertaking the same 2-3 missions a week. There seems little to be gained from actually relying on the unmanned craft option as long as they need the same logistics as the manned option without added [or even equal] efficiency.
While I agree with many of your points regarding cost etc automated visual search technology is in use pretty much daily in SAR and border patrol now with things like ViDAR mounted on Scan Eagle UAV and Challenger 604 SAR aircraft in Oz.
ViDAR ? Sentient Vision Systems
UK "long" endurance (fixed wing) SAR is a national embarrassment.