Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
UAVs Gain Stature while Boeing and EADS Partner on Missile Defense
The defense facet of Farnborough 2002 was focused on new technology to be deployed in the war on terror.

The defense facet of Farnborough 2002 was focused on new technology to be deployed in the war on terror. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)–once an obscure sideshow–moved to center stage. Though confined to the static display line, Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk surveillance platform–as proven in the recent Afghanistan conflict drew a lot of attention. So, too, did the company’s new Fire Scout unmanned helicopter and Lockheed Martin’s Predator.

The message was clear: UAVs, and eventually unmanned combat air vehicles, will play vital part in future warfare–conceivably as soon as the coming fall months in the widely anticipated assault on Iraq. In fact, the ascent of the UAV is such that organizers of the Paris Air Show are looking into how they could be permitted to participate in the flying display.