Prospect of unmanned aerial vehicles in Lithuanian land forces

The chosen topic is very relevant nowadays, because unmanned aerial vehicles have recently started to develop successfully and are used quite widely in different combat missions. There are 6 different classes of unmanned aerial vehicles, so even smaller armies can afford to buy small, cheap but useful unmanned aircraft that facilitate people’s work. The thesis presents classification, general characteristics, development history, application, management techniques of unmanned aerial vehicles and climatic conditions restricting the use of unmanned aircraft. There is also an overview of legislation restricting civil unmanned aircraft. The second part of the thesis contains the functions performed by unmanned aerial vehicles and the statistics of unmanned aircraft used by US in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during combat conditions. The analytical part of the thesis presents the application of small unmanned aerial vehicles in Lithuanian military land forces. Analysis consists of two parts. The first part contains a comparison of an area model and object model with the pictures of an area made by unmanned aircraft. The second part compares the functions of reconnaissance patrol and the functions of unmanned aerial vehicle designed to gather intelligence. The end of the thesis contains these conclusions: 1. Unmanned aerial vehicles can gather intelligence, detect and mark targets, conduct electronical reconnaissance, communications retransmission, create maps, simulate targets, detect minefields and transport various goods. 2. Lithuanian land force unmanned aerial vehicles can successfully gather intelligence that would facilitate the tasks of on foot reconnaissance patrols and the photos made by unmanned aerial vehicles can be used instead of area or object models