Unmanned Aircraft System
UAS are air vehicles and associated equipment that do not carry a human operator, but instead are remotely piloted or fly autonomously. UAS commonly are referred to as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) and drones.
The term unmanned aircraft system (UAS) or remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) emphasizes the importance of other elements beyond the aircraft itself. The term UAS has been adopted by the United States Department of Defense (DOD) and the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to describe a broad range of aircraft.
The UAV may be autonomous, requiring pre-programmed flight and mission instructions to be uploaded to onboard computers, or can be piloted remotely by a human operator from any distance provided there is an adequate communications link to the aerial vehicle. While the electronic controller is often assumed to be “ground-based,” it can also be operated from an airborne or sub-surface platform, as long a command signal can be received by the vehicle UAVs are also often “missionized”, outfitted with special payloads that can be activated autonomously or through active human control to meet commercial or military requirements.
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