Cost Performance Tradeoffs for the Army to Purchase One Type of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to Support the Armor and Infantry Wartime Requirements

Abstract

The goal of this MBA Project is to investigate potential dichotomies between doctrine and practice in the employment of the Raven Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SUAV). The Army's current Small UAV requirements are based upon the Future Combat System's Operations Requirements Document and has not been validated at the platoon or company level. The Raven SUAV is a Commercial off-the-Shelf (COTS) item that swiftly became the Army's Small UAV of choice for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Doctrine and Techniques, Tactics, and Procedures (TTP) have been written for the Raven SUAV; however, this document is not standard practice for all units operating the system abroad. The last review of the SUAV operational requirements was conducted in 2003 and left a gap by not specifically addressing its usage on the battlefield. In an attempt to fill that gap, this project will focus on real-world usage of the Raven SUAV system and compare doctrine versus practice using the Department of Defense's (DOD) Doctrine, Organization, Training, Material, Leadership, Personnel, Facilities (DOTML-PF) model as the primary logic construct.