Cost-Benefit Analysis of Medium Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Male UAV) Operator Training

Abstract

To increase its capability, the Indonesian Navy is migrating from small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAVs. A review of the literature suggests three approaches to train MALE UAV operators effectively. The first option does not require enrolling the candidate in manned aircraft flight training. The second option requires 40 hours of manned aircraft flight training prior to MALE UAV training. The third option requires 250 hours of training on manned aircraft. Each option reflects its organization’s priorities, such as cost savings over risk mitigation. This study presents an ex-ante cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of three courses of action (COA) for MALE UAV operator training to determine the minimum requirement for manned aircraft flight training to include, if any. The input data for the CBA is acquired from the Indonesian flying school’s private sector. The mishap rate as a proxy of the output is derived from the historical data from MALE UAVs of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force during fiscal years 2008–2022. The CBA shows that the most effective COA is to require 40 hours of manned aircraft flight training because it yields the most significant benefit, as measured by the lowest predicted Class A mishap and justifiable expenditures in time and money. Therefore, I recommend the Indonesian Navy take this as a short-term policy. Follow-on quantitative analysis and a randomized controlled trial is needed to set long-term policy.