From the bureaucracy that gratuitously renamed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), here's a new update.
Long ago, the US armed services divided UAVs into four "tiers". At some point, the air force, navy and army adopted the term "classes", but the USMC stuck with the "tier" nomenclature, each with slightly different shades of meaning. This certainly caused some confusion, but had become firmly implanted in the global UAV -- er, UAS -- lexicon.
No more.
The DOD renaming authorities have officially banished the terms "class" and "tier", and invented the new category "groups".
To get a glimpse of how confusing this is going to make my job, consider the example of the small tactical UAS/tier II contract. STUAS is the navy term. Tier II is the marine corps term, but it's for the same aircraft. Well, not anymore. STUAS/Tier II is now collectively called the "Group 3" category.
More details to follow ...
Long ago, the US armed services divided UAVs into four "tiers". At some point, the air force, navy and army adopted the term "classes", but the USMC stuck with the "tier" nomenclature, each with slightly different shades of meaning. This certainly caused some confusion, but had become firmly implanted in the global UAV -- er, UAS -- lexicon.
No more.
The DOD renaming authorities have officially banished the terms "class" and "tier", and invented the new category "groups".
To get a glimpse of how confusing this is going to make my job, consider the example of the small tactical UAS/tier II contract. STUAS is the navy term. Tier II is the marine corps term, but it's for the same aircraft. Well, not anymore. STUAS/Tier II is now collectively called the "Group 3" category.
More details to follow ...
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