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UAV or RPV? Playing the name game

What’s in a name? A lot, if you ask Col. Pete Gersten.

He wants to kill the phrase “unmanned aerial vehicle,” and he commands the Air Force’s only UAV wing, the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nev.

Gersten likes “remotely piloted vehicle,” or RPV for short. And he wants others to use it, too.

When Air Force Times described a Predator as a UAV in an interview with Gersten, he countered: “You mean a remotely piloted vehicle?”

Exactly when the phrase “unmanned aerial vehicle” caught on isn’t clear. The Air Force’s lead spokeswoman on UAV — RPV in Gersten’s phrase — affairs didn’t have an answer.

Aircraft without humans to fly them, though, date back to the Civil War, when Union and Confederate soldiers floated explosives attached to balloons across enemy lines.

The earliest version of an airplane flown from the ground existed — believe it or not — in World War I. It wasn’t until the late 1980s, though, that these humanless machines really caught the eye of U.S. commanders.

Today, airmen sitting in Nevada fly MQ-9 Reapers over Afghanistan that fire AGM-114 Hellfire missiles with pinpoint accuracy.

Whether balloon or Reaper, all have been guided by a person — and that’s where Gersten’s beef lies.

“Unmanned is a bit of a misnomer,” he said. “It’s a heavily manned system operated by heavily motivated airmen.”

Gersten isn’t alone in thinking that UAV doesn’t accurately describe what the Air Force sees as its future. By 2047, nuclear bombings and personnel transport could be the only manned missions.

“I think it’s certainly worth emphasizing that unmanned systems are unmanned in name only,” Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Will Fraser said last month in presenting the service’s UAS Flight Plan 2009-2047.

Only two years ago, the Air Force switched from UAV to UAS, unmanned aerial system, in the belief that a Predator is more than just a “vehicle.”

Gersten hopes he can bring about another change in terminology. “Remotely piloted vehicle” rolls off his tongue.

“This is a grass-roots program,” he said. “You can get in early.”