Northrop Grumman has introduced an unmanned aircraft data management system to the European market, to allow troops on the ground to “eliminate the tunnel-vision of the battlefield”. The HART (Heterogeneous Airborne Reconnaissance Team) allows soldiers at small unit level without their own UAS to benefit from the plethora of assets overflying the battle-space.
Tim Beard, deputy director of advanced concepts at Northrop Grumman Aerospace, said: “We have got a lot of UAS in the air, but no-one has created a system so that everyone can share the data.”
A unit leader simply sends a request for imagery to the tactical operations centre, which then prioritises the request. The HART system then selects the most relevant imagery or the nearest UAS, and the image is geo-linked and sent back to the unit leader. In some cases HART could take over a UAS and fly it to the correct location, although Northrop conceded this will not be required by all customers.
So far, nine UAS platforms and one piloted aircraft – the Beechcraft C-12 Huron – have been integrated into the HART system. A further three – General Atomics’ Gray Eagle and Northrop’s Global Hawk and Fire Scout – are pending.
HART has been trialed by the US Army and US Marines, with the programme led by the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Source: Flight Global