The US Army has begun to install a ground-based sense and avoid radar at five installations to keep UAVs from crashing into other flying objects. The radar, built by SRC, is planned for five sites to allow the General Atomics-built MQ-1C Gray Eagle fly safely in domestic airspace, said Col. Courtney Cote, project manager for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, speaking at an industry conference last week.
The sites are Fort Drum, New York; Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Fort Hood, Texas; and Fort Riley, Kansas. Fort Hood is set to receive the first system in early 2015.
Federal aviation regulations require aircraft operators to see and avoid other aircraft. Lacking a pilot, unmanned systems typically require a chase plane or ground observer to fly in national airspace.
As part of the Army’s aviation restructuring plan, the service trades the OH-58D Kiowa scout for unmanned drones and a fuller embrace of manned-unmanned teaming between AH-64 Apache “E” models and the Gray Eagle or Shadow unmanned aircraft. Apaches use their sensors to detect and identify targets from a safe distance.
The Army’s budget request this year included $518 million to equip two Army companies with the Gray Eagle, part of an effort to field Gray Eagles to 15 companies across the service. This would give every active duty division its own unit while equipping two companies of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Overall, the Army plans to purchase 152 Gray Eagles.
The Gray Eagle companies will be staffed by 128 soldiers and contain nine UAVs. When deployed, however, the companies will be beefed up by an additional platoon, or three more UAVs each.
The force structure plan is still evolving, as Cote said the Army is discussing how to “tweak” it, possibly by integrating maintenance companies, and exploring sensor payloads and upgrades to augment the speed and range of unmanned systems.
Tests this past summer at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and El Mirage Flight Test Facility in California proved the payload, weapons and flight path of Gray Eagle and Shadow could be controlled from the cockpit of the Boeing-built AH-64E, and that the latest version of the one system remote video terminal (OSRVT) can control the sensors of a UAV, according to the Army.
The plan is next summer to conduct a follow-on test and evaluation of Gray Eagles with the Link 16 tactical communications suite, which transmits intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data into other vehicles. In this case, it would be teaming with the AH-64E, which is similarly equipped with Link 16.
In May, the RQ-7B V2 Shadow passed the follow-on operational test and evaluation at Fort Bliss, Texas, of its upgraded tactical common data link. The link is intended to turn the Shadow into an all-digital aircraft, enabling data encryption, according to Henry Finneral, vice president of tactical unmanned systems at Textron, the lead system integrator for the Shadow.
The next step is to upgrade the fleet’s Shadows to “V2” and integrate them into the Army’s combat aviation brigades, meant to further enable manned-unmanned teaming. The plan is to field the first units in January, and ultimately retrofit 117 Shadows over the next three years with the link, as well as an extended wing and a fuel-injected engine.
“There’s a large upside to the manned-unmanned teaming capability being developed and rolled out now, as these two systems are trained together and will enter theater together,” Finneral said. “It provides reduced risk to a soldier who needs to look over a hill and see a target. He can do the reconnaissance mission previously done by manned platforms.”
Last month, Textron began delivering to the Army a new variant of its OSRVT, the -50, a touchscreen tablet from which users not only see what the unmanned system sees, but control its sensors. The OSRVT provides a common interface for the Gray Eagle, Shadow and Hunter systems.
Textron plans to upgrade 3,100 OSRVTs for the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command.
Source: Defense News