Air Force Special Ops eyes off-board sensors.

• Author: Versprille, Allyson
• Position: Global Defence

* Air Force Special Operations Command is calling on industry to develop a tactical sensor that can be flown separately from an aircraft to pinpoint enemy locations on the ground, said the command's leader.

"I spend hours and hours and hours at 15,000 feet or higher looking at the tops of clouds while my joint partners are being engaged on the ground," said Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, commander of AFSOC. "That's not right."

Acquiring a tactical off-board sensor on an unmanned aerial vehicle to be flown off the service's aircraft would address that problem, he said. Existing common launch tubes--currently used to hold Griffin missiles--could be employed to carry a small UAV that would support such a sensor, he added.

An off-board sensor is useful because it can be dropped below cloud cover, move into a pre-programmed fixed orbit, target the enemy and send coordinates electronically back to the airplane, he said.

Once those coordinates are known there are a variety of options airmen could pursue. "I can drop just about anything on a set of coordinates," Heithold said. "I've got small diameter bombs; I've got versions that go to GPS coordinates."

An off-board sensor could also be beneficial when skies are clear, he noted. "I don't want to put an AC-130 over a threat" where it is visible to the enemy, he said. Such a...