Army starts over with aerial common sensor.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Battlefield Surveillance

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Army is making a second attempt at a failed joint program to create a manned aerial platform designed to provide persistent surveillance over battlefields.

The service's aerial common sensor was scheduled to undergo an Army Review Oversight Council hearing in mid-April. An industry day to give potential vendors an update on the concept of operations, and the new requirements that go with it will follow, Col. Robert Carpenter, project manager for aerial common sensors told National Defense.

"The world has changed and so has some of the requirements," said Carpenter.

A draft request for proposals will be circulated this summer, and a final document released by the end of this year. He anticipates an award in the second or third quarter of fiscal year 2009.

The aerial common sensor was until 2006 a joint Army-Navy program designed to replace three reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft--the Army's airborne reconnaissance-low and Guardrail common sensor along with the Navy's EP3 Aries fleet.

At that point, the Army cancelled the project because of weight issues. It was determined that the small business-class jet chosen for the project simply could not carry all the equipment. Tile Navy is now pursuing its own aircraft, dubbed the EP-X.

Everything attempted in the original program, even the failures, are now data points, he said. "We learned a lot from the previous program. We understand more about size, weight, power and cooling."

The concept calls for four crew members to man reconnaissance and surveillance work stations aboard the aircraft. Key, he said, will be teaming the ACS with unmanned aircraft. Carpenter has been asked why it is necessary to have a manned platform at all. UAVs seem to be a success story.

The drones are looking down in a narrow field of view, he noted. "It is pretty much a soda straw."

Human operators must control these UAVs, he added. The command and control for them can be done aboard the ACS. In one scenario, a crew member aboard the platform using eavesdropping sensors intercepts communications from an insurgent. Another on-board operator dispatches a UAV to the area to get a closer look.

The information it gathers can be quickly shared with...