Electronic Eyes Aid Soldiers and Sailors.

• Author: Colucci, Frank
• Position: Armed forces, United States

Unmanned aircraft get improved sensors, but some equipment still costs too much

The ability to package electronics and sensor payloads into small unmanned aircraft will deter mine how successfully these vehicles will perform in combat, officials said. Powerful sensors on small aircraft could help, along with other weapon platforms, to strip the confusion from the battlefield.

Both the U.S. Army and Navy are investing in programs to push this technology.

The Army, for example, is considering deploying hunter-killer teams with tactical unmanned air vehicles (TUAVs) to locate and designate targets for the Longbow Apache and Comanche attack helicopters. "I think there's tremendous opportunity for the synergy of TUAVs and helicopters," says Edward Bair, the Army program executive officer for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors. The crew of an AH-64 Apache controlled the flight path and sensors of a Hunter UAV last July. "A TUAV is not the end-all in itself," he said. "We need to correlate multiple sensor inputs into a relevant picture."

Bair manages the development, acquisition, testing, fielding, support and improvement of TUAV sensor payloads. The Navy's program executive office for cruise missiles and joint unmanned aerial vehicles has responsibility for the sensors in the service's vertical-takeoff UAV, or VTUAV.

The so-called Outrider advanced concept technology demonstration in 1998 showed that one UAV could not satisfy the operational requirements of the Army and the Navy. The 535-pound Outrider was too big for the Army to deploy and launch rapidly in the field. Like the small Pioneer UAV currently used by the Navy, the fixed-wing Outrider would have required clumsy recovery gear and more human labor aboard Navy ships. The two services consequently ordered different vehicles with different sensors.

Two Platforms

To give brigade commanders a responsive reconnaissance asset quickly, the Army plans to buy 44 TUAV systems, integrated by AAI Corp., in Hunt Valley, Md. Each system includes four Shadow 200 air vehicles-- three operational and one spare. The Block I or "threshold" air vehicle is expected to loiter for four hours, 50 kilometers (36 nautical miles) from its launch point with an electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) payload. Block II introduces an advanced EO/IR payload, multi-mode radar and a basic communications relay payload.

The Army selected the Shadow 200 as its TUAV in December 1999. Initial operational capability is scheduled for July 2002.

The Navy intends to use the Firescout VTUAV system to support aviation-capable ships and Marines ashore. Each system--integrated by the Northrop Grumman Ryan Aeronautical Center, in...