Air force refines training programs for UAV operators.

• Author: Colucci, Frank

With growing numbers of Predator and Global Hawk unmanned aircraft expected to enter service in the years ahead, the U.S. Air Force is solidifying plans to train operators and support crews.

For the Predator now armed with Hellfire missiles, the Air Force intends to draw all future Predator pilots from fighter-bomber cockpits.

Formal training for the unarmed Global Hawk has just begun with officer pilots drawn from a range of aircraft. Meanwhile, the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps continue to entrust their tactical UAVs to enlisted air vehicle/sensor operators.

The different UAV "schoolhouses" also are revising their courses to exploit new capabilities and may acquire new UAV training devices.

Both the Global Hawk high-altitude endurance UAV and the Predator medium-altitude endurance UAV are overseen by the Air Force Air Combat Command. The piston-engined Predator requires a pilot and sensor operator to actively fly the entire mission, including takeoff and landing.

Within the Predator ground control station, the pilot works a conventional control stick, throttle and redder pedals. "That 1 G cockpit is parked on the ground with full connectivity to any information you might need," says Lt. Col. Erie: Mathewson, UAV special mission chief at ACC Headquarters in Langley Air Force Base, Va. "Your situational awareness is oftentimes better than it would be in a manned aircraft."

Predator pilot and sensor operator stations have identical displays. Two stacked television screens show the view from the boresighted day television camera in the nose and the infrared/day television sensor in the gimbaled payload turret. Above the camera displays, a digital map with an aircraft symbol pinpoints the position of the UAV. Besides the pilot's-eye view on the video displays, two command and status screens present graphic flight data including airspeed, altitude, and angle of attack, and an artificial horizon. The Air Force is evaluating a head-up display.

With flights lasting 16 hours or more the typical Predator mission requires two pilots and four sensor operators, who remain in the cockpit no longer than four hours at a time to prevent fatigue. "The way we plan, brief and execute is what you'd find in a manned aircraft," says Mathewson. "We have a persistent aircraft, which means we have a lot more to plan for. We also have a tactically dynamic aircraft, so it never gets dull."

Rapidly changing orders and intelligence from multiple ground and airborne sources require skilled UAV crews.

The 11th Reconnaissance Squadron at Indian Springs Air Force...