Special Ops Drone Techniques Shared With Marine Corns.

• Author: Tegler, Jan

U.S. Special Operations Command's tactics, techniques and procedures for using small drones are spreading to at least one other service.

The Marine Corps is replacing its long-serving Light Armored Vehicle with BAE Systems' Amphibious Combat Vehicle Command, Control, Communication and Computers/Uncrewed Aerial Systems, known as the ACV C4 UAS, according to Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works' UAS and attritable systems director Jacob Johnson.

From that vehicle, Marines want to dispatch Stalker and Indago intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drones that Lockheed Martin has refined continually since their introduction in 2006 and 2012, he said.

"Collaboration with our SOCOM and Marine Corps customers and industry partners has enabled the rapid development of needed capabilities for the warfighter," Johnson said.

Both drones are part of ongoing contractor verification tests, he said.

The vehicle will act as a "battlefield quarterback" with Marine Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalions --collecting, processing and distributing sensor data from ground level and above the horizon to give Marines and other forces an expanded picture of what's going on around them, he said.

The ACV C4 UAS is a candidate for what's arguably the most important component of the USMC's Armed Reconnaissance Vehicle program, said Mark Brinkman, BAE Systems' program manager for ACV design and development.

"As the Marine Corps looks for a replacement for the LAV, they had to pick one variant, the C4 UAS version, to be the first of what could potentially be [a] family of vehicles," he added.

Small, portable and able to be assembled/launched rapidly from the ACV C4, the fixed-wing Stalker and quadcopter Indago could allow operators to see up to 30 miles beyond the vehicle as part of a suite of "sensors and effectors that will enable the Marines to identify potential targets and threats and observe a large area of the battle space, understand what it is they're looking at and then act upon it," Brinkman explained.

Noting their complementary capabilities, Johnson said, "It's advantageous to be operating both drones simultaneously, thinking about coverages of ranges, real estate and the data each are intended to provide."

The pair can swap payloads quickly, with a variety of available electro-optical, infrared, and low-light cameras capable of locking onto and tracking targets day and night in all weather conditions...