Teaming pilots with drones hampered by technology.

• Author: Parsons, Dan
• Position: Unmanned Systems

The Army recently found that the most cost effective solution to replace its scout helicopters was a mix of traditional rotary wing platforms and unmanned aerial vehicles flying alongside to cover more ground in a single mission.

While not an official procurement decision, the analysis of alternatives for a new armed aerial scout provides a snapshot into a future where military officials plan to team unmanned systems with manned vehicles on land, at sea and in the air.

"I had no doubt in my mind that was going to be one of the outcomes," Mike Miller, director of business development for Bell Helicopter, told National Defense at the Army Aviation Association of America's annual expo in Nashville. "The ability to team with unmanned systems was most certainly going to be one of the Army's requirements. Everyone is wanting more manned-unmanned teaming because it is such a force multiplier."

Leaders throughout the Defense Department see the same potential in teaming drones with other platforms. For example, they could pair swarms of UAVs with the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter once it comes online, or with helicopters aboard the Littoral Combat Ship. Unmanned mine hunters could operate alongside future attack submarines.

Progress is being made in that direction with the melding of existing manned and unmanned platforms to accomplish specific missions.

But there are significant technological and logistical obstacles that must be overcome before the grand vision of seamless manned-unmanned teaming is a reality. Those include figuring out how man and machine will interact and in what form information will be delivered to pilots.

There is also a need to reduce the number of personnel flying a drone. Streamlining and simplifying the data pipeline between a UAV and the pilot of a manned aircraft is also instrumental to more integrated teaming, said Sean Varah, CEO of Burlingame, Calif.-based MotionDSP Inc.

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"There are a whole lot of people involved in this chain," Varah, whose company makes video-stabilization and enhancement software, said in an interview. "I think at last count, for every Predator mission, there were 170 people involved ... and the Air Force does 50 every day. We've got to reduce the workload. We've got to remove some folks from that chain."

In a typical ground operation there may be dozens of personnel involved in the operation of aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance...