Unmanned aircraft adapting to army future force needs.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

The combination of unmanned aerial vehicles and piloted rotorcraft can prove critical for the future force concept, according to U.S. Army officials. To that purpose, the Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate is testing technologies and concepts that would allow helicopters to remotely control UAVs.

The goal is for UAVs to perform as part of a rotary wing aviation team, Raymond Wall, head of the AATD systems integration division, told National Defense. "We are trying to bring intelligence to augment the human operator's performance."

He explained that, traditionally, "UAVs have been controlled by a ground station, but we feel that we want to go into taking control of the UAV and flying it along with the helicopter to be the eyes, ears and sensors forward for the manned system."

These unmanned systems could be deployed with the RAH-66 Comanche, the AH-64D Longbow Apache and the A2C2S command-and-control Black Hawk, said Wall. The UAVs could be Predator, Shadow, Hunter and future air-launched UAVs that the AATD also is evaluating.

The helicopter should be able to control the payload as well as the platform from the cockpit. The Army demonstrated that ability at Fort Polk, La., back in 2000. However, controlling the UAV increased the pilots' workload significantly, said Wall.

Currently, under a program called AMUST--short for Airborne Manned/ Unmanned System Technology--AATD is seeking to reduce the number of tasks pilots would have to do to control those UAVs. AMUST will develop software and hardware to enable the commands to the UAV to be transmitted through the tactical common data link.

The unmanned system will have to fly its mission with minimum human intervention. Required route and communication updates will be transmitted to the UAV by computer.

"By taking a UAV and having that feed information directly into the cockpit of the helicopter, I have a sensor now that can go 10-20 km ahead of me, and allow me to get information back directly," said Wall. "I can see what that UAV sees, and I can take what that UAV sees and tell it where I want it to sweep."

The AMUST program is wrapping up this month. Once it is completed, the findings will transfer into the Hunter Stand Off Killer Team (HSKT) advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD). HSKT is a joint Army, Navy and office of the secretary of defense endeavor to improve situational awareness and provide precision targeting capability. The HSKT will provide a company of...