Years of experience combined with an “engrained culture of unmanned aerial systems employment” qualify the Air Force to serve as the Pentagon’s executive agent for mid- and high-altitude UAVs, according to Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne.
Speaking Wednesday at the first annual 55th Wing ISR Symposium in Omaha, Wynne said such a move makes obvious sense, since the Air Force has “codified UAS deployment procedures across the current and future spectrum.” In addition, Wynne said he’d like to see unmanned systems tied operationally to the Air Operations Center (AOC) — an Air Force command element.
“The Air Force has stepped forward,” Wynne told a gathering of intelligence officers and defense contractor representatives. “It’s no longer about tactical or strategic, for only the ultimate target determines this. It’s much more about connectivity and the ability to harness information. Connectivity with space and air-breathing systems, language protocols, airspace control, identification of friend or foe, air defense – all fit into the air commander’s bucket.”
Wynne’s comments were hardly off the cuff — they support a wider Air Force campaign to take charge of all U.S. medium- and high-altitude UAVs. His direct subordinate, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley, revealed this new strategy March 5 in a three page letter that set Army officials on edge.
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Northrop Grumman said Thursday it had finalized a plan for testing its system for using unmanned aerial vehicles to watch the backs of U.S. naval task forces.
The aerospace giant said in a statement that it had dubbed its test bed “Head Start” and would demonstrate the capabilities of its Global Hawk UAV to monitor wide areas of sea for potential targets and threats, including submarines.
The project is part of the run-up to the contract for the Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance program, which will give naval units a persistent reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence capability.
The expectation is that BAMS would be able to detect and identify objects on the surface, including not only missile-armed ships and small boats but also items as small as a sub periscope peeking above the waves. The use of an unmanned aerial vehicle such as the RQ-4N Global Hawk would provide a platform that can remain aloft longer than a manned patrol plane and also cover areas beyond normal radar range.
Head Start involves equipping a Gulfstream II business jet with the radar gear that Northrop would use as part of its BAMS offering. Northrop will use the aircraft as a test bed for end-to-end evaluation of the communications capabilities and interaction with a ground station located in southern Maryland.
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The engine on an unmanned aerial vehicle is started by Spc. Shaun Fennessy, power-generation equipment repairer, and Spc. Creighton Brahm, military intelligence systems maintainer/integrator, April 26 at Forward Operating Base Marez, Iraq. The two Soldiers are members of the UAV platoon, A Company, Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Bradley J. Clark, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs)
Blackanthem Military News, FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq — Soldiers from the unmanned aerial vehicle platoon, A Company, Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division constantly have their eyes on the battlefield.
“We have logged over 400 missions with a total of 2,000 plus hours,” said Spc. Jacob Vaughn, tactical UAV operator. “Our mission is a vital one. There have been numerous times we have saved lives. We are like a scout or sniper team. We play hide and seek with the enemy, but they don’t know we’re looking for them. They have no idea we’re there.”
There are many units that benefit from the assets that the UAV platoon provides.
“While forward observers can relay information via the radio, we provide visual information,” said Vaughn. “With us, you get to see what is happening on the big screen and every battalion [tactical operations center] has one.”
A lot of units take the UAV support they receive very seriously.
“There are some units that go out without us because they have to,” said Vaughn. “But there are a lot of units that won’t go out unless they know that the UAV is out there with them.”
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An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) used as part of normal security operations had a forced landing in Dili on 03 May 07 due to technical faults.
The UAV hit the side of a house during the landing and no one was injured. ISF engineers visited the area and assessed the damage in order to make appropriate repairs to the house.
The area was repaired with a yellow translucent plastic pannel, allowing light into the house and providing a better enviroment for the residents.
Operation Astute is the Australian Government’s response to a request from the Government of Timor-Leste to assist in restoring peace to their country.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has deployed to Timor-Leste with a mission to assist the Government and the United Nations to bring stability, security and confidence to the Timorese to allow them to resolve their differences democratically and peacefully.
There are approximately 1000 ADF personnel currently serving in Timor-Leste. This force will remain in Timor-Leste continuing to provide a robust response capability to support the Government of Timor-Leste and the United Nations Police force.
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Trek Aerospace used Debian Linux and open-source flight control software to build an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). The Oviwun weighs about six pounds, fits in a backpack, and includes a GPS system that enables autonomous flight and position control.
The Oviwun UAV can fly into tight spaces, hover in one spot in order to capture still or video images, and send data back to the user in real time. Optional night vision cameras allow the device to be flown into caves, dark buildings, and tunnels, Trek said.
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A system which provides a single pilot with the ability to fly their own aircraft… while simultaneously directing up to four further unmanned aircraft has been successfully demonstrated from the cockpit of a military jet for the first time. The system, developed by QinetiQ and funded by the UK Ministry of Defense (MoD), gives unmanned aircraft an advanced level of independence and intelligence, or autonomy.
Representatives with QinteiQ tell ANN a series of successful flight trials were flown using a Tornado as the command and control aircraft and a BAC 1-11 trials aircraft acting as a “surrogate” unmanned air vehicle (UAV). The Tornado pilot also had responsibility for commanding a further three simulated UAVs.
The demonstration flights were conducted last week, taking off from MoD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, and flying largely in uncontrolled airspace over southwest England. Throughout the sorties a mixed RAF and QinetiQ flight crew was retained on the 1-11 for safety monitoring and control during takeoff and landing. QinetiQ’s Tornado Integrated Avionics Research Aircraft (TIARA), flown by an RAF test pilot, then assumed control of the 1-11 surrogate UAV and three simulated UAVs for the middle section of each flight.
Working in combination, the Tornado and four UAVs carried out a simulated ground attack on a moving target. The sophisticated computer on the UAVs allowed them to act autonomously — self-organize, communicate, sense their environment — including possible enemies — and target their weapons.
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The University of Sydney’s Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) says it anticipates two more years of research and development effort is needed to achieve technical maturity for UAV guidance systems based on simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) technologies.
ACFR has been flying increasingly sophisticated SLAM-based navigation suites for several years, some in co-operation with BAE Systems Australia on Australian Department of Defence-funded projects. The US Air Force has been actively funding elements of the ACFR research effort since midway through 2006.
SLAM technology is based on an autonomous UAV using its sensor suite to build up a map of its environment by cross referencing feature locations, with the results used to provide a navigation reference that can augment or replace GPS data in combat environments. Targeting quality maps can be produced using multiple UAVs sharing and processing data across a network.
Dr Salah Sukkarieh, associate professor at the University of Sydney, says that while SLAM technology is well advanced with respect to indoor navigation by robotic systems, its use in wide area conditions faces multiple challenges.
“SLAM works, but just. If you start to come along and look at hundreds of features, hundreds of targets, it starts to become computationally expensive so there is a lot of research going on now as to how you actually remove that computational burden for large-scale maps.
“Linking SLAM into control also leaves a difficult problem because your uncertainty keeps growing when you don’t see features that are out there and when you come along and re-observe a feature you will get a collapse in uncertainty or an increase in information and that could cause reverberations in the control solution.”
He says the technology also continues to experience issues with communications and the relative level of autonomous control capability supported by the air vehicle. “You have got limited communications bandwidth and you are trying to send these huge correlation matrices between platforms. The final one is this risk-modelling aspect – can you actually lesson the control burden by having the UAV make intelligent decisions about whether it should go out there and explore or come back in, depending on what the mission requirements are?”
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Reports suggest that the US Air Force (USAF) may be all set to create a new job specialty, that of UAV pilots, and may start recruiting people for the job some time later this year. It is likely that the position may in the officer rank.
As UAV pilots the USAF expects to attract those who had applied to be regular pilots, but had failed to make the grade because of minor physical faults. The USAF may be prepared to overlook these faults because it is aware that the current crop of recruits are the X-Box generation that has grown up on video games. Thousands of hours devoted to playing video games may have developed skills that the air force may find quite handy for the job. The US Army uses NCOs to pilot its UAVs, which are generally smaller than those used by the USAF.
Though details of the new recruitment policy are still being worked out, it is possible that UAV pilots may be required to have a commercial, single engine, pilot license. This would give UAV pilots practical experience in an aircraft of roughly the same size and flying characteristics as a Predator. Classroom instruction, however, is expected to be almost identical to that of the pilots of manned aircraft.
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The inventory of research aircraft at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center has grown by one with the acquisition of a Predator B unmanned aircraft system adapted for civilian missions. Built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) of San Diego, NASA took possession of the new aircraft last November, and it is due to arrive at the NASA center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., this spring.
The aircraft has been named “Ikhana” (ee-kah-nah), a Native American word from the Choctaw Nation meaning intelligent, conscious or aware.
“The name perfectly matches the goals we have for the aircraft,” said Brent Cobleigh, NASA Dryden’s project manager for Ikhana. “They include collecting data that allow scientists to better understand and model our environmental conditions and climate, increasing the intelligence of unmanned aircraft to perform advanced missions, and demonstrating technologies that enable new manned and unmanned aircraft capabilities.”
The aircraft, designed for long-endurance and high-altitude flight, will be used for multiple roles. NASA’s Suborbital Science Program within the Science Mission Directorate will be Ikhana’s primary customer, using the vehicle for Earth science studies. A variety of atmospheric and remote sensing instruments, including duplicates of those sensors on orbiting satellites, can be installed to collect data for up to 30 hours. The Suborbital Science Program uses manned and unmanned aircraft to collect data within the Earth’s atmosphere, complimenting measurements of the same phenomenon taken from space and those taken on the Earth’s surface.
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While many technical obstacles must still be overcome before unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) can enter civil controlled airspace, government and industry organisations are actively engaged in establishing national and international regulations for their eventual introduction. The November 2006 conference of UVS Canada, the Canadian UAV association, held in Montebello, Quebec, heard presentations from ICAO, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Eurocontrol, joint government/industry specialist groups and other organisations on how the safe integration of UAVs could be achieved.
While there is much greater UAV activity in the US than elsewhere, there is a clear recognition within the worldwide civil aviation community that UAV activity is increasing rapidly, and that uniform standards should now be established. One financial industry forecast reported by Peter van Blyenburgh, of the Paris-based UVS International, predicted that the civil UAV market would reach EUR100 million (USD129.6 million) annually by 2010, increasing to EUR270 million after 2015.
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