National Defense > Blog > Posts > At Annual Aviation Convention, Army Officials Extol the Virtues of Unmanned Aviation

4/19/2010

At Annual Aviation Convention, Army Officials Extol the Virtues of Unmanned Aviation
FORT WORTH, Texas — In coming decades, unmanned aerial vehicles will expand their role in warfare beyond intelligence gathering to become a vital component of attack, transport and resupply missions, said Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli and other top officials who spoke here last week at the Army Aviation Association of America conference.

Army leaders wanted to get across a key message: Unmanned aircraft are not just a fad.

“Unmanned aerial systems must provide the ability not only to see, but to shape, the battlefield,” Chiarelli said in a keynote address. “They have forever changed the way the Army operates.”

Aviation officials said they expect that future advances in technology will allow manufacturers to build unmanned aircraft that could eventually replace current cargo helicopters and ferry troops to battle. They urged contractors to find ways to reduce the weight of unmanned aircraft parts so that UAVs can carry heavier payloads.

Officials also hailed recent improvements in command-and-control technologies that allow operators to control multiple UAVs from a single device.

Col. Christopher B. Carlile, director of the Unmanned Air Systems Center of Excellence, said he believes that in coming decades the public will feel safer riding in UAVs than in manned aircraft. Currently, there’s much skepticism about transporting people in UAVs, he said.

“We have to allow machines to do what they do best, which is making decisions based on binary data,” he said. “And we have to allow humans to do what they do best, which is making decisions on the go.”

He lauded the Army’s increased use of “manned-unmanned teaming,” such as streaming UAV video into Apache helicopter cockpits. Plans also call for helicopter pilots to control UAVs. Carlile said that missions that incorporate both piloted and unpiloted aircraft are more effective because they capitalize on what each aircraft does best.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, director of Army aviation, echoed Carlile’s sentiments. “We’re going to stop talking about manned-unmanned teaming and actually start doing it,” he said.

The Kiowa Warrior scout helicopter, for example, often flies with a partner Shadow UAV, which gives the Kiowa pilot greater awareness of what is happening on the ground. When pilots are able to control UAVs from the cockpit, officials said, they will have multiple lines of sight on a target, and will be able to see more clearly what’s on the other side of mountains or buildings.

“For us, coming to this show is an opportunity to see the latest technologies,” said Tim Owings, deputy project manager for Army Unmanned Air Systems. He said his office is especially interested in vertical lift and cargo resupply technologies, as well as lighter munitions and communications devices that link UAVs and operators.

The enthusiasm for UAVs is not going to fade any time soon, several officials insisted. Aviation Branch Chief Maj. Gen. James O. Barclay III discussed details of a major restructuring of Army combat aviation units. The plan is to redesign aviation formations during the next three to five years in order to incorporate unmanned aircraft in the standard makeup.

Chiarelli also commented on the release of a much-anticipated “Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap” document that outlines the Army’s ambitious plans for expanding the use of UAVs during the next 25 years.

"We're integrating UAS into all of our formations downrange,” Chiarelli said. “But I think the biggest thing to come out of this discussion is an opportunity to sit back and think about this idea of the full-spectrum combat aviation brigade — the ability to go ahead and integrate unmanned platforms along with manned platforms. That's the direction the Army's going.”

He said the roadmap was not intended to endorse programs or forecast budgets but rather to offer notional concepts of how unmanned systems will fit into formations in the future. "There have been many technologies [that have been] introduced during this eight-and-a-half years of war. However, I don't think any has made a greater impact than UAS,” Chiarelli said. “It's always important when you have a game changer like this that you step back, take some time to think about it and lay out your future. That's what we've tried to do in this very first UAS roadmap.”

Look for additional coverage of Army aviation programs in the June issue of National Defense.
Posted at 9:07 AM by Austin Wright | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

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Re: At Annual Aviation Convention, Army Officials Extol the Virtues of Unmanned Aviation

This concept of how unmanned systems are game changer is reality and will continue into the future without a doubt; The 21 century battle plan will and must include UAS. Now the hard part will be to convince the builders to think ahead, and for the military to support the company's that do.
There is no doubt that Vice Chief of Staff sees the means to equip are soldiers with the futuristic equipment that will save lives. Moreover, place the battle in our enemies’ front yard.  We should all be proud of the steps taken to make UAV Air and Ground a reality that will lead us deep into the 21 Century
darryl doty at 4/20/2010 3:25 PM

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