TECHTALK

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 Longbow Apaches with decision aids and manned-unmanned teaming, as well as connectivity to the F/A-18’s precision targeting and weapon delivery capabilities.

The ACTD is sponsored both by the U.S. Pacific Command and Special Operations Command. So far, the program has received $60 million from both the Army and the Navy.

Vigilante
Meanwhile, the AATD also is exploring capabilities for unmanned systems to execute missions now performed by helicopters. One example is the rotary wing Vigilante, which initially was used for experimentation for vertical take-off and landing of unmanned systems, said Wall. Vigilante was developed by Advanced Technology Incorporated in Newport News, Va., and Science Applications International Corporation.

“Vigilante is just a test bed program that I can afford to bring in,” said Wall. Equipped with a Webcam, the Vigilante can transmit images to a ground station.

It has a maximum gross weight of 1,100 pounds, a main rotor diameter of 23 feet and a main rotor height of 8 feet. Vigilante can fly at a speed of 96 knots and at altitudes of up to 10,000 feet. It has a 300-pound payload capacity.

The Vigilante now is being used for testing the low-cost precision kill guided rocket. “We put a laser-guided seeker head on a hydro rocket to get a precision kill capability,” he explained. The weapon hit within one meter of the target in recent tests.

With the addition of a guidance section between the 2.75-inch rocket motor and the warhead, the Hydra-70 rocket can be turned into a laser-guided weapon. The technology offers the accuracy missing from the current Hydra-70 rocket, filling the gap between the Hellfire missile and unguided rockets. It costs less than $10,000 per round in high rate production quantities, according to BAE Systems, the contractor selected for LCPK.

LCPK was tested in August. The Vigilante was supposed to fire the LCPK at the end of November, according to Wall. LCPK will be tested on the Longbow next year, but details still need to be worked out, said Wall.

According to Kevin McGonicle, a senior engineer at ATI, Vigilante “could go out, designate a target and shoot, all the while controlled by a Black Hawk.”

The Wing Store UAV program started two and a half years ago, said Ned Chase, from AATD’s platform technology division. Wing Store is supposed to be deployable from any M260/M261-equipped aircraft. Once launched, the UAV would “look ahead of the host aircraft, broadcast signals back and tell the pilot what is out there, give him a view of what it can see, who is on the ground, where they are,” said Chase. At the end of the mission, it would land in a controlled crash.

“The wing folds out as it comes out. There is an electric-boost motor that we are using now for flight-testing that propels” the UAV out of the tube, said Chase. To enhance performance, Chase’s team will use a small turbine engine.

AATD tested the system on a Cobra helicopter. “The control system that we used was very rudimentary,” Chase said. The UAV had its first flight early this summer. Thorpe Seeop in Mesa, Ariz., produces the WSUAV.

Future Combat Systems
Several of the concepts AATD is testing have the potential to fit into the four classes of unmanned aerial systems sketched out for the FCS program.

Class 1 will be a platoon-class small aircraft. Class 2 will operate at the company level. Class 3 will be attached to the battalion and Class 4 to the brigade commander. Each FCS brigade would have 36 class-1, 36 class-2, 12 class-3 and 16 class-4 aircraft.

The Army has not yet selected any specific UAVs for the program. The AATD provided support to the FCS LSI team (Boeing-SAIC) for evaluating the UAV class recommendations, said Wall.

Class 1 and 2 UAVs have “very strict requirements,” said Maj. Chris Grinsell, deputy program manager for the A-160 Hummingbird at AATD. The A-160 is a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV developed by DARPA. The specifications for Class 3 and 4 are less clear, Grinsell added.

The smallest UAV—a potential class 1—is the Micro Air Vehicle (MAV), a 9-inch, 8-ounce ducted fan UAV that can be carried and launched by a soldier. It is being developed under an ACTD program. The Army also is maturing the Organic Air Vehicle (OAV), a larger 19-inch ducted fan UAV designed to be launched from an FCS platform.

A contender for both the MAV and the OAV is the vertical-takeoff ISTAR—in 9-inch and 19-inch versions respectively—built by Allied Aerospace. “These UAVs are hand laid and hand built one at a time,” said Mark Finger, a company spokesman. ISTAR can fly for about an hour, he said. However, wind can cause it to crash. It also is extremely loud. “We are working on the acoustics, by putting more blades on the prop,” said Finger. The goal is to go from four to seven blades.

“It is a re-locatable sensor. You can fling it over to a building corner and set it down and then shut it down. Then, it is perfectly quiet,” he said.

“That is where the fixed-wing aircraft really can’t match us, because they have to continue flying or land on the ground somewhere, and this can keep going under the tree line and shut down, unlike a helicopter with exposed blades.”

The Army is making more significant research investments in the larger UAVs. One of these is the vertical takeoff A-160 Hummingbird Warrior UAV, which will provide communications relay and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for the FCS units of action.

The Shadow UAV, currently being fielded, could be considered for class 2. The Hummingbird would fit the specs for class 3, even though it could fulfill the role for class 4, according to Grinsell.

Hummingbird, produced by Frontier Systems, in Irvine, Calif., has flown several times, said Chase. The flights were of varying endurance, up to about four hours. Hummingbird also conducted a first flight with an electro-optical payload, he said.

Grinsell noted that Hummingbird consumes one-eighth of the fuel than was projected. This proves that the Hummingbird can potentially reach its 40-hour flight goal, he added.

The Army still is working to get the vehicle to fly to 140 knots, said Grinsell. Reliability of the vehicle also needs to be improved, he said, “because one of the things that has cancelled UAV programs in the past is that they do not have high reliability and you can’t put high-cost payloads onto them.”

The Hummingbird rotor can spin 50 percent slower than on regular helicopters and that reduces the power required to operate it, said Grinsell. He said that he hopes Hummingbird will become an Army program in the future, but of more importance is that the rotor-wing community accepts the technology.