Article

October 2003

Unmanned Combat Aircraft Still in 'Adolescent Phase'

by Sandra I. Erwin

Despite recent successful flight tests, the Air Force unmanned combat aircraft, called the UCAV, remains in the “adolescent phase” of its development, said Stan Kasprzyk, program manager for the UCAV at the Boeing Co.

Boeing is under contract to develop the X-45 UCAV for the U.S. Air Force. The unmanned bomber is designed to launch 800-, 1,000-, and 2,000-pound joint direct attack munitions (JDAM) and small diameter bombs. It also could, one day, deploy directed energy weapons and conduct electronic jamming missions.

Two X-45A prototypes are being flight-tested. A larger version, the X-45C, is in development and could fly by 2006, according to Boeing.

These vehicles are only “dust covers” for weapons and avionics systems, Kasprzyk told a conference of the Precision Strike Association.

Compared to UAVs such as the Predator, the UCAVs mark a drastic departure in the way they are operated. The UCAV has no stick or rudders. The control of the vehicle is programmed on the ground.

“It’s a major paradigm shift in the operator community, moving from piloting to mission operator,” said Kasprzyk.

He characterizes the current state of the UCAV technology as being in the “adolescent phase,” because platforms have been unreliable, limited to short duration missions, vulnerable to enemy fire, weather and other restrictions.

More advances are needed in on-board data processing, said Kasprzyk . “The goal is to do data fusion and automatic target recognition on board.”

One significant cultural issue for the operators is the “situational awareness,” he explained. The question is whether only the pilot can have situational awareness or whether the vehicle also can attain some level of awareness, “if you have enough computing power.”

Sensor inputs, he noted, should contribute to how well the vehicle can accomplish the mission. If a “pop up threat” emerges, the vehicle should be able to route itself around that.

As far as autonomy goes, the X-45 rates quite low, Kasprzyk said. On a scale from zero to 10, the UCAV is “heading toward an autonomy level of 1 to 2.”

That is a concern for the industry, he said. “We have a capability to go to 4-5 right now, but there is a little bit of operator resistance, because they haven’t been prepared for that shift yet.”

The right level of automony will be dictated by the concept of operations for the UCAV, Kasprzyk said. “We are working on getting operators in the loop as we do concept development, as they analyze the conops.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency predicts that the UCAV will reach a level of 8-9, which would practically give them enough autonomy to carry out a complex mission with no human in the loop.

The aircraft price tag also could become a problem in developing the concept of operations. At an estimated cost of $10 million to $15 million each, the UCAV may become such a valued asset that commanders may be reluctant to send it on high-risk missions and may even end up assigning manned escorts to protect the UCAV.

“That is definitely a consideration,” Kasprzyk said. “The system capabilities will be designed so that you use the UCAV for the right mission.” It will not compete with manned aircraft, he added.

The UCAV, meanwhile, now has a new name. In recent months, the Defense Department has directed the Air Force and the Navy to consolidate their unmanned combat aircraft programs and renamed the new effort Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems, or J-UCAS.

The switch to J-UCAS also prompted a new nickname for the program. “We call J-UCAS ‘jackass,’” said one senior Navy official in charge of aviation programs.

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