Breifing Gives Update On UAS Progress
Discussions about the Army's use of unmanned systems in the
combat theater are likely to focus on bomb-detecting robots and
ground vehicles able to navigate through hazardous terrain.
Chances are the discussion won't immediately go to one of the
fast-growing fields in the Army: unmanned aircraft systems.
These systems, operated at the tactical level by troops on the
ground, are bringing warfighters unprecedented intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance capability, Army Col. Christopher
B. Carlile, director of the Army Unmanned Aerial System Center of
Excellence at Fort Rucker, Ala., told reporters yesterday.
"There's an old saying that science and science fiction is only
separated by timing, and that timing is now," he said during an
Association of the U.S. Army aviation forum. "We have it."
Some considered Army UASs little more than "model airplanes with
some sensors hanging from them and a bunch of guys flying around
with play toys" when they first entered the scene in the mid-1990s,
Carlile conceded. But they've proven themselves as force
multipliers that save lives on the battlefield, and have come to be
embraced by the warfighters who employ them, he said.
With almost 1 million UAS flight hours clocked in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the Army is committed to growing the program to keep
pace with demand for UAS capabilities. This year alone, the Army
plans to train more than 2,000 operators who ultimately will deploy
with the ground troops they will support, Carlile reported.
Army UASs come in three primary forms. The Raven, just under 3
feet long, supports battalions down to the platoon level. The
Shadow, 11 feet long with a 14-foot wingspan, supports
brigade-level operations. The more sophisticated "big daddy" of
Army UASs, the Extended Range Multi-Purpose system, has a 56-foot
wingspan and supports division-level operations.
The Raven UAS
These systems provide life-saving situational awareness and make
soldiers more effective in tracking down enemy targets, Carlile
explained.
"This is not the movies," Carlile said. "There is not an
infantryman who can call up and have the National Security Agency
turn a satellite so he can see what's on the back side of a
building. That doesn't happen."
In the past, infantrymen found out what was behind the building
when gunfire came from it, or a rocket-propelled grenade came at
them from around the corner. Now, they have the Raven, the smallest
UAS. At less than 5 pounds, it is lightweight and portable enough
to deliver an aerial reconnaissance capability once limited to
higher-echelon elements.
"They can take that and fly it and put it above, and see if
there is an ambush on the other side of the street, in real time,"
Carlile said. Troops also can determine what the enemy is up to -
such as hiding behind civilian shields - to reduce the risk of
collateral damage during operations.
Army UASs also have proven their effectiveness in identifying
and taking out enemy operatives. A little-known fact, Carlile said,
is that Army UASs have launched about 80 percent of the successful
drone strikes that have made headlines in the news.
The Shadow Tactical UAS
When he commanded the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq as a major
general, Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, now commander of U.S. Forces
Iraq, called the tactical UAV Shadow system "an absolute must" for
his brigade commanders in locating, identifying and ultimately
defeating high-value targets.
The UAS Center of Excellence leads the Army's effort to
synchronize its UAS program with those of the other services,
especially the higher-visibility Air Force remotely piloted vehicle
program based at Creech Air Force Base, Nev.
Recognizing the contribution these sister-service aircraft make
to the fight, Carlile emphasized the complementary value of
unmanned aircraft operated by troops on the ground, directly
alongside the soldiers they support.
"Their whole intent is to support the guys they eat dinner with
every night, the ones they sleep in the same tactical assembly area
with," he said. "Because of that, they have a tie they would not
have if they were in Las Vegas, Nev.," home of the Air Force UAV
center at Creech Air Force Base.
"You cannot have that same tie with the soldier. You cannot have
that same situational awareness 8,000 miles away," he said. "It
just does not exist."
Lt. Gen. James Thurman, the Army's deputy chief of staff for
operations, told attendees at the AUSA session yesterday the Army
will continue to invest in unmanned as well as manned aircraft to
support warfighters.
"Unmanned aircraft systems continue to significantly improve our
war efforts, and demand for these specialized systems continues to
rise," he said. "The Army will continue to pursue highly capable
systems while providing aircraft, highly skilled operators and
advanced capabilities to support the war efforts."
While pointing toward solid growth within the Army UAS program,
Carlile isn't predicting a day when unmanned aircraft will take the
place of piloted ones. Army experiments to measure both platforms'
effectiveness in tracking enemy targets in combat found they had
the best results when working collaboratively to support the
operation, he said.
aerial surveillance photo taken by Raven UAS
"When we put the manned and unmanned together into the combat
operation, we get an exponential increase in synergy," he said.
That synergy can be measured in the number of successful target
identifications or hits, Carlile said, with equipment providing
consistent binary data and humans contributing the ability to think
outside of that data field to make logic.
"The two come together very sweetly, and that is what gives us
the capability," he said.