Air Force Special Operations Command wants to launch spy drones from its gunships to collect critical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information. The program to develop the technology is approaching a key transition point.<\/p>\n
Tactical off-board sensing capabilities, also known as TOBS, would give AC-130 crews the ability to see the battlefield when their onboard sensor views are obscured.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a requirement for an all-weather capability on our gunships right now,\u201d Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey LaFleur, materiel leader for integrated strike programs at Special Operations Command, told National Defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be able to track the enemy and we need to be able to engage the enemy whether there\u2019s clouds, whether there\u2019s any type of situation there that would prevent us from doing that,\u201d he said. TOBS \u201cis addressing that capability gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lt. Gen. Brad Webb, the commander of AFSOC, described how the technology could be used during a hypothetical raid to capture a high-value terrorist target.<\/p>\n
The team leader on the ground \u201cknows that the cloud cover will make it difficult for traditional ISR to be of much use,\u201d Webb told an audience at a recent conference in Washington, D.C. The commando \u201ckeys his radio and calmly states, \u2018Send the TOBS.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Webb continued: \u201cThousands of feet and miles away an orbiting AC-130J gunship receives the call. \u2026 The operations airborne mission commander presses the illuminated launch button. The TOBS air vehicle slips out of its common launch tube and starts to autonomously fly towards the team\u2019s location. \u2026 It slides below the cloud deck giving the asset its first opportunity to view the team on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Feed from the sensors would be transmitted back to the gunship where operators could manipulate picture framing, zoom levels and positioning. The TOBS system would remain overhead maintaining a continuous scan for any surprises or threats until the weather situation improved and it was no longer needed, Webb noted.<\/p>\n
Such a scenario is \u201c100 percent feasible and realistic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tactical off-board sensing is on the \u201ctop shelf\u201d of AFSOC\u2019s innovation priorities, he told National Defense at the conference.<\/p>\n
Last year, the organization experimented with deploying Raytheon\u2019s Coyote unmanned aerial vehicle from an AC-130W. Tests and crew training were conducted at the Melrose Range near Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico. The system was later deployed to the Central Command area of operations \u2014 which covers most of the Middle East and Central Asia \u2014 for combat experimentation and evaluation, according to an AFSOC spokeswoman.<\/p>\n
The experiments provided operators the opportunity to refine tactics, techniques and procedures for using tactical off-board sensing technologies. But the Coyote does not meet AFSOC\u2019s endurance requirements, officials said.<\/p>\n
The Air Force Research Laboratory, which has been shepherding the TOBS program, is planning a technology demonstration in August with a different drone that has extended endurance. The air-launched, tube-integrated unmanned system, known as ALTIUS, will be launched from an AC-130.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to run through a basic mission which is send the UAV off to look at something,\u201d Jason Bowman, the TOBS program manager at AFRL, said in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll look at it for a little bit, try to get a sense of how well the gimbal on the UAV is performing \u2026 and basically see if we\u2019re hitting our gimbal\u201d key performance parameters, he said.<\/p>\n
The process could be repeated by sending the drone to observe other targets during the demonstration, he added.<\/p>\n
The objective is to \u201cgive AFSOC and SOCOM confidence that the system is at a point where we can move forward with it for real gunship integration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
AFRL has already deployed the equipment from surrogate aircraft such as Cessna Caravans and civilian C-130s.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a technical perspective we\u2019ve actually demonstrated a lot of what AFSOC has asked me to do, but of course … they actually want to see it on the real thing,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>\n
If the demonstration is successful, the project will transition into a SOCOM-led program of record in early fiscal year 2018. The target date for initial operating capability is fiscal year 2020, officials said.<\/p>\n
AFRL will continue to focus on technology development and maturation through fiscal year 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not ready for primetime,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cThere are still things we\u2019re working through\u201d such as reliability and manufacturability.<\/p>\n
Area-I, a Kennesaw, Georgia-based company that builds UAVs, has been a major contributor to the TOBS effort. It designed the ALTIUS for the Air Force Research Laboratory under a small business innovation research contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re 80 percent there\u201d on the path to developing a solution that could be fielded, said company CEO Nicholas Alley. \u201cThe hard stuff has largely been taken care of and we can see the light.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many pieces of the puzzle must come together for the system to work properly, he noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just aerodynamics, it\u2019s not just structures, it\u2019s not just flight controls,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s [also] payload and power management and range and endurance and modem. It is a really hard problem. \u2026 We\u2019ve not had to tackle anything this challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaFleur said autonomy is critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is really important to our operational guys,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to add another person on the airplane to have to pilot a UAV.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the program transitions to SOCOM, the command will be looking to industry to provide drones, sensors and other technologies to advance tactical off-board sensing capabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to build an architecture that is UAV agnostic \u2026 where we tell industry, \u2018If you bring us a UAV that fits into this [common launch] tube, we can now integrate it into a gunship very quickly,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That requirement places severe size constraints on the drones and its sensors because a common launch tube is only six inches in diameter and four feet in length.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge is trying to build a UAV around that tube that still meets our needs\u201d when it comes to weight, power, range, endurance and sensor capabilities, LaFleur said.<\/p>\n
SOCOM wants industry to make smaller sensors and radios that still have sufficient range, and build drones that have as much endurance as possible, he said. Currently, the range requirement threshold is 10 miles but the objective is 15. The endurance requirement threshold is two hours but the objective is four.<\/p>\n
ALTIUS, which weighs 20 pounds, is expected to meet the performance parameters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were looking at a lot of exotic propulsion systems but we realized that there was also a way to do it with basically an exotic airframe design,\u201d Alley said. \u201cWe came up with a really good airframe design.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using low-cost, conventional batteries the company was able to meet the endurance and power requirements, he added.<\/p>\n
For the past several years AFRL has been struggling to identify a radio that could meet the range requirement but also integrate with the ALTIUS, Bowman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re quickly narrowing down on a final radio,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully that will be taken care of pretty soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding sensors that meet both the capability and cost requirements has been another challenge. SOCOM wants night vision and potentially infrared sensing capabilities for its drone-mounted cameras.<\/p>\n
But until recently, the gimbals for small drones have had limited functionality, Bowman said.<\/p>\n
Officials now want small UAV gimbals to provide capabilities similar to \u201cwhat the big guys are flying with,\u201d he said. Their pointing accuracies are getting much better and image clarity has greatly improved, he noted.<\/p>\n
However, many gimbals are too expensive for AFSOC\u2019s tastes since the drones are meant to be expendable, he said. The types that the command would be interested in are currently in the $150,000 range.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bigger challenge is really cost,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cI have to find a way to put all that capability into that gimbal and then have it be cheap enough where I can throw it away. And there\u2019s really just a few gimbal companies out there that can really meet all of my requirements right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The target cost for a full system \u2014 including the UAV, gimbal, launch tube and other components \u2014 is about $100,000.<\/p>\n
One trend contributing to the problem is industry often has higher quality control measures for sensors than AFSOC requires when it comes to things like pixel failure rates. Tradeoffs in this area could be used to bring down the price tag, Bowman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an expendable system are you willing to live with a few bad pixels? Probably. Especially if it means halving the cost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bowman expects to have sensors that fit the bill when it comes to size, weight power and cost in time to meet the fielding schedule.<\/p>\n
Area-I and AFRL have teamed up to serve as system integrators for the early TOBS work. In the future, industry will be expected to perform that role.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be the UAV manufacturer\u2019s responsibility to go get the gimbal, to integrate it with the UAV, and then provide it to the Air Force as a round that\u2019s ready to shoot when it\u2019s delivered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Webb foresees a time when the drone and the equipment it carries won\u2019t need to be expendable because gunships will be able to recover them in flight. That is \u201cobviously the ultimate challenge and that\u2019s probably the lagging piece of the technologies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, it would be ideal for the UAVs to be able to fly to an area controlled by friendly forces to be recovered. But that may not be feasible in many situations, officials noted.<\/p>\n
Right now there is no requirement for the drones to be recoverable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got enough problems\u201d to deal with, Bowman joked.<\/p>\n
Down the road, Webb hopes to have a communications architecture in place that would allow the UAV to transmit its video feed to other locations besides the gunship that deployed it, to include other aircraft, ground forces and command posts hundreds of miles away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly going to be a challenge and it\u2019s not something we can snap our fingers and it\u2019s done,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it is absolutely I think within the realm of the possible given the state\u201d of technology that is being developed.<\/p>\n
Gen. Mike Holmes, the commander of Air Combat Command, said he expects his organization to be involved in building the network that would enable the intelligence-sharing that Webb envisions. That could require a change in the way the Pentagon has been buying communications equipment, he suggested.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many years we\u2019ve kind of bought different systems that were proprietary from different companies and we tried to link them together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA decision that we\u2019re going to have to make in the next year or so is how much money do we continue to put into the gateways and translators, and how much money do we shift toward a new waveform, software programmable radios and all the advantages that that brings you in being able to defeat jamming?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Air Combat Command wants to take advantage of the tactical off-board sensing technologies that AFSOC is pursuing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u2019ll buy any but we\u2019ll be part of the team that uses it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be a user \u2026 of that ISR to turn it into information that we can use to target in support of special ops command or any other folks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Other Defense Department components are also interested in the technology, Alley noted. His company is developing a Navy version of ALTIUS that the service could use for anti-submarine warfare.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be a very useful asset for a war fighter,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully they\u2019ll get a lot of use and they\u2019ll save a lot of lives and help them do their jobs better. And if that happens, the demand is going to go up\u201d and the technology will continue to improve.<\/p>\n