Inside the Army
The Army’s “surge” of unmanned aircraft systems to Afghanistan is well-timed to President Obama’s announcement of an additional 30,000 troops to be deployed to the country, according to service officials.
“We received some funding a little over a year ago to really surge unmanned aircraft systems to theater, so we’re now at the point where we’re starting to execute,” said Col. Gregory Gonzalez, UAS project manager, at a Dec. 9 media briefing.
As an example, Gonzalez cited four Hunter aircraft recently fielded to Afghanistan with an updated tactical common data link and signals intelligence payloads, including Green Dart. Those systems reached initial operational capability at the end of November, said Gonzalez, “in perfect time for the surge.”
Also, all of the brigade combat teams going over have their own organic Shadow aircraft, he said.
“In addition to that, we are going to field our second quick reaction platoon of the pre-production Sky Warriors -- or the Extended Range Multipurpose [UAS] -- into Afghanistan in about the July time frame of 2010, and that should coincide very nicely with the rest of the troops going in,” said Gonzalez. That platoon will consist of four aircraft supported by two ground control stations, he added. Each aircraft also will be armed with improved Hellfire missiles.
The soldiers who will be operating those aircraft are already in training, according to Gonzalez.
Meanwhile, the first quick-reaction capability of Sky Warrior has logged over 1,000 hours of flight time in Iraq, he said.
The service was directed by the Pentagon to field the Sky Warrior more rapidly, which paved the way for the two QRCs.
The Army has tried to incrementally, but very rapidly, build upon existing capabilities, said Tim Owings, deputy project manager for UAS, at the same briefing. Part of this process has involved responding to what soldiers are asking for in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“For Shadow, there was a huge cry from the warfighter to have a laser designator on the Shadow and we are in the final stages of development of that laser designator,” said Gonzalez. “We put in one or two of those early on for the 25th Infantry Division to experiment with, but now we’re going to move forward and put those on 20 Shadow systems.”
The current Shadow system -- RQ-7B -- is also getting an enhanced wing, which will allow it to fly higher and longer, said Owings. With the enhanced 20-foot wing, Shadow’s endurance is about eight hours compared to 30 hours for the Warrior, he said.
The UAS program office also is trying to address the challenges that Afghanistan’s terrain presents. It is fielding a “cold-weather kit” to the Shadow systems “because we have run into issues at very high altitudes when it’s very cold,” said Owings.
“It certainly is a challenge in the higher altitudes in the form of our tactical unmanned aircraft systems,” said Col. Robert Sova, Army Training and Doctrine Command capabilities manager for UAS, at the same briefing. The current Shadow does not have a heavy fuel engine, which limits its use in certain parts of Afghanistan, he said.
“Without a heavy fuel engine, we have challenges at the higher altitudes with icing and vaporization,” he said.
The next version of Shadow -- the RQ-7C -- does have a requirement for a heavy fuel engine, he added.
“In certain areas of Afghanistan, Shadow has no problem,” Owings told Inside the Army, adding that it can still reach 18,000 feet. At very high and very cold elevations, however, conditions are a lot “tougher,” he said.
“The best-suited systems are things like Sky Warrior, because it flies much higher and you have [satellite communications] capability,” which allows you to see over the next mountain, said Owings.
Sky Warrior is also due for a heavier engine, allowing it to fly higher, said Owings.
In northeast Afghanistan small units, equipped primarily with the smaller Raven system, are challenged by the high altitudes, said Gonzalez.
“The two things we keep hearing in Afghanistan are they want something really small and really right for back-packable, dismounted units and then they wanted something that could get up higher so they can survey over these ridges that they’re struggling with with the pure Raven systems,” said Owings.
The Army’s plan to field a proof-of-principle version of a small UAS tool kit will bridge this gap temporarily, said Gonzalez. The proof-of-principle kit will contain a Wasp, a Raven and a Puma (ITA, Oct. 19, p1). -- Kate Brannen
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