Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

Project 114, Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) Shadow 200 provides the Army Brigade Commander with dedicated Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition (RSTA), Intelligence, Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) and Force Protection. The Shadow provides the Brigade Commander with critical battlefield intelligence and targeting information in the rapid cycle time required for success at the tactical level. The TUAV Shadow system meets the required operating range of 50 kilometers and remains on station for up to five hours It consists of four air vehicles (each configured with an EO/IR sensor payload), launcher, ground control, and support equipment including power generation, communications equipment, automated recovery equipment, one system remote video terminals, vehicle mounted shelters, and High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles with trailer(s). Each system is equipped with one Maintenance Section Multifunctional (MSM) Vehicle and is supported at the division level by a Mobile Maintenance Facility (MMF). Project 11A, The STARLite Synthetic Aperture Radar/Ground Moving Target Indicator (SAR/GMTI) payload will provide a wide-area search capability with a built-in imaging mode that provides essential all-weather surveillance and increased situational awareness. The STARLite payload is a principal payload for the Gray Eagle UAV. The Electro Optical Infra Red w/Laser Designator (EO/IR/LD) Common Sensor Payload (CSP) was built at the direction of the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army for the Gray Eagle system and has potential application to other platforms. The CSP system will provide a day/night capability to collect and display continuous imagery with the ability to designate targets of interest for attack by laser guided precision weapons. Additional initiatives will continue to focus on the transition of technologies directly supporting emerging requirements and the Army's Current and Future Force. This effort has been expanded to include High Definition (HD) Target Location Accuracy (TLA) capability Project 11B, The Tactical Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Payload (TSP) is an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) mounted SIGINT sensor that detects radio frequency (RF) emitters. TSP, through handoff from the Combat Aviation Brigade, is capable of providing the Tactical Land Commander with an overwatch and penetrating SIGINT system capable of detecting, identifying, locating, and providing geolocation information on RF emitters throughout the Area of Operations. The TSP is scalable and modular, designed to provide maximum flexibility. TSP will provide near real time actionable intelligence that can immediately be used in the commander's decision cycle. The TSP electronic emitter information will be correlated with data from other systems (e.g. Prophet and Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS), at a Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) node to provide precise targeting information for immediate engagement. TSP maps and aligns with the 2009 Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Cross Cutting study and Force Sizing Assessment with Airborne Precision Geolocation and Tactical SIGINT capabilities. TSP also supports the 2009 Office of the Secretary of Defense Cross-Cutting Study: Six Overarching Axioms for Information Warfare, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Force Sizing, VCJCS Update, 25 Apr 09, with SIGINT (Geolocation) and SIGINT (Internals). TSP sensors are critical to providing Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition (RSTA) information and contributing to the Joint ISR net. Project 123, Joint Technology Center/System Integration Laboratory (JTC/SIL) is a joint facility that develops, integrates and supports the enhancement of its Multiple Unified Simulation Environment (MUSE) capability for Army systems and operational concepts. The JTC/SIL conducts prototype hardware and software development (i.e., TUAV Tactical Unmanned Control System (TUCS), TUAV Institutional Mission Simulation (IMS) Trainer, TUAV C4I module), modeling and simulation support. The MUSE develops real-time, operator in-the-loop simulations that are capable of tactical Hardware-In-the-Loop (HWIL) interoperability for multiple intelligence systems, that may be integrated with larger simulations in support of Service training and exercises. MUSE provides a realistic operational environment, supporting a wide range of C4I applications. This project funds the management of the JTC/SIL and MUSE enhancements. Project D09, Production Extended Range Multi-Purpose (ERMP) Unmanned Aircraft system (UAS) will consist of 12 Unmanned Aircraft System each equipped with multi-mission payloads and a Standard Equipment Package (SEP). The threshold payload is an EO/IR/LD sensor. The SEP includes a communications relay package, Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) equipment and Air Traffic Control radios. Associated Ground Support Equipment (GSE) will have One

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2012
Source ID
0305204A_7_2040_PB_2012
Change Summary Explanation
Service Agency Name
Army

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Army

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Battle Damage Assessment
  • Contracts
  • Control Systems
  • Governments
  • Ground Control Stations
  • Ground Moving Target Indicators
  • Iraqi-War
  • Lasers
  • Molecular Dynamics
  • Program Management
  • Signals Intelligence
  • Synthetic Aperture Radar
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs
  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems

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