RQ-21 Payload Development
Abstract
The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Payload Program will provide an agile and responsive means to integrate and support the development and fielding of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) and non-ISR payloads as well as data Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (PED) and Communication capabilities for all UAS's within the Marine Corps. These component, sensor, and PED capabilities will alleviate Marine Corps ISR mission needs and gaps caused by rapidly changing missions, environments, threats, and technologies as well as enhance the effectiveness and operational utility of the UAS. The UAS Payload program element will increase the effectiveness and versatility of the Marine Corps UAS currently planned to have Electro-Optic(EO) / Infrared (IR) collection, communications relay, and automatic identification capabilities. Additional payload capabilities include Communication, Automation, Signals Intelligence Collection (SIGINT), Electronic Warfare Support (ES), Radar Imagery, Moving Target Indicator (MTI) Imagery, Wide Area and Hyperspectral Imagery collection, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Combined Multiple Intelligence (MULTI-INT), Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), Weapons Integration, and related PED. These advanced capabilities and payloads provide the Marine Expeditionary Force and subordinate commands (divisions and regiments) with dedicated, organic capabilities that facilitate the six functions of Marine Corps Aviation and the Marine Corps ISR Enterprise across the range of military operations. SIGINT payloads will fill current capability gaps for the USMC ISR mission and are required as part of the USMC to locate, target, and exploit adversary Signals of Interest (SOI). The SIGINT payload capability leverages technologies previously developed and deployed by other Services and/or DoD laboratories to reduce cost and minimize schedule and will be able to cue other ISR sensors to specific target geolocations. This technology can effectively be adapted and applied to support Counter UAS (CUAS) Synthetic Aperture Radar/Moving Target Indicator (SAR/MTI) payload will fill current capability gaps for the USMC ISR mission and will allow USMC small tactical ISR assets to locate and track ground targets that cannot effectively be located or tracked with the current ground based or EO/IR airborne sensor technology under a wider range of atmospheric conditions and greater stand-off ranges. The SAR/MTI payload capability possesses a size, weight, and power form factor suitable for small tactical UAS leverages technologies previously developed and deployed by other Services and/or DoD laboratories to reduce cost and minimize schedule and will be able to cue other ISR sensors to specific target geolocations. This technology can effectively be adapted and applied to overland and maritime environments and can also support CUAS. Wide Area Persistent Surveillance (WAS) payload will fill current capability gaps of USMC ISR mission and will allow USMC small tactical ISR assets the capability to improve battlefield awareness and the capability to assure access and hold at risk, as well as to enable power projection in environments that are not currently accessible by imaging over wide areas at very high resolution at substantial stand-off distances with full motion video access for up to five discrete boxes within the total field of view selected by disadvantaged ground users. The current payload in development leverages technologies previously developed and deployed by other Services and/or DoD laboratories to reduce cost and minimize schedule and will be able to cue other ISR sensors to specific target geolocations. Multiple Intelligence (Multi-INT) payload provides the integration of sensors operating in widely disparate modalities such as Communications Relay, SIGINT/ES, RADAR, and EO/IR, enabling the collection of synchronized data that maximizes the effective employment envelope by collectively decreasing uncertainties, such as geolocation accuracy, and simultaneously prosecuting multiple targets of interest and maximizing datalink capability. All sensors have performance limitations, critically in range, sensitivity, and resolution. The use of multiple single source sensors, or Multi-INT capability, overcomes the individual sensor limitations by increasing the collective performance, providing overlapping coverage, increased overall system reliability, and extension of capability, thereby yielding greater actionable intelligence. It will enable an increase in the confidence of target detection, a decrease in the time to arrive at positive identification of the target of interest, and the ability to utilize automation for sensor integration and control such as cross-cue and mission specific target identification. The USMC Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) will be enabled to operate with an airborne ability to exploit asymmetric threats and prosecute targets and tactics across a varied range of environments and temporal periods. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is the active electro optic illumination of an area with pulsed laser light and measurement of the reflected pulses with a sensor. LiDAR is a synoptic measurement, meaning that data is collected rapidly enough over a given area to eliminate any time related variations. The differences in laser return times and wavelengths can be used to make accurate, three dimensional representation of the targets, survey areas, or penetrable volumes. LiDAR will fill current capability gaps in permissive and non-permissive collection environments to provide high-resolution imaging and surveying of specific targets, earth and urban area topography and digital elevations, as well as near-shore bathymetry for use in warfighting and emergency response operations. LiDAR data can be critically useful in modeling and algorithmic applications, such as image classification and identification for automated Artificial Intelligence (AI) processing. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automated Processing supports the rapid detection, tracking, and characterization in all ISR data types and provides actionable information for fusion and tracking exploitation systems and processes. Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (PED) technologies enable minimization of the physical footprint of the UAS system with enhanced mission capabilities and the sharing and merging of data across multiple domains. Note: In FY19, PE 0305242M/PU 5501,5502, and 5504 were consolidated to PE 0305242M/PU 2052 (Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Payloads/RQ-21 Payload Development).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Project
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2020
- Source ID
- 2052_0305242M_7_1319_PB_2020
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