Unmanned Aircraft System
Abstract
In FY12 the Department plans to transition from the U-2 to the Global Hawk (GH), but today's restrictions on airspace access preclude this. GH and the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAS, also a GH aircraft, need an autonomous, sense-and-avoid (SAA) as an alternate means of compliance to Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 91.113, requirement to See-and-Avoid other aircraft. Predator and Sky Warrior have similar requirements for SAA capability; their SAA technology development will leverage the GH/BAMS technology. Development of a Ground Based Sense-and-Avoid (GBSAA) system using existing technology can provide a near-term solution for improved airspace access, both for terminal operations (e.g., Beale AFB, GH transit to/from controlled airspace) and for operations/training within the GBSAA system's coverage area (e.g., Sky Warrior at El Mirage, Shadow operations at Cherry Point). Funding accelerates the development of a common onboard, autonomous SAA capability for GH and BAMS (one upon which a similar SAA system for Predator and Sky Warrior can be based), provides a GBSAA capability to meet DoD training and operational objectives at locations where airspace restrictions currently limit training and operations, and establishes dedicated funding to develop standards, modeling and simulation tools, and technology to enable DoD UAS to routinely access the national and international airspace systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Project
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2011
- Source ID
- P440_0604400D8Z_4_0400_PB_2011
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