The U.S. military says it has been steadily increasing its inventory of unmanned flying machines, such as the small, hand-launched Raven model seen here. It can be equipped with cameras that beam back views from above.
(Credit: U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. Raymond Piper)WASHINGTON--The controversial surge in U.S. bodies to Iraq has dominated headlines in recent months, but the "unsung, unknown hero" isn't even human.
Or at least that's the assessment of Col. Donald Hazelwood, who runs the U.S. Army's unmanned aerial systems project office.
Speaking Friday at a confab here hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Hazelwood said daily use of drones has "forever changed" the way soldiers see what's around corners, detect improvised explosive devices, and fend off enemies in Baghdad and beyond.
"It doesn't get any better that that, when soldiers tell you it's easy to operate, it's easy to train on, and it's saving lives," Hazelwood said.
Just before the surge, the U.S. Army bumped up the number of unmanned aircraft in those skies by 35 percent, Hazelwood said.
UAV use, of course, spans all of the military branches and continues to increase, officials said Friday. Overall, the Pentagon's inventory of unmanned aerial systems has leapt from about 200 in 2002 to nearly 6,000 in 2008, said Dyke Weatherington, who oversees an unmanned systems wing of the U.S. Department of Defense. For the 2008 fiscal year, the Defense Department has a $15 billion budget just for unmanned systems, and a supplemental $500 million from Congress may also be on the way.
Beyond combat uses, unmanned vehicles are also being "used to give life," said Jason Haines, a 19-year military veteran who has served as a lieutenant commander in Iraq.
On one hand, use of the drones "kept me and my men alive, that's for sure," he told conference attendees. "They kept us ahead of the game. There were no surprises to us."
Testing has begun on a new, high-endurance, weapon-toting UAV called the Sky Warrior, which is built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. The Army expects to begin using it next year.
(Credit: U.S. Army)On the other hand, UAVs flying high above dangerous territories are also relaying tactical information that can help protect civilians, such as humanitarian assistance crews on the ground delivering relief supplies, Haines said. The former firefighter and paramedic said he also saw promise for use of UAVs by local police and fire crews and disaster relief crews in, say, hurricane-wrecked zones. Weather watchers also say the unmanned craft can be used to fly into hurricanes to take readings in place of the people-toting aircraft that now pull that duty.
As fond as the U.S. military is of touting the growing role unmanned vehicles play in battle, officials said some dramatic changes in the technology remain necessary.
One challenge is getting the various different breeds of robot to share data with one another. Right now, for instance, a drone flying in the sky may be able to beam data to computers at a command center, but it can't necessarily integrate data with, say, a ground-based robot.
Greater interoperability would permit soldiers to gather intelligence more easily from a number of different perspectives, rather than relying on one potentially limited source, said the Defense Department's Weatherington. It would also foster more efficient operations in the long run--after all, cost, airspace, and radio spectrum constraints mean the military can afford to add only so many new vehicles over time.
Another tough issue is making sure members of the rapidly multiplying drone population don't collide with one other--and with manned aircraft. Hazelwood said he was optimistic about the prospects for more military UAVs sharing airspace above the United States. The Army has already brought down its accident rates by 60 percent each year for the last three years, he said, so at that rate, "we ought to be able to fly in national airspace and convince the American public by 2012."
WASHINGTON--For decades, U.S. government scientists have sliced specially equipped planes through hurricanes and other severe weather on a quest for crucial data to fuel weather forecasts. But in the future, drones are expected to do more and more of that work.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) wants to tap more and more unmanned planes like this Aerosonde model, seen here during a 2005 demo in Florida, to gather data from severe storms in ways that manned vehicles can't.
(Credit: NASA)In the coming years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration envisions acquiring and leasing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), a senior official said Friday at a conference here put on by the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International. They'll be tasked with monitoring everything from weather conditions and fires to ice melting in the Arctic and endangered marine mammals near Hawaii.
"We think the time has come," said Scott Ryder, chief of staff for NOAA's unmanned systems division. "We're going to do it with this technology, and we're on our way."
UAVs could prove a boon to NOAA's operations because traditional hurricane-hunting missions using manned WP-3D Orion or Gulfstream-IV jet aircrafts face numerous limitations, Ryder said.
For one thing, they can't descend too low in the storm because high winds can kick salt water up into the engines, causing damage and potentially endangering flight crews, although Ryder said no lives have been lost as a result of such accidents yet. Hurricane hunting aircraft also aren't as adept at predicting storms that are more than 72 hours away, which is a problem, since the Federal Emergency Management Agency would like to be able to make evacuation calls 96 hours in advance, Ryder said.
By contrast, a high-endurance UAV can remain in the eye of a storm for several hours and stay at altitudes as low as 80 meters, about 50 percent lower than a traditional hurricane-hunter's minimum altitude range.
Last November, NOAA sent an Aerosonde UAV into Hurricane Noel for 17 hours and 27 minutes, collecting 7.5 hours' worth of data from the storm's core. A handful of other demonstrations have occurred during the past few years. In 2009 and 2010, NOAA plans to work with NASA to study hurricanes using a UAV called the Global Hawk, which the U.S. Air Force has used extensively in combat.
For now, the UAV program is in its infancy, but some other projects have already begun in "testbeds" in the Arctic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico regions, Ryder said.
Compared with the Defense Department's $15 billion budget for unmanned systems this year, NOAA's share of the pie is a minuscule $3 million. But the agency has requested double that for next year, and Ryder said he expects spending to swell to $25 million to $30 million two or three years from now. (Ryder, for his part, did concede that as a political appointee, he most likely won't be around at that point.)
Beyond hurricane research, NOAA also plans to use UAVs to fill "critical gaps" in its existing satellite coverage, Ryder said. For example, it's not always possible to get complete climate information over the Pacific Ocean using satellites alone, he said.
Another potential use is monitoring so-called "atmospheric rivers," which can cause flooding rains NOAA found contributed to massive mudslides in Southern California in 2005. It also plans to work with NASA during the next few years to conduct missions in the Arctic and Antarctic to gather data about climate change.
Not everyone in the French government wants to use flying robotic surveillance drones next year as part of a plan to triple police surveillance efforts.
ELSA (a French acronym for "light device for aerial surveillance") is a 4-foot aerial robot that would be used to watch people in Paris and towns connected to Paris by the Metro subway system.
The device was demonstrated at Milipol, an exhibition of police security technology, which took place last week in Paris.
ELSA drones are slated to be part of an effort to triple the number of video surveillance devices by 2009, Michèle Alliot-Marie, France's minister of the Interior, told the Le Monde newspaper. Some could be used in conjunction with the Paris Metro subway security system, while the rest could be monitored by individual police stations for general security and to watch over demonstrations.
Mostly made of foam and weighing no more than a water bottle, ELSA poses little physical threat to people in the event of a crash. But equipped with night vision capabilities as well as daytime surveillance cameras, it's seen by some as a threat to personal freedom.
Some French politicians voiced protests after learning that the device had already been tested in several towns without their knowledge, according to Le Monde.
France should not be treated like a hostage-taking or civil war-torn country, Daniel Goldberg, a member of the French National Assembly (France's lower house of Parliament), told Le Monde.
"Faced with the legitimate and pressing expectations of citizens, we might be tempted to pay for additional security with a sacrifice in terms of freedom. This much is clear: this will never be the choice of France--and it will never be mine," he said.
This is not your father's remote-controlled boat.
Qinetiq's Sentry is a unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance craft that the company says "boasts an advanced stealth design" and can hit speeds of up to 50 knots. Only now it's just a little less stealthy as it gets its first public demonstration at DSEi, the Defence Systems and Equipment International Exhibition, taking place this week in London.
Qinetiq's remote-controlled Sentry looks a little like a stealth fighter plane--on purpose.
(Credit: Qinetiq)We're not exactly sure how Qinetiq will perform the demonstration. The Sentry is much bigger than a rubber ducky, or dinghy even. It's 11.5 feet from stem to stern and has a beam (its widest part, for you landlubbers) of just over 4 feet, and certainly would need some running room. When it gets running, the company says, it can go for about 6 hours.
Whatever the demo actually entails, it's certainly worth a closer look. The Sentry's operator uses a PC-based console for remote control, including non-line-of-sight operations of up to 16 miles. It can also operate autonomously. The vehicle carries microwave data-link communications gear, a camera for day or night use, and a lighting rig that meets maritime navigation standards, according to the company.
Qinetiq says the Sentry combines its own research findings with "tried and tested commercial Jet Ski design"--we're assuming the company actually uses that brand of aquatic machinery and isn't, unlike many of us, rather too casual in using the brand name to describe generic gear that Jet Ski would prefer we call a "personal watercraft."
Missions for the Sentry, which stands just a little more than 3 feet above the waterline, could eventually include harbor patrol, battlefield recon and damage assessment.
But will it ever gain the sort of historical fame that now attends to PT-109 and John Kerry's Swift Boat? Only time will tell.
WASHINGTON--A handful of new drones is expected to begin patrolling the nation's northern and southern borders within the next few years.
For the moment, we're not talking swarms, here. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials, backed by the Bush administration and some in Congress, are nevertheless hoping to steadily increase the presence of unmanned aerial vehicles aloft in an effort to nab illegal immigrants and drug traffickers more effectively, said Michael Kostelnik, a retired U.S. Air Force official who now serves as assistant commissioner of the CBP's air and marine unit.
U.S. Homeland Security officials plan to add more drones like these in an effort to nab illegal immigrants and drug traffickers.
(Credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection)For the past few years, CBP agents have already been launching a pair of Predator B unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) from the Arizona desert to work along the southwestern border with Mexico.
The agency plans to take on two more aircraft this fall, with the idea that they'll undergo further testing and start flying surveillance missions next year, Kostelnik said in a speech at the annual symposium here of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. In September, CBP plans to inaugurate one of the flying machines at an operations center in Grand Forks, N.D., and in November, it plans to accept a second UAV as part of its southwestern fleet.
There's also funding available for the addition of two more Predator B vehicles next year, Kostelnik said. CBP hopes to outfit one of them with sensors specially designed for policing the seas and station it along the Gulf of Mexico coast, which he suggested has "a lot going on" from an illegal-immigration and drug-trafficking perspective.
For what are probably obvious reasons, the idea of sharing the domestic airspace with vehicles lacking human eyeballs has caused a stir among many pilots. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, citing safety worries, has repeatedly called on Congress to urge federal regulators to step up their enforcement of potentially unregulated uses of the aircraft in the national airspace.
Kostelnik attempted to downplay those concerns on Wednesday by boasting about the perceived benefits derived from the policing tactic. He noted that CBP has received certification from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate only in certain areas along the border.
He also said the Predator is "probably one of the most experienced and safest of all vehicles we fly" and noted that most missions occur at night and in relatively remote areas. ("We're not flying downtown New York; we're not flying across Dallas, Texas," he said.) While they're up there, CBP's planes could likely be used to conduct other federal agencies' missions, too, such as collecting weather data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, he added.
"You have to understand what these things are doing," Kostelnik told the gathering of UAV industry and government representatives. "I'm not trying to make a buck, I'm trying to protect you and your families."
WASHINGTON--We tend to hear more about the growing number of human bodies being shipped off to combat to Iraq and Afghanistan, but the U.S. Army is also dispatching more and more robots.
This ground-based robot, on display by the U.S. Army at an unmanned systems symposium this week, was battered recently when it detected an IED in Iraq. Military officials want robots, not humans, doing more of that dirty work.
(Credit: Anne Broache)Since the conflicts began five years ago, the military branch has been steadily stepping up deployment of both unmanned ground and aerial vehicles, Col. John Burke, the Army's director of unmanned systems integration, said Wednesday.
Burke, who was speaking at the second day of a confab here hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, touted the machines' surveillance capabilities as a proven success, at times, in keeping live soldiers out of harm's way.
On the airborne side, four systems--the Raven, the Shadow, the Hunter and the Sky Warrior--have logged more than 270,000 hours during Operation Iraqi Freedom. When that operation first started, "you could measure the (use of) unmanned aircraft systems in maybe tens of hours a day," Burke said. By 2005, that number had climbed to about 100 hours per day, and now that figure has reached about 500 hours per day, he said.
Only 180 robots were on the ground in 2004, but that number had grown tenfold by the next year. Now, more than 5,000 are in the theater.
Expect that trend to continue in the future, Burke said, although he noted that the Army believes it's necessary to integrate both manned and unmanned techniques. Thanks to the ready availability of "storage in the terabytes," the Army is also counting on arming soldiers with a heightened amount of "real-time, multidimensional" data gleaned from various kinds of UAV sensors about their surroundings. A commander, for instance, could pull up archived information about what has transpired at a particular road intersection in the past week and ideally use it to help establish patterns.
The unmanned activity, to be sure, isn't limited to the Army. The Air Force has also come to consider a flying machine called MQ-1 Predator a mainstay of its operations in the theater, with more than 250,000 flying hours logged since it first came into use in 1994. A higher-end aerial drone called the Global Hawk is also flying daily missions in Iraq, according to Lt. Gen. Donald J. Hoffman, an official in the Air Force's acquisition office, who also spoke at this week's symposium.
WASHINGTON--Singapore may not occupy much more than a tiny dot on the world map, but it's counting on drones and other remote-controlled vehicles to make its military mighty.
As one of the world's busiest sea ports, the Asian city-state's "survival and prosperity depends on national security," Tan Peng Yam, deputy chief executive of the country's Defense Science &Technology Agency, told attendees at the first day of the annual North America symposium put on here by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
Singapore recently added this Israeli-made UAV to its Air Force fleet.
(Credit: Government of Singapore)Because a third of the world's trade--including 90 percent of China's trade and 80 percent of Japan's trade--flows through the bordering Straits of Malacca, the country of about 4.5 million people could find itself a "lucrative terrorist target," Yam said.
That's where the robotic vehicles come in. Since the late 1970s, shortly after the British withdrew from the colonial outpost, Singapore's military has been testing out unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in an attempt to make up for its limited human resources. They've now become "indispensable" for tackling the dreaded four d's of military missions--"the dull, dirty, dangerous and demanding" ones, that is, Yam said.
Earlier this year, the Singapore government unveiled plans to revamp its Air Force organization into five commands--including a new one devoted solely to building up UAV "expertise and capabilities." In late May, the Air Force added to its lineup Israeli-made Hermes 450 UAVs, which are designed for surveillance and have also been used by the British government and by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The country is also trying to get "people who never worked in defense before" interested in the robots, Yam said. The government announced a contest in January to build the best "urban warrior" robot, backed by a $1 million cash prize. The idea is for teams to devise an unmanned ground vehicle that's the swiftest at completing a sequence of tasks--climbing stairs, navigating pavement, moving along corridors, entering rooms and even operating elevators.
A country whose area is less than a quarter of Rhode Island's does encounter some unique challenges in its UAV rollout, though. "If a UAV goes out of control," Yam said, "it will go into our neighboring countries." (To help get around the skimpy-airspace problem, the government has taken to using a simulator.)
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