Army Reaches Out on FCS

Army Reaches Out on FCS

By Colin Clark Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 12:02 pm
Posted in Land

I’ve written a fair number of stories about weapons tests, but they were all based on tests and reports that had usually been completed weeks or months earlier.

Boeing and the Army are so eager (or desperate) to build support for what remains of the Future Combat System that they invited reporters to watch last week as they put the elements of the spin-out technologies through a series of field tests designed to develop a data baseline for the upcoming Limited User Test. With the impending demise of the Manned Ground Vehicle, FCS is pretty much reduced, for the time being at least, to the network and the spin-out sensors that we saw being tested.

Army officials were extremely concerned lest something fall out of the sky or visibly fail to work. There weren’t any catastrophic failures that we saw. There were, as one of the officials on the scene conceded at the end of the day, numerous “anomalies” which this person said were a reasonable result of the testing process. From quick snatches of radio chatter during the testing I believe most of the problems involved network or communication dropouts.


Among the most interesting tidbits I picked up during a day at the White Sands testing range:

The Unattended Ground Sensors not only sense vibration and noise but they can also cue a camera that includes infrared capabilities;

The Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle has a manipulator arm that can be installed pretty quickly. It has a limited capability to grab and twist objects. Maybe most importantly for the troops on the ground, the SUGV can be dropped or thrown two stories and keep on moving. So if you need to look inside a building you can toss it from an adjacent rooftop through a window and it will sniff around with its various cameras once it’s inside.

Full disclosure: Boeing paid for our airfare to and from El Paso as they did for at least one other reporter.

Here are some videos from our visit.

What unattended ground sensors can do.

Here’s a short summary of the unmanned aerial vehicle, class 1. The Army MUST come up with a more sonorous name…

A short shot of the current UAS in flight. The new one, already in development, should be much quieter the Army testers told us.

Join the Conversation

mike June 3rd, 2009 at 8:18 pm

Interesting stuff but are these toys really the way we gather intel? Boeing does not build this stuff, they have subs (Textron, Honeywell,etc.,) doing it for them and collect the profits. ANY body can hear and shoot down the flying beer keg, and the little robot has no purpose for rodside threats, and plces where we go today to kill the insurgents and taliban. A hovering ARMY UAV, I.E.,SHADOW, BLIMP, AIR FORCE PREDATOR, REAPER AND/OR OTHER AIRCRAFT CAN WATCH A HOUSE FOR HOURS TO SEE WHO GOES IN AND OUT. THIS IS A PROP BOUGHT AND PAID FOR THE REASONS YOU DESCRIBE. The stuff does not work in the battlefiels in heat, wind and rain. The army can get more from existing programs already used.

Armywonk June 3rd, 2009 at 9:27 pm

The Army does not currently possess a UAV with a hover/stare capability that the Class I UAV possesses through the use of a ducted fan engine. Mike is right that it is very loud but the new heavy fuel engine being developed will cut the noise down substantially — detection should be at the 500 meter range. Most of the UAVs now in use are at the brigade/battalion level while these are meant for the squad/platoon/company level. As far as shooting it down, hitting a moving, aerial target in the heat of combat is actually extremely difficult. The real key to these capabilities is that they will be networked and that information will be available at the company/platoon level directly vice today’s reality — at brigade. This will enable small unit excellence. Since the Army is in the process of testing this equipment now, how can you say it doesn’t work in the heat, wind or rain?

The Cenobyte June 3rd, 2009 at 11:07 pm

What is the size/weight of that little UAV? What about flight time?

If it’s small enough and has enough hang time, mouting a launcher/control kit on a hummer or anything larger would be easy and I could see it being very useful for small unit patrols.

As to the sensors, well they suck. Honestly that thing is HUGE!! I have a stupid hunting camera with video and night vision that is smaller than that thing.

Cole June 6th, 2009 at 8:13 pm

Google: “Micro Air Vehicle Revolution” for a recent C4ISR Journal article about the Class I UAS.

A team of us from our company, CSC, worked with SFC K (Army SME spokesman in your short video) and other Army leaders, on Interactive Multimedia Instruction for the Class I UAS. We have conducted training for other UAS systems as well if anyone requires such services.

The article cited above, says the new Class I UAS will be 41 lbs and not only will have EO/IR capability, but a laser designation/rangefinder. It also will run on JP8 like other Army equipment while retaining about an hour’s endurance.

The laser capability allows consolidation of the original Class I and II UAS into a single unmanned aircraft system. This will be helpful in lasing targets and providing accurate target locations for conventional and precision artillery.

The exceptional hover/stare capability that armywonk mentioned, allows this aircraft to stop, hover, and look at an object/activity and the surrounding area using the gimbaled sensor payload. This contrasts with fixed sensors on Raven and other micro air vehicles that require continuous aircraft maneuvering to look at or revisit a target.

This hover/stare can occur at low or high altitude depending on the threat and need for silent surveillance. While currently noisy in gasoline-engine form, the UAS also can distract the enemy from other maneuver or facilitate deception. For instance, use the system to surveil a named area of interest for an hour. Then replace it with a quieter high-altitude system or the same UAS viewing from greater stand-off so the enemy gets a false sense of security that he is no longer being watched.

In addition to my speculation above, future Soldiers will discover many other new and innovative employment options. Envision a team hand-emplacing the UAV on an elevated OP perch. From there, it and ground scouts could silently conduct surveillance, sending back snapshots or full motion video to the ground station via battery power alone. Landing the air vehicle to perch on rooftops or hillsides to temporarily stare at objectives is another option.

In the future, the system could carry and drop other nano-air vehicles and leave the area to continue persistent surveillance using the smaller nanos. At 41 lbs, even weaponization is a future option, dropping hand grenades, or modified mortar shells for instance.

The aircraft can be flown manually, pre-programmed, or both, providing small unit leaders the full range of tactical reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition options they require for full spectrum operations.

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