DragonEye Eyeballs New Orleans for Survivors
What do you do when
your best sensor is on a UAV, but the area you need to cover isn't
really all that great, and any threat is neutralized?
Why, you mount the UAV on a post on top of a tall building.
That's what rescuers have done with the AeroVironment DragonEye
UAV, which is fielded by the USMC and has been tested by Joint
Forces Command (JFCOM or "Jiffie-com" in GI parlance).
As these photos show, the versatile DragonEye can do its thing
even when it's clamped to what looks to this old musician like a PR
speaker riser -- on top of a high-rise. In these images, the
DragonEye is using its optical sensors to look for stranded people
in abandoned New Orleans.
The system it is using here is called ROVER III -- Receive Only
Video Enhanced Receiver, third generation. (Some other documents
called it Remote Operations Video Enhanced Receiver, which is less
redundant, but it's not what the USMC calls it).
Almost nobody came out of Hurricane Katrina creditably. The head
of FEMA got the sack, the Mayor, Governor, and even the President
caught hell from the press. Congress and the municipal authorities
have both taken well-deserved rockets for appropriating millions
for flood prevention and then blowing it on things like casinos and
marinas.
The press in turn is now catching hell for running what seem to
have been a fabricated stories of wholesale violence and death in
the SuperDome (real body count: five, four elderly natural causes
victims and one suicide by jumping from balcony).
But there were two exceptions to the "everybody's a bum" meme in
the press. The military, under Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, came out
looking pretty good -- and aviation of all kinds, from this tiny
(and temporarily, tethered) micro-UAV, through all the levels of
general aviation, up to the military and civilian helicopters that
saved thousands.
The DragonEye UAV or SUAV (SMALL Unmanned Air Vehicle) achieved
initial operating capability in 2004. It is normally launched by
hand -- which is to say, with its motors turning, a burly Marine
throws it -- or by bungee (think slingshot -- singularly
appropriate for the David vs. Goliath that UAV's represent). The
twin engines of the DragonEye are electric; the near-silent
powerplants along with the neutral sky color and the small size --
made possible by an ultra-low aspect ratio wing -- make it
low-observable, or "stealthy." It's meant for battlefield use
within a few miles of the front.
According to congressional testimony by Rear Admiral Anthony L.
Winns, USN, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air Warfare, and
Brigadier General Martin Post, USMC, Assistant Deputy Commandant
for Aviation, "Dragon Eye’s mission is to provide the small
unit commander a simple, cost effective day/night point
reconnaissance and surveillance sensor."
The officers pointed out that the machine was only adopted after
a successful combat test in Iraq, and when they testified this May,
"over 85% of the Dragon Eye inventory (101 air vehicles and 35
Ground Control Stations (GCS)) are serving in Operation Iraqi
Freedom."
"Two Marines assemble and launch the Dragon Eye... in less than
ten minutes. Controlled autonomously via an L-Band data link
and by GPS, Dragon Eye has been indispensable in providing an 'over
the next hill, around the next bend' awareness for Battalion
and Company Commanders."
When the DragonEye's mission is over -- assuming that it was a
flying mission and not nailed to a skyscraper like this one -- it
simply bellies in on the ground. It can land on any kind of
surface; turnaround requires the battery to be changed (it's not
rechargeable) and the machine to be reprogrammed. Most operational
DragonEyes units, which have three planes and one ground station,
fly three to five times a day, anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes
each.
Of course, in war, you will have losses.
In the first year of operations (to the end of 2004), 22 had
been lost, 11 probably to enemy action (the DragonEye flies only
100-500 feet AGL, well within AK-47 range of the ground). The
others were mostly pilot error crashes, but some aircraft were lost
due to flying out of range of the radio control (oops), or victims
of GPS anomalies.
Another version, the Swift, uses the same basic airframe but has
a little more endurance and therefore range, and does not have
DragonEye's ability to change flight plans inflight -- it only
flies a preprogrammed path.
AeroVironment is a pioneer in lightweight composite
construction, alternative power, and UAV technology. Previous AV
products include the Gossamer Condor and Gossamer Albatross
human-powered aircraft and the record-setting NASA Helios unmanned
solar-powered aircraft, as well as the DragonEye, Pointer, and
other UAVs.
Everyone expected UAVs to save pilots' lives -- and after all,
no one was hurt in those DragonEyes downed by groundfire or crashed
by pilot error. And the USMC fully expected them to save Marines'
lives. But no one was expecting them to show up in New Orleans and
save civilian lives.
Although the craft isn't beautiful to begin with, and gives up a
lot of style when it's mounted on a stick, it probably doesn't
matter much to anybody needing rescue.