Sat, Dec 31, 2011
Army Looking to Heavy Use of UAS Capabilities
The US Army is using a hybrid-type acquisition approach to
develop a helicopter-like, Vertical-Take-Off-and-Landing Unmanned
Aerial System with a so-called ARGUS wide-area surveillance sensor
suite designed to beam back information and images of the
surrounding terrain, service officials said.
Beginning in May or June of 2012, the Army will deploy three
Boeing-built A160 Hummingbird Vertical-Take-Off-and-Landing
Unmanned Aerial Systems, or VTOL-UAS, to Afghanistan as part of a
Quick Reaction Capability, an acquisition approach aimed at
delivering cutting-edge and emerging technologies to theater to add
capability and inform requirements while simultaneously developing
a formal Program of Record approach, said Lt. Col. Matthew Munster,
product manager, UAS Modernization.
"These aircraft will deploy for up to one full year as a way to
harness lessons learned and funnel them into a program of record,"
Munster said.
The formal VTOL Program of Record will involve a full and open
competition among many vendors able to propose UAS solutions able
to meet the desired requirements, he added. Army VTOL UAS program
developers and engineers are now finishing up some wiring work on
the A160 aircraft and performing ground tests with the ARGUS sensor
suite.
"The ARGUS sensor suite has never been flown on this platform
before so we have to make sure that the integration is complete. We
are finishing that up now and adding some different types of
antennas. We begin flight testing of the UAS at Yuma Proving
Grounds, Arizona, early next year," Munster said.
The VTOL aircraft will give forward-positioned Army units the
ability to deploy a wide-area UAS Intelligence, Surveillance
Reconnaissance, or ISR, asset without needing access to a runway.
[ANN salutes Kris Osborn, ASA(ALT) Public Affairs, for the
story]
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