uav's, page-15

I was just answering a question about something that Earl21 asked re Lee's tenure at mst and the hiring of Samara Jolley, I rekon Lee safe, because I think Samara was brought on board to Project Manage a specific Project, I am tipping it has something to do with this? by the way I googled this,

Air interdiction: Definition from Answers.com
air interdiction Air operations conducted to destroy, neutralize, or delay ...
www.answers.com/topic/air-interdiction - Cached - Similar

air interdiction Air operations conducted to destroy, neutralize, or delay

I believe she may be working on weaponisation of a UAV and specifically under this CTD and a program named (FURI).


ADM: BAE Systems Australia markets UAV smarts
For JP129 BAE Systems Australia isn't just offering a product, it has developed its own indigenous UAV "smarts" to back it up. ...
www.australiandefence.com.au/D332B1B0-F806-11DD-8DFE0050568C22C9?&&&... -


BAE Systems Australia markets UAV smarts

10 Jan 2008

For JP129 BAE Systems Australia isn't just offering a product, it has developed its own indigenous UAV "smarts" to back it up.
BAE Systems and its seven-strong industry Team Shadow are awaiting the source selection for JP129 Ph.2 - which industry sources believe is now likely around September or October this year.

The AAI Shadow 200 Tactical UAV lies at the heart of the company's bid for JP129. This has now completed 36,000 flying hours in Iraq, and some 46,000 in all, and has become the UAV system of choice for US Army Brigade commanders. The US Army has invested over $750 million in the Shadow system over the past ten years, says BAE Systems Australia; some 43 Shadow TUAV systems have been ordered thus far with a total requirement for about 120 systems, which would see every Brigade in the US Army equipped with a Shadow 200 system, and some equipped with two.

The US Army recently confirmed its commitment to provide open ADF access to the Shadow 200 development, as well as to ongoing evolutions in training and doctrine as the operational lessons from Iraq and other theatres are absorbed and disseminated. The necessary Technical Assistance Agreements (TAA) are already in place. Furthermore, models for in-service support are well established, along with a supply chain which can be adapted easily to support the ADF.

With last month's announcement that a 150-strong Special Forces group will deploy later this year to Afghanistan it's likely that the ADF will gain further first-hand experience of TUAV operations, and especially of the Shadow 200. This may strengthen the case that Team Shadow has already made for a robust, proven TUAV system incorporating high levels of interoperability with the US.

However, while the team partners have made a strong case for the Shadow 200 itself, the capability it offers is backed, says BAE Systems Australia, by the company's $15 million-worth of self-funded R&D over the past seven years in UAV platform and control technologies. The company has 40 people working full-time on UAV related projects, including two recently awarded Capability and Technology Demonstrator (CTD) contracts funded by Defence to the tune of about $2.5 million each: for Decentralised Data Fusion (DDF) and to explore a Future UAV for Reconnaissance and Interdiction (FURI).

FURI will likely be the first in a series of UAV-related CTDs addressing Defence's perceived knowledge or technology gaps associated with the anticipated Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) element of project Air 6000. FURI itself and its successors will explore a variety of technology domains including stealthy tactical datalinks and EW targeting.

These CTDs will also likely build on technology which has been developed by BAE Systems both locally and in the UK addressing a range of UAV capability issues. The British parent company began its UAV Management System (UMS) program at Sowerby in England over five years ago to help prepare itself for the British Army's Watchkeeper TUAV program which was also based on the Shadow 200.

In the event the British Army selected the Thales UK bid, based on Elbit's Hermes 180 and 450 UAV platforms. Much of the UMS activity has now been transferred to BAE Systems Australia whose own R&D into autonomous UAV operations, Autonomous Navigation & Sensing Experimental Research (ANSER) program, and Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) by "swarms" of interacting UAVs has made it the company's global centre of excellence in these areas.

BAE Systems Australia doesn't plan to build TUAVs - it's a crowded market already - but a few years ago worked with a team at the University of Sydney to develop the Brumby experimental UAV platform. More recently, BAE Systems has developed its current experimental UAV platform, Kingfisher, which the company uses as its technology test bed and demonstrator for R&D and CTD activities. And it has achieved two significant world firsts in the past two years.

The first of these was in 2002 when two Brumby UAVs were used to demonstrate the world's first multi-UAV autonomous flights - that is, two UAVs flying under their own autonomous control but interacting with each other to achieve mission objectives aimed at collaborative, autonomous tactical
Then last year a Kingfisher UAV became the first to fly a STANAG 4586-compliant TUAV mission. Behind this jargon is a very significant breakthrough: Standing NATO Agreement 4586 is a set of protocols governing UAV flight and payload control systems and Ground Control System (GCS). STANAG 4586-compliant UAVs and GCSs are designed for ease of interoperability, enabling different GCSs to control unfamiliar TUAVs.

While JP129 doesn't call for STANAG 4586-compliance, at least in its early phases, this is on the planned growth path; Air 7000 Ph.1 (the UAV element) demands compliance as will all future US and European UAV programs. STANAG 4586 is the basis for the US Army's One System common ground environment (for which AAI is the prime contractor) which will enable a single generic GCS to control Hunter, Shadow, Predator and other UAVs - hence the importance of BAE Systems Australia's relationship with AAI.

This capability goes to the heart of BAE Systems Australia's Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Management System, abbreviated to IMS, which evolved out of the previous UMS activities. This is an open, scaleable architecture designed for UAVs of all types, and other, broader, NCW applications.

The IMS forms part of the core of the enhanced Shadow 200 flight and payload management system the company has proposed in JP129. It embraces task planning and management, mission planning and control, automatic routing, airspace management, communications management and a range of other vital functions.

At its simplest it can consist of a read-only ground terminal - a laptop or even palm-top computer - for combat troops to download sensor imagery. On a larger scale and configured appropriately it could manage and control the operations of a Global Hawk or, even further into the future, a UCAV. At this level it would incorporate and manage high levels of connectivity with other assets such as the Wedgetail AEW&C system, the Vigilare air defence ground environment and the other significant players in the battlespace - including, but not confined to, Special Forces patrols, the Navy's new Air Warfare Destroyers and AP-3C maritime patrol aircraft.

While Northrop Grumman has assembled a local industry team to address GCS and some UAV payload technology issues in its bid for Air 7000 Ph.1 (see p.xx), BAE Systems Australia has chosen not to form any close teaming arrangements before Defence reveals its Air 7000 Equipment Acquisition Strategy. There's no guarantee that platform and GCS issues won't be handled separately, ADM understands, and the company doesn't want to be tied to a platform-specific proposal if it doesn't need to be.

All in all, says BAE Systems Australia, its seven years of R&D have generated considerable in-house expertise in UAV operations, ISR networking, data fusion, mission planning, airspace management, and autonomous technology which it believes is unique within an Australian company. Certainly, it has invested heavily to develop what it believes is a unique Australian industry capability whose importance will grow along with that of the UAVs which will enter ADF service over the coming decades.

By Gregor Ferguson, Adelaide