By Ann Roosevelt
FORT WORTH, Texas— The Army yesterday unveiled its “Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap 2010-2035” at the Army Aviation Association of America annual conference here.
Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said the “first ever” roadmap is, “To provide a broad vision for how the Army will develop, organize and employ UAS” across the full spectrum of missions.”
The plan outlines the service strategy–near, mid- and far-term over the next 25 years.
The Army found that UAS “significantly” improved its ability to accomplish missions by reducing workload and the risk of their being exposed to direct adversaries.
UAS offer commanders a wider view of the battlefield, and improves their ability to see, target and destroy adversaries, while providing the lowest tactical levels with intelligence they can act on, he said.
Strictly a conceptual document, the roadmap is not a budget or acquisition blueprint.
The roadmap covers three periods: 2010-2015, 2016-2025, and 2016-2035.
Capabilities are described in terms such as doctrine, organization, training, leader development, and facilities.
The near-term period is described in a more “substantial” way, Chiarelli said. It focuses on improved commonality, advanced technology to increase endurance and capability, and at the same time, reducing size, weight and power.
In a broader sense, outside the immediate UAS systems, the equipment must be synchronized with human and network elements.
“It is intended to be a living document, most [similar documents] are not,” Chiarelli said. The roadmap will be revisited every two years to reflect change.
Right now, he said, aviation is the most deployed service asset and, since 2001, unmanned aerial systems have flown one million flight hours, of which 88 percent were in support of combat operations.
The Army now is reviewing Combat Aviation Brigades (CABs) to see if they should reorganize, and incorporate manned/unmanned-teaming elements.
Such a move has been approved, he said. With a manned/unmanned capability in the CABs, then improved persistence, sense-and-detect capabilities would be available that are not available now.
Unmanned systems are disruptive technology, Chiarelli said. “It has become a game changer on today’s battlefield.
UAS represent the next generation of command and control, and will forever change how the Army operates, when it can “see” in real time.
However, that’s not the end-state; evolution continues. UAS must provide commanders the ability not only to see the battle space, but also to shape it, integrating layers of airspace above the battlespace and improving the direction of precision munitions, and improve a commander’s ability to influence what’s going on over the area.
The enormous boom in the development and use of UAS is not so different from the state of aviation at the start of World War II, he said, where the rapid advance of technology moved from wood and canvas to jet fighters, with change coming every six to nine months.
In 2001, the Army had 54 operational Hunter and Shadow unmanned vehicles. Currently, there are more than 4,000 unmanned aerial vehicles or various types deployed.
Additionally, the role of UAS has changed, with ranges and payloads expanding, adding to the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance initially required. UAS have moved to provide increased security, attack, and command and control.
It will change still more as the Army moves to a networked force, Chiarelli said.
With a network, the expanding UAV fleet will expand and represent a critical part of Warfighting, he said. “The network is the centerpiece of Army modernization.”
UAS help overcome the restraints of terrain.
“Ultimately we want to get ahead and stay ahead of the pace of technology in the environments,” Chiarelli said. “There’s no limit to the realm of the possible…creating new ideas and technology…
The UAS world is now in the “brainstorming era,” he said.