By Geoff Fein
As the demand for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) grows, the need to keep platforms airborne for longer periods of time requires improved power systems, and the plethora of drones will require common ground stations to ease the equipment burden on warfighters, according to Navy and Marine Corps officials.
Within PMA-263, Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Systems, there are two battery powered unmanned air vehicles (UAV): AeroVironment‘s Wasp, a one-pound UAV, and Raven B, a four-pound aircraft, Capt. J.R. Brown, program manager for PMA- 263, told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
“We are always interested in getting more life out of those batteries. I do know in some other labs in the Navy they are looking at that effort,” he said.
There are also additional efforts going on in the petroleum powered air vehicles, seeking either an aviation gas or heavy fuel to get more out of the engine, Brown added.
One reason for the effort is increased endurance, he said.
“And we would also like to put a larger generator on the engine so I could generate more electrical power so I could power some of the payloads that I see coming down the road,” Brown said. “While I might get more fuel efficiency or flight efficiency, I might use it up to supply a greater capability to the warfighter.”
Although Brown could not comment on some of the payloads the Navy and Marine Corps are looking at for their UAVs, he did note that increased optics means increased power.
“Some of these require different types of focal plane arrays that require a little bit more power, or the power itself may need conditioning,” he said. “When you condition power, you actually use power to clean it up.”
Additionally, operators would like to see more sensors put on UAVs, Brown added, which in some cases would require taking those payloads off of large UAVs and installing them on smaller airframes. That means those smaller UAVs will need added power to run the new payloads.
Another issue the Navy and Marine Corps are confronting is that with the growth in UAVs, there is also a growth in the ground systems that control and pull data off of UAVs.
“We have a team that works in PEO U&W (unmanned aviation and strike weapons) called Common Systems Integration and their job in life is to help us map and prepare a plan of action and milestones to eventually achieve common systems…common ground control stations, Brown said.
“I think it’s important we recognize the ground control station for BAMS or Global Hawk is not the same ground system we would use for Wasp or Raven B,” he added. “But we do want to find those efficient points which it’s smart business for everybody–government and industry–to go common and then where necessary go proprietary or government only.”
And moving to more common ground systems would help lighten the load for Marines who are finding the amount and weight of gear they have to carry in theater constantly growing.
“I think that is important to the Marines in particular because they do have a heavy burden they have to carry and we recognize that and we are very concerned with loading the Marine down with two or three systems that are proprietary to each platform they are trying to connect to,” Marine Lt. Col. Brad Beach, unmanned air systems coordinator, department of aviation, told Defense Daily in the same interview.
“We have designed systems that are multi-functional…able to receive different wave lengths and signals from each one of the UAS into a single system. That is really important to use,” he said. “It’s important that the system is light and mobile and expeditionary and doesn’t weigh down the already burdened Marine out there trying to fight in 130 degrees temperatures and things of that nature.”
The Marine Corps has been quite successful in reducing that burden and yet maintaining that capability by having those multifunctional remote video terminals, for example, out in the battlefield, Beach said.