 |
| Figure 1. Predator Communication (Reading Mission, n.d.) |
The RQ-1A/MQ-1 Predator UAS is capable of
beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) communications.
The Predator has been present for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
while being controlled from Nellis Air Force Base in California. “Predator is
equipped with reconnaissance equipment and weapons to provide persistent
Intelligence gathering, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability. It
is designed to perform over-the-horizon, long-endurance, medium-altitude
surveillance, reconnaissance, and weapons delivery on mission endurance of up
to 40 hours” (RQ-1A, n.d.). The Predator
was used to circle over both Iraq and Afghanistan conducting ISR operations.
The concept is to move data rather than people; this shortens the kill chain
and reduces the opportunity for targets to flee (RQ-1A, n.d.).
The Predator is capable of both BLOS and line-of-sight
(LOS) communications. LOS communicants are used within 100 NM and allow the UAS
to be launched and recovered. When the Predator is to operate BLOS communication
between the UAS and the ground control station (GCS) is done via Ku-band
satellite communications (BLOS, 2016). Two
different GCSs are needed for this operation. The launch and recovery crew
element (LRE) use LOS to launch and recover. The mission control element (MCE)
will then take control and use BLOS for the mission operations. Both LRE and
MCE must have the GCSs set up with the same parameters for the Predator before
a handover can take place (MQ-1, 2015).
The infrastructure for the Predator
is extensive. Each Combat Air Patrol (CAP) consists of 4 air vehicles, the
local GCS for LRE, potentially a second GCS for MCE and the satellite used for
communication. Each CAP includes around 170 personnel which includes; 40
mission control personnel, seven pilots and seven sensor operators, 60 personnel
for launch and recovery, which also has pilots and sensor operators and 60
personnel for exploitation of information and around 15 maintenance personnel
(Wheeler, 2012). The notion of
“unmanned” is misleading when it takes around 170 personnel to operate 4
Predators.
The main advantage of the BLOS
operations is the ability of the Predator to fully utilize it’s roughly 40-hour
endurance. It can be flown anywhere in the world from any location, as
mentioned above it was flying in Iraq and Afghanistan from California. The LRE
crews were locally located, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the MCE crews were in
California. Less military personnel need to be placed in the vicinity of the
battle, some of the pilots can be left at home minimizing their stress and the
stress on their families. Another advantage is the video feed can be fed back
to any ground commander anywhere, so they can make real time decisions to shape
the battle field with live video.
A civilian industry that could benefit from
BLOS operations is natural resource management. This includes wildlife
management personnel and land/forestry management personnel. Tracking and
monitoring wildlife is a large undertaking and has benefited from the use of
small drones already, but these are limited to LOS operations only.
From
2013 to 2015 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
conducted surveys in Alaska where the manned flight proved to be cheaper than the
UAS. Sea Lion population was counted in
the Aleutian Islands in Alaska by a Twin Otter and an APH-22 Hexacopter (Christie, Gilbert, Brown, Hatfield
& Hanson, 2016). Due to the Hexacopter being required to stay Line
of Sight (LOS) it only had a range of 0.8km with the longest flight being 16
minutes. The Hexacopter had to be
launched from a ship sailing from island to island. Over the course of two
months it surveyed 30 different sites, provided high quality images due to
flight altitude of 150 feet and averaged a cost of $1700 per site visited. It
could access areas the Twin Otter could not due to inclement weather since
minimum of 750 feet ceilings are required, remoteness or a lack of suitable
landing sites (Christie, et al., 2016).
In
contrast, the Twin otter visited 201 sites, provided lower quality images due
to its flight altitude but averaged a cost of $400 per site since it surveyed 171
more sites (Christie, et al., 2016).
Both aircraft could meet to objective of NOAA to count the population of
the Sea Lions, but both have limitations.
Currently NOAA uses both systems, the UAS augments the Twin Otter by
providing higher quality images or surveying inaccessible sites (Fritz,
Sweeney, Towell, Gelatt, 2016). If NOAA could use a UAS such as the Predator the
research could potentially be done more efficiently using only one platform
instead of a Twin Otter, Hexacpoter and the ship required for the Hexacopter. Of
course, the overall price tag of a complex Predator system may prevent any non-governmental
agency, or an agency with a smaller budget, from using it. However, to concept
and abilty to operate BLOS would be an advantage.
References
BLOS - Beyond Line of Sight. (2016, July 29).
Retrieved February 4, 2018, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beyond-line-sight-operations-brandon-fowler/
Christie, K., Gilbert, S., Brown,
C., Hatfield, M., & Hanson, L. (2016). Unmanned Aircraft Systems in
Wildlife Research: Current and Future Applications of a Transformative Technology. Frontiers
of Ecological Environments, 14, 241-251. doi:10.1002/fee.1281
Fritz, L., K. Sweeney, R. Towell,
and T. Gelatt. 2016. Aerial and Shipbased Surveys of Steller Sea Lions
(Eumetopias Jubatus) Conducted in Alaska in June-July 2013 through 2015, and an
Update on the Status and Trend of the Western Distinct Population Segment in
Alaska. U.S. Dep. Commerce, NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-AFSC-321, 72 p.
doi:10.7289/V5/TM-AFSC-321.
MQ-1 Predator Beyond Line of Sight Operations. (2015,
February 3). Retrieved February 04, 2018, from https://knghthwksuas.weebly.com/uas-blogs/mq-1-predator-beyond-line-of-sight-operations
Reading Mission Control Data of a Predator. (n.d.). Retrieved February 04, 2018, from http://gbppr.dyndns.org/~gbpprorg/nfl/predator-drone-readout-2009.html
RQ-1A/MQ-1 Predator. (n.d.). Retrieved February 04,
2018, from http://defense-update.com/products/p/predator.htm
Wheeler, W. (2012, February 28). 2. The MQ-9's Cost
and Performance. Retrieved February 04, 2018, from
http://nation.time.com/2012/02/28/2-the-mq-9s-cost-and-performance/
No comments:
Post a Comment