Razor61
29th Nov 2006, 23:19
www.defencenews.com
Qinetiq Tests Air-Controlled UAV Swarm
By ANDREW CHUTER
British defense technology company Qinetiq is claiming a world first following the flight trial of a system able to control and autonomously organize multiple unmanned air vehicles (UAV) from a mothership.
The test took place in late October over southwest England using Qinetiq’s own BAC-1-11 aircraft converted into a surrogate UAV. The aircraft was the centerpiece of the trial, conducted to support the concept of what the company calls a “package of self-organizing unmanned air vehicles under the control of an operator flying in a fast jet.”
An operator on board the aircraft remotely flew the BAC-1-11 and directed a package of three simulated UAVs. The two-hour trial included a simulated ground attack on a moving target, Qinetiq officials said.
The BAC-1-11 flew and operated as if it were directed by a command station designed for use on a fast jet, although a flight crew rode the aircraft for safety reasons.
Now, says Qinetiq, it is preparing for a trial using the real thing. A UAV command-and-control interface is being fitted to its Tornado integrated avionics research aircraft for a further series of flight trials early next year. A package of real and simulated aircraft, including the BAC-1-11, will be commanded by the fast-jet crew while in flight.
In its combat role, Tornado is a strike aircraft with a two-man crew used by the Royal Air Force and others.
Announcing the in-flight demonstration Nov. 28, Qinetiq officials said in a statement that company scientists had used an “autonomy computer using agent-based reasoning software in the surrogate UAV [that] was responsible for the self-organizing of the UAV package at a tactical level and the operation of communication systems, sensors and weapons.”
The work is being conducted as part of two research programs funded by the Ministry of Defence. The first, the UAV autonomy program, has been underway since 1998 and is to conclude in spring 2008. The second program, directly involving the development of a surrogate control system, got under way 12 months ago and is due to finish with the Tornado tests.
Andrew Sleigh, group managing director of Qinetiq’s Defence and Technology sector, described the trial as an important step in proving that complex autonomous decision-making technologies are ready to move from the simulated world to realistic flight conditions.
“Ultimately, this work could lead to a single human operator controlling teams of highly autonomous unmanned vehicles to carry out complex missions while reducing the risk to manned aircraft,” he said.
The single aircraft or mothership controlling a number of UAVs or unmanned combat air vehicles is already becoming established as a possible operational concept in the future use of such weapons.
The recent conflict with Hizbollah in Lebanon saw the Israelis deploy swarms of UAVs to saturate the battle space and seek small and mobile targets like missile launchers. The system of command-and-control methods of those weapons is unclear.
The British are also proposing to spend hundreds of millions of pounds developing and producing loitering weapons. These could benefit from being controlled and organized from an air or ground command station perhaps similar in nature to that being developed by Qinetiq.
Qinetiq Tests Air-Controlled UAV Swarm
By ANDREW CHUTER
British defense technology company Qinetiq is claiming a world first following the flight trial of a system able to control and autonomously organize multiple unmanned air vehicles (UAV) from a mothership.
The test took place in late October over southwest England using Qinetiq’s own BAC-1-11 aircraft converted into a surrogate UAV. The aircraft was the centerpiece of the trial, conducted to support the concept of what the company calls a “package of self-organizing unmanned air vehicles under the control of an operator flying in a fast jet.”
An operator on board the aircraft remotely flew the BAC-1-11 and directed a package of three simulated UAVs. The two-hour trial included a simulated ground attack on a moving target, Qinetiq officials said.
The BAC-1-11 flew and operated as if it were directed by a command station designed for use on a fast jet, although a flight crew rode the aircraft for safety reasons.
Now, says Qinetiq, it is preparing for a trial using the real thing. A UAV command-and-control interface is being fitted to its Tornado integrated avionics research aircraft for a further series of flight trials early next year. A package of real and simulated aircraft, including the BAC-1-11, will be commanded by the fast-jet crew while in flight.
In its combat role, Tornado is a strike aircraft with a two-man crew used by the Royal Air Force and others.
Announcing the in-flight demonstration Nov. 28, Qinetiq officials said in a statement that company scientists had used an “autonomy computer using agent-based reasoning software in the surrogate UAV [that] was responsible for the self-organizing of the UAV package at a tactical level and the operation of communication systems, sensors and weapons.”
The work is being conducted as part of two research programs funded by the Ministry of Defence. The first, the UAV autonomy program, has been underway since 1998 and is to conclude in spring 2008. The second program, directly involving the development of a surrogate control system, got under way 12 months ago and is due to finish with the Tornado tests.
Andrew Sleigh, group managing director of Qinetiq’s Defence and Technology sector, described the trial as an important step in proving that complex autonomous decision-making technologies are ready to move from the simulated world to realistic flight conditions.
“Ultimately, this work could lead to a single human operator controlling teams of highly autonomous unmanned vehicles to carry out complex missions while reducing the risk to manned aircraft,” he said.
The single aircraft or mothership controlling a number of UAVs or unmanned combat air vehicles is already becoming established as a possible operational concept in the future use of such weapons.
The recent conflict with Hizbollah in Lebanon saw the Israelis deploy swarms of UAVs to saturate the battle space and seek small and mobile targets like missile launchers. The system of command-and-control methods of those weapons is unclear.
The British are also proposing to spend hundreds of millions of pounds developing and producing loitering weapons. These could benefit from being controlled and organized from an air or ground command station perhaps similar in nature to that being developed by Qinetiq.