Although the ADF’s UAV operations in Afghanistan were officially completed at the end of June, upgrades are in the pipeline for Army’s 18 Shadow RQ-7B Shadow 200 Tactical UAVs (TUAVs) and options for palm-sized micro-UAVs to equip infantry combat teams are being assessed.
Yet to be determined at the time of publication was the future of the ADF’s medium altitude long endurance (MALE) Heron UAVs, three of which began operations in Afghanistan in January 2010 while a fourth airframe was retained at Woomera for training Afghanistan-bound personnel.
The Israeli-manufactured UAVs were leased from the Canadian company MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA). Late last year the turnkey contract, under which all four UAVs were flown by RAAF operators but maintained by MDA on behalf of the ADF, was extended until 13 June.
Group Captain Guy Adams, Director Unmanned Aerial Systems, told ADM in early June that the entire capability – aircraft, support equipment and a 25-strong RAAF detachment – would be out of Afghanistan by the end of July.
The Future of Heron Given the “positive experience” with the Herons, options were being considered to maintain skills with MALE UAVs in the overland ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) role. As part of these options, it would be logical to include the retention of the current systems in some way, shape or form.
“We’re looking at the cost-benefit of that; providing blue-suit maintainers would give us the potential to assess the differences in maintaining unmanned and manned aerial systems,” Group Captain Adams said.
“At the same time that would require a significant raise, train, sustain pipeline which at the moment we do not have.”
Failure to retain the 1.1 tonne Herons with their 24-hour endurance and sophisticated ISR payload could create a significant capability gap until the arrival in about 2021 of the much larger MQ-4C Triton high altitude, long endurance maritime patrol UAV, he noted.
Interestingly, the gap to which GPCAPT Adams referred was not that of ISR capability, but of the RAAF’s experience in operating a complex unmanned aerial system.
“We’ve certainly looked at that gap, it’s probably not acceptable from a skillset point of view and understanding of the technology in the field,” he commented.
“Not having a platform of that type to develop tactics, techniques and procedures may put us at a disadvantage.”
As pointed out by Brigadier Shane Gabriel, Director General of Army Modernisation, a so-called persistent surveillance asset can’t stay aloft indefinitely.
“Like any other airborne asset you’ve got to take into account its duration and range, a whole stack of different parameters, and that means how you then synchronise that with other assets or with aspects of your tactical plan. Self-evident perhaps but it’s an important part of getting to know a system,” he said.
Technical developments Although the 2012 Defence Capability Plan (DCP) made no mention of a Heron-type resource, more guidance on the future composition of the ADF’s UAV ISR resources is anticipated in the forthcoming Force Structure Review.
Taking into account recent remarks by Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Brown, one possible outcome may be the retention by acquisition or extended lease of the Herons for several years, and their eventual replacement by the MQ-9 Reaper.
Notwithstanding the Reaper’s well-publicised strike capability utilising four Hellfire missiles or two 500lb Paveway II laser-guided bombs, its primary mission remains ISR with a sensor payload that includes electro/optic and infrared cameras, laser rangefinder/designator, synthetic aperture radar, and ground moving target indicator.
Endurance fully-loaded is 14 hours, although this would obviously be greater if weapons were not being carried.
Despite a successful 18-month deployment to Afghanistan of four of Army’s Shadow 200 TUAVs, achievement of Full Operational Capability (FoC) for the type within the Enoggera-based 20th Surveillance Target Acquisition (STA) Regiment has been delayed from last December to August this year.
This is to facilitate certification of various aspects of the aircraft, including the laser designator, which had been delayed by operational requirements.
The government announced the $175 million acquisition via the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) channel of the Shadows, two ground support segments and training equipment, in August 2010. The first five-aircraft system achieved Initial Operating Capability (IOC) in August 2011 and the four aircraft from the second system were deployed to Afghanistan in May 2012 and withdrawn in October 2013.
Two air vehicles are designated as spares and six others are held separately as war/attrition stock.
All 18 Shadows are currently built to the Dash 10 configuration, with a carburetted engine powering a two-bladed pusher propeller, a wingspan of about 14 ft and a 27kg payload comprising EO/infrared cameras, a communications relay package, and three separate lasers for target designation, pointing and range finding.
A rolling program over the next 18 months will see the fleet upgraded to the US Army’s Dash 30 configuration. Wingspan will be extended to 20 feet and the carburetted Wankel rotary engine will be replaced with a electronic fuel-injected unit and fuel system, increasing flight time from six to about nine hours.
Earlier Australian-specific upgrades in the processing exploitation and dissemination system are understood to have involved replacement of the DVD mission recording and storage system with a new system capable of integrating voice overlays, enabling the distribution of recordings and information, and enhancing search capabilities.
Unlike Heron, Army has full responsibility for manning, sustaining and training the Shadow fleet, although Brigadier Gabriel emphasised the capability was a joint one.
“You’d fully expect this would form part of any joint task force into the future and it wouldn’t matter whether the commander was army, navy or air force, they would support the operation as would any other ADF capability,” he said.
Air vehicle operators drawn from 20 STA have no previous aviation experience before training within the unit and at Puckapunyal that includes two weeks of airworthiness and air regulation instruction. This qualifies them to fly an air vehicle over Defence land or a specified area of operations.
This contrasts with Heron, admittedly a much larger, more complex and wider-ranging asset, which has been controlled only by fully-qualified aviators.
The anticipated benefit of focusing on fast jet pilots was not apparent over time, and the final rotation in Afghanistan included army, fast jet, and C-130J pilots, Group Captain Adams disclosed.
The Future of UAVs in the ADF The 2012 DCP made no mention of an eventual successor to Shadow but it did acknowledge a 10-year life-of-type imposed on TUAVs by rapid advances in technology. This was reinforced by the inclusion in the accompanying Defence Capability Guidance document for projects anticipated post-2016 of JP129 Phase 3 - enhancements to the ADF’s Tactical UAV (TUAV) capability.
“The options there are some way out and they’re very difficult to characterise with any accuracy. The increases in technology resemble the advances in aircraft in the 21 years between the First and Second World Wars,” commented Brigadier Gabriel.
But future enhancements to capability seemed likely to involve a wider range of sensors, improvements in the clarity of optronic images and the data rate at which they could be sent, and sense and avoid radar on what would be faster, higher-flying UAVS with bigger payloads.
For Group Captain Adams, the major advance in technology in the next five to 10 years would probably involve battery technology.
“If you can get rid of the need to carry liquid fuel you’ve still got issues with batteries but typically they’re cleaner, much quieter, lower risk, and the advances we’re seeing will provide greater power density than even heavy fuel engines,” he commented.
Meanwhile considerable attention is being focused on Land 129 Phase 4 – the previous JP129 Phase 4 that was retitled by the Capability Management Steering Group in April.
In essence this seeks to provide the ADF with an organic ISR platform to support land force operations for Battle Group and below. Consideration is being given to the smaller micro or nano-UAV that can be operated by soldiers to look over a hill, or around a corner in a confined urban environment.
An earlier iteration of the Phase 4 requirement saw an FMS case, subsequently cancelled because of budget cuts, advanced for the hand-launched AeroVironment RQ-11B Raven. Weighing 1.9kg, this has a flight endurance of 80 minutes and an effective operational range of about 10km.
All options are now back on the table, but interest is understood to centre on smaller and newer systems such as the AeroVironment Wasp micro air system, weighing in at 275 grams with a wingspan of 41cm.
Although this is not a contender for Phase 4, Defence has also been absorbing a mass of data on the British Army‘s operation at rifle company level in Afghanistan of the Black Hornet nano-UAV. This measures 10x2.5cm and weighs only 16 grams but flies like a tiny helicopter, with a built-in camera transmitting live video and still images to a handheld control unit at a range of up to 800 metres.
The introduction of such rapidly-moving technology now seems likely to avoid the complexities and delays of a joint requirement and advance as a single service request within the $20 million cap of the Minors acquisition program.
Although the intention is to provide UAV Land ISR capabilities down to small unit level as soon as practicable, this will ultimately be dependent on ongoing Defence discussions with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and the performance thresholds at which air space regulations will apply.
