Surveillance: NZ Army gaining UAS experience | ADM Jun 08
New Zealand may call unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) unmanned aerial systems (UAS) but the boys across the channel are making great use of the platforms in their many incarnations.
By Nick Lee-Frampton, Wellington
LtCol Nick Gillard, CO 16th Field Regiment, 2nd Land Force Group, based at Linton near Palmerston North, is an unabashed Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) enthusiast.
"I am sold on the idea.
"Our people are very positive, they become enthusiastic very quickly!"
He said personnel working with UAVs are volunteers; some with UAV experience gained with other militaries.
"They're smart boys." (No women are yet involved.)
Gillard said the NZ Army is taking a modular approach towards UAS capabilities, with the next major step being the testing and upgrading of sensors to both shorten and refine the sensor-to-shooter link.
"Our concept is to try before we buy and we do our testing in the Battle Lab.
"UAS activities are a sub-set of the NZ Army ISTAR (Intelligence Surveillance Targeting and Reconnaissance) Battle Lab," he said.
The charter for NZDF UAS development rests at Linton with 16 Fd Regt, not in Wellington, because the experts are here, explains Gillard.
It is funded centrally but executed at unit level within the Battle Lab.
"The first step was to get a UAV with the assistance of the Defence Technology Agency (DTA) and NZ organisations such as Skycam UAV NZ.
"The second step was to produce a User Requirement for a Land UAS, which is where the Battle Lab comes in.
"We learned SOPs and TTPs to develop an operating intent and concept of operations."
LtCol Gillard emphasised that his regiment is not exclusively focused on UAVs though; the entire UAS background is involved.
"In fact I signed off on the official User Requirement only last week (early May).
"Which means we now have all the specifications for a UAS.
"We have 10 men trained, both soldiers and officers, as UAV operators.
"Some are on courses in NZ and others are on courses overseas."
Testing testing
The NZ Army presently operates six Kahu (Hawk) UAVs which are repaired and maintained by the Skycam, and were designed by the DTA.
There are also two mobile Ground Control Stations (GCSs) together with full simulation support.
"The Kahu UAV is just a platform and ours are fitted with rudimentary optics and cameras to meet our modular approach so we can easily develop sensors from this point.
"We also have a training aircraft; it is simple, robust, easily taken apart and provides flight training experience before our UAV operators fly Kahu.
"The Kahu satisfies our experimental requirements and we are aware of its limitations."
A lot of military UAV/UAS knowledge has been imported to Linton.
Current personnel include a UK exchange soldier who has done four tours operating UAS in Iraq.
It's a combined arms capability with personnel drawn from cavalry, infantry and recce units.
Moreover, personnel have attended UAV training opportunities in Australia, Singapore and the UK.
Ten men have recently completed an NCO aircrew course at RNZAF base Ohakea.
Four have gone through the Private Pilot License (PPL) course at Massey University.
We are working out an appropriate trade model within NZ Army for our UAS operators, says LtCol Gillard.
A formal Introduction Into Service of a UAV capability is expected around 2011.
LtCol Gillard stressed the existing capability is not an operational capability; it is still experimental.
"We have developed our own UAS "A to Z".
"Each detachment Commander would have one.
"We plan to hand the capability over to a unit and they will hand it back. It doesn't especially belong to us."
Operating with 3 Sqn's Iroquois helicopters on Ex Steel Talon demonstrated the UAS capability is still maturing in regards to airspace management in concert with RNZAF.
"We've learned a massive amount and we know the areas that need to be resolved," said LtCol Gillard.
Major Dave Johnson, with UAS experience and battle-space management gained in Canada, has been the Army's UAV project manager for one year.
"In September 2007 we made a quantum leap by controlling a UAV while the GCS was moving.
"The mobile GCS and the complete system we have developed has extraordinary growth potential," said Major Johnson.
"We are working in concert with RNZAF to understand airspace coordination with helicopters.
"We are working on land/air integration and identifying battle-space management issues."
Simulation opportunity
Geospatial specialist Captain Rowland Harrison showed ADM the simulation centre, which uses Microsoft's X-planes software to replicate the Kahu's profile and performance "so we can fly all the time."
Simulation allows basic skills to be refined, weather can be simulated and the displays give a true reflection of the UAVs behaviour, he explained.
Each student has two laptop displays showing moving map displays and a tail view of the UAV although displays can be switched to show other images, including video.
"All simulated flights are entered in the students' logbooks; it's an excellent way to train and a good way to keep currency," said Captain Harrison.
The key issue in NZ airspace is turbulence, both up and down as well as rotary turbulence.
Rather than resisting up draughts the Kahu autopilot is programmed to allow it.
"We accept the "free" energy and autopilot will not resist extra lift, we accept the lift as it effectively gives us range and endurance benefits.
"The Air Force has recommended we fly at higher altitudes to avoid turbulence."
16 Fd Regt use the ARC GIS system for terrain analysis: "This allows the operator to identify slopes where high turbulence may be expected and also allows minimum safe altitudes to be ascertained and emergency landing sites to be identified.
"We are front loading aviation skills to demonstrate to CAA airworthiness authorities that we are prepared for more complex UAS."
Our main aim at the moment is to train people, Captain Harrison told ADM.
Kahu is essentially a recce platform but the unit is experimenting with different payloads.
"It's all about getting the basics right and then we can focus on the sensors and how best to disseminate the data."
Kahu is fitted with a 10x zoom camera and an 80mm Olympus still camera.
Watching monitor displays for many hours non-stop is an issue; you need to react to an incident within seconds - which is a challenge on an eight-hour plus mission.
Changing operators every few hours is an obvious solution to sustaining alertness but, said Harrison, the changeover needs to be carefully managed.
The original GCS was very basic and was mounted on a tripod: it was often blown over by the high winds that are common to the Army's training area at Waiouru.
On the go
Since August 2007 the GCS has been installed on 4x4 Pinzgauer Light Operational Vehicles (LOVs).
The modification was designed and installed by Skycam.
Captain Harrison said he instructed the company that the vehicle itself was not to be modified.
As a result just one screw needs to be released for the GCS installation to be removed and re-installed in another Pinzgauer LOV.
The installation has been most successful, protecting both equipment and operators.
Inside the Pinzgauer GCS are three lateral forward facing seats, each with a 17" VDU screen and (left to right) sit the sensor operator, the 'pilot' and the mission commander.
The latter can manually rotate the uni-directional aerial, which is mounted on the side of the LOV.
A generator can be towed behind the LOV to provide power in static locations as required.
Kahu control is 900MHz analogue, so presents no conflict with normal airspace operations.
The video link is 2.4GHz and Skycam claims a 25km line-of-sight range for it. Kahu has demonstrated its performance is comparable if not superior to that of similarly sized UAVs.
The first Kahu had a conventional T-tail; later versions including SilverEye with a gimballed nose turret for video surveillance and Kahu 2E-B with oblique video and vertical still photography sensors, have a V-shaped tail.
Kahu is a remarkably stable platform, says Captain Harrison.
"One of our biggest problems is landing, it doesn't want too! It has a 42:1 glide ratio.
"We have flown it from one GCS to another.
"Typical operating range is seven to 11km although it is capable of much more."
Of 73 flights flown to date only two launches failed and there were only two equipment failures; one due to faulty barometric pressure and other a false 'spike' reading on battery strength.
"We learned from that,' said Captain Harrison.
"It led to increased checks on battery strength prior to launch plus the autopilot needs a minimum voltage to be registered.
"This 95 per cent success rate is not simply the result of quality design and construction; there is also a significant cultural element.
"We get very few failures because we treat it as an aviation asset.
"The RNZAF provide excellent help to us every chance they get and we embrace that.
"We want this to be an elite part of the NZ Army,' said Captain Harrison.
At a glance
In addition to its optical sensors each Kahu is fitted with GPS.
Its basic weight is 3kg. Performance includes a maximum speed of 90kmh and a cruise speed of 80kmh.
It will loiter at 57kmh and would stall at 40kmh only the autopilot is programmed to avoid that circumstance arising.
The Kahu UAV is capable of being operated in 40kt wind and can be launched in winds exceeding 30kts.
If the data link lost while Kahu is within 3km of GCS it will automatically fly back.
Beyond 3km it will wait 30 seconds and if still no signal is received it will climb to 1500ft and then return to its GCS.
The automatic landing procedure will turn Kahu into wind, turn the engine off and lower the flaps to make a controlled flight into terrain.
"We are never going to have enough equipment, so we would rather get on with what we have.
"We are only concerned with doing the job, doing field trials at the moment.
"We are chasing sensor technology," said Captain Harrison.
The enthusiasm for UAS operations is palpable and although the NZ Army may be relatively late coming to grips with UAVs it clearly is doing so on the crawl, walk, run principle that is routinely applied by the RNZAF to new capabilities.
This careful approach, of steadily acquiring expertise using indigenously designed UAVs contrasts with larger militaries who effectively leap-frog the learning process by training on expensive operational UAVs rather than learning and perfecting techniques and doctrine by operating inexpensive platforms.
Local UAV capability
By Nick Lee-Frampton, Wellington
Skycam UAV NZ Ltd has provided system integration services to DTA/16th Field to get the Kahu airframes into operation.
They manufacture Kahu from DTA supplied alloy moulds and the company has developed and manufactured its own UAV airframes too, all of which use the DTA designed autopilot.
Company director Rene Redmond told ADM that the SilverEye UAV uses the same wing as Kahu and both UAVs are battery powered.
2EB on the other hand is a larger (15kg, 2.5m wing span), gasoline powered UAV designed and developed to test the DTA designed autopilot in a different role.
Capable of carrying a 3kg payload the 2EB design has allowed us to test a variety of payload options, says Redmond, adding that its parachute arrested landing allows for operation in confined landing zones.
Currently the company has an authorized UAV test area at Pahiatua, close to Linton, covering 32km2 of airspace up to 2000ft.
The company has CAA permission to extend the boundaries of the site to some 60 km2 and 2500ft from November 2008.
Copyright - Australian Defence Magazine, June 2008