By Ann Roosevelt

Early next year the Army is expected to bring unmanned aerial systems (UAS) controls into the AH-64D Apache Block II to increase situational awareness and shorten the sensor- to-shooter timeline, according to service officials.

“We’ve already started to work Level II controls into the Apaches right now, Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, director of Army Aviation, said at a Nov. 2 roundtable. “We know how to do that. Now we’re going to start looking at how fast we’re going to be able to put this kind of capability in.”

Col. Derek Paquette, Army Apache project manager, said during a recent briefing, “We anticipate being able to field as early as January of ’08.”

The idea is for the Apache to receive and display Level II UAS feeds in real time using the One System Remote Video Terminal (OSRVT) in the Apache cockpit. With OSRVT, aviators will be able to see video from any of the Army’s UAV systems. The terminal is already integrated into Stryker vehicles headed to Iraq and in certain command and control UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters (Defense Daily, Oct. 2).

“It increases my situational awareness because now I can extend my vision out to the range of the UAV,” Paquette said. “If I can see that video, I can be more lethal, I can react, reducing that sensor-to-shooter timeline.”

An operational evaluation would be made and then a decision on whether to field the system to the fleet, something that could take a couple of years, Mundt said.

Col. Mark Hayes, Army Training and Doctrine Command capabilities manager, said at a separate recent briefing: “It’s unprecedented. We didn’t think we’d get unmanned aerial system capability on Longbow until we had Block III.”

Hayes said his office has asked the Apache program office and contractors to do some demonstrations. The Aviation Applied Technology Directorate has contracted with Lockheed Martin [LMT] for the work. Boeing [BA] produces the Apache.

“If it seems like it’s a viable capability, then we’ll take a look at seeing how we can integrate it into the war fight,” Hayes said.

Such video feeds are already integrated into ground systems such as some Stryker vehicles slated for deployment. UAV feeds can also be displayed in the airborne command and control system on some Black Hawks.

Army aviators in Iraq and Afghanistan are also asking for a new daytime sensor.

“I agree with them,” Mundt said.

When the modernized target acquisition designation system (MTADS) was improved, the dayside sensor didn’t come up as an issue. “Now what you’ve got is a sensor on the night side that’s so much better than the day side that everyone spends a lot of time flipping back and forth and we’ve already got efforts in place,” Mundt said. FLIR, which builds that sensor, knew that they were going to have do that.”

Hayes said the first M-TADS-equipped unit returned from combat in October. “The capability met exactly what our expectations were, reliability exceeded what we thought it was going to be.”

However, it’s “not good enough,” Hayes said. “A dayside assembly on that sensor is facing some obsolescence issues. We have agreed to and written a requirements document–what we call a statement of continuing need” that is wending its way up the chain of command. Before the end of the year, the service is expected to start work on funding possibilities to upgrade the daytime sensor.

The units that are in combat right now with the MTADS units and the Army plans to continue fielding MTADS as fast as it can, Hayes said.

“I expect we’re probably a couple of years away from being able to put [Level II UAS controls] fully fielded into a battalion,” Mundt said. “But I’ll tell you in terms of the dayside sensor, that will come a lot faster because that’s a pull one out, put one in, kind of thing.”

Paquette said aviators also are calling for improved performance. Some of that is being addressed by moving to the General Electric [GE] 701D engine.

Accelerating future or better technologies for aviation is something Mundt watches, but pushing equipment to the field depends on careful engineering and safety. “We can’t afford failure,” he said. A vehicle with a flat tire can pull to the side of the road, but structural failure on an aircraft can be deadly.