The Air Force is working to minimize crash landings of unmanned aircraft and will eventually incorporate an autonomous landing feature on its large drones, an officer who coordinates the service’s unmanned aerial systems (UAS) activities recently said in response to criticism of mounting losses.
On April 27, outgoing Pentagon arms buyer John Young criticized the Air Force for failing to heed his instructions to retrofit all MQ-1 Predator UAS with an automatic landing feature, the absence of which has contributed to the loss of a third of the fleet to crash landings. Young said about a sixth of those losses could have been avoided if the Predators had auto-land capability.
Col. Eric Mathewson, director of the Air Force Unmanned Aerial System Task Force, agreed that about a dozen Predators might have been saved had they been outfitted with such a feature.
“And I don’t want to minimize those losses–that is several millions of dollars worth of equipment,” Mathewson told Defense Daily in a May 1 interview. “But the fact is, auto- land is not fielded on this class of aircraft. Nothing in that class has auto-land capability.”
Mathewson noted that the Army has incorporated the feature onto its smaller drones, such as the RQ-7 Shadow tactical UAS, to great effect.
“And it’s true, they’re losing fewer of those to accidents,” he said.
However, according to Mathewson, an autonomous landing feature for larger drones–such as the Predator, the Army’s enhanced MQ-1 Sky Warrior and the Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper–is still in development. The Air Force is planning to demonstrate the capability later this year.
Young also said he has directed the air service to replace Predators lost to attrition with the more capable Sky Warriors. He noted having met with resistance, as Air Force officials were keen to purchase a full fleet of Reapers and to stop purchasing the MQ-1s altogether. Young believes a mix of platforms is still needed.
Mathewson said several studies on the matter are still being conducted.
“The jury is still out on this,” he said. He added that the significantly higher price tag of the Sky Warrior “might not make sense when you consider its marginally better capability.” He confirmed that the Air Force’s tentative plan is to purchase 319 more Reapers and to stop replenishing its Predator fleet.
Meanwhile, Mathewson’s task force is preparing to unveil an 88-page unclassified version of an Air Force UAS “flight plan” in the coming weeks.
“In it, we will say that we see UAS as a viable alternative for any mission,” he said. The document “will be a detailed vision statement on how we see UAS as a part of our future.”
The plan is currently under final review by Air Force top brass and is expected to be released on May 18.