By Ann Roosevelt
In mid-month, the Army’s Extended Range/Multipurpose (ERMP) unmanned aircraft system (UAS), the first with the Quick Reaction Capability 1 (QRC-1), will take on operations, an official said.
The aircraft arrived in theater at the end of July and have flown some 622 hours, operated exclusively by trained, enlisted, Army soldiers, Col. Greg Gonzalez, project manager for Unmanned Aircraft System, told Defense Daily in an interview.
While most are training flights, soldiers are also taking advantage of their sensors to observe the battlefield, he said. “So the missions have been dual purpose, and we expect by the second week of November for them to have their fully operational mission start.”
Two other pre-production ERMP UAS–Warrior Alpha and Block 0–have preceeded QRC-1 in theater, aircraft controlled by contractors, and that have been flying successfully. They are not as sophisticated as QRC-1.
The newest UAS in the Army inventory, ERMP first unit equipped is to be in 2011. The UAS responds to commander’s needs for improved capability for long lasting wide-area reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition. 2005. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA ASI) won the ERMP award in 2005 (Defense Daily, Aug. 9, 2005). As part of aviation modernization, ERMP was made possible by reinvesting funds from the terminated RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program–a Boeing [BA] – Sikorsky [UTX] effort.
The ERMP program is working to the faster acquisition model Secretary Robert Gates wants. “You have to have buy-in from leadership to do things quickly, because you take on additional risk when you do that,” Gonzalez said. “QRC-1 and 2 by their very nature are somewhat more risky than waiting and just deploying program of record assets. But, luckily, everyone understands Secretary Gates’ guidance, which is basically to get 75 percent products out to the soldier to let them work with it, rather than wait years until you have 100 percent capability. And that’s exactly what we’ve done with QRC-1 and continue to do with QRC-2.”
The pre-production QRC-1 has many features of the program of record ERMP aircraft, such as the redundant flight controls and back-up systems. It is also what the service calls “weapons capable,” meaning they have the components to add Hellfire missiles at some point.
However, a second version, QRC-2, will be fielded next year with Hellfire missiles.
QRC-1 also has different sensors than the earlier Warrior Alpha ERMP version. The interim Distribution Aperture System-2 (DAS-2) payload, produced by Raytheon [RTN], will be used as the program moves toward a Common Sensor Payload that was initially to be used on the now-terminated ARH helicopter and the ERMP, Gonzalez said.
“We saved a lot of money having a common aircraft sensor between manned and unmanned systems, but we’ve also gotten new requirements to add high definition and better accuracy on our sensors and we did this on a commonality initiative with the Air Force,” he said.
QRC-1 uses the One System Ground Control Station (OSGCS) produced by AAI Corp. [TXT]. OSGCS has increased capability through the Tactical Common Data Link providing increased capability.
“That’s a new data link and it’s what we’re testing for the first time,” Gonzales said. “Because it’s brand new, we’re backing up QRC-1 with what we call a proprietary ground control station from General Atomics. But it is only there as a back-up.”
The project office has been working on Hellfire missile integration and testing and will be at China Lake, Calif., in November and December, firing as many as 16 live shots, he said.
Solders who will deploy with QRC-2 began FAA training in September and have moved on to classroom work. They begin live flights at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz., “on or about” Dec. 7, Gonzalez said. “We’re trying something new with these soldiers. We want to introduce them to the manufacturer and see how the actual equipment is produced, so it becomes their piece of equipment.”
The first week in December, soldiers will go to the GA ASI plant in Poway, Calif., and meet the managers and people who make the aircraft. Army UAS officials will be there, too. “It builds confidence in the system and it becomes more of a team effort,” Gonzalez said. “It’s also good for the people building it to see the soldiers who are going to be using it.”
Live flight training continues through early May, culminating in a Limited User Test from the end of May through mid-June. That will fully qualify the soldiers in the system to be deployed. After that, while soldiers get a break, others finalize the equipment, pack it up and ship it out. Soldiers will link up with it in theater.
“With QRC-1, my soldiers and contractors stayed in theater about two to three months,” Gonzalez said. “Overall, the unit has been pleased with QRC-1 and their progress,” he said. “Their attitude has been to take a…crawl, walk, run approach where you start out slowly and then ramp up to full speed. They’ve done that very nicely.”