As demand increases in the Army for unmanned aircraft, the service continues to weigh whether its future armed-scout helicopter will be manned, unmanned, or involved manned- unmanned teaming, an senior official said last week.
Army Lt. Gen. James Thurman, deputy chief of staff for operations, also told the Association of United States Army Aviation Symposium and Exposition yesterday morning that the service currently is considering adding unmanned aerial systems to the armed-reconnaissance squadron.
“We know that the integration of manned and unmanned aviation–both (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) ISR and maneuver–into a single cohesive combat capability and into the same airspace will be paramount,” Thurman said at the Associated of the United States Army (AUSA) gathering in Arlington, Va.
He said plans are proceeding with modernization efforts underway since the Army canceled the troubled Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter effort two years ago. Those efforts include conducting an analysis of alternatives (AoA) on an armed-scout helicopter that will replace the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior, a legacy helicopter the service is improving so it can be used over the next decade until the new reconnaissance chopper is ready.
“The analysis of alternatives (for the future armed-scout helicopter) will consider manned, unmanned, and manned-unmanned teaming to select the next concept to meet the Army’s requirement for light, armed reconnaissance capability,” Thurman said.
He said the demand for unmanned aircraft systems continues to increase from theater. Over the last decade the Army increased unmanned-aircraft system flight hours flown from 500 in 1999 to over 180,000 in 2009. The Army expects to reach the milestone of 1 million total flight hours for such systems in the coming year, with the vast majority of the hours flown in support of combat operations.
Further, the service increased the number of unmanned aircraft systems from only three in 1999 to over 1,700 in 2009, he said. The Army aviation branch has trained more than 1,800 unmanned operators in 2009, and is forecast to turn over 2,000 in 2010, he added.
“So it’s huge growth,” Thurman said.
Army leadership, he added, is considering whether to restructure four active-component heavy-combat-aviation brigades and one light-combat-aviation brigade to full-spectrum design.
“This decision is being considered along with a decision to restructure the armed reconnaissance squadron to a design featuring three troops of OH-58 Kiowa Warriors and two platoons of Shadow tactical unmanned aerial systems,” he said. “The manned-unmanned teaming concept will serve to provide realtime ISR support within the cab and fully maximize the capabilities of both systems. So it will meet the ground commanders’ needs.”
Also in the drone aircraft realm, Thurman said three production variants of the Extended Range Multipurpose unmanned aircraft system (ERMP) have been deployed into combat in support of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ initiative to surge ISR assets. ERMPs as part of a program of record are scheduled to deliver to a combat aviation brigade in fiscal year 2011, which starts this Oct. 1, he said.
“We continue to pursue acceleration of additional ERMP systems for all our divisional combat aviation brigades,” he said. “I see this as a growth industry.”
In addition, the Army has completed the fielding of 72 Shadow tactical unmanned aircraft systems and will have its entire brigade combat teams fielded by FY ’11, he said.