This fall, the Army will host the Manned Unmanned Systems Integration Capability (MUSIC) exercise, a showcase for “innovation, integration and ultimately interoperability” that lays the ground work for future capabilities, service officials said.
“It’s the ability to transfer multi-int[elligence] functionality between platforms, whether they be signals intelligence, synthetic aperture radar capability, or whether they be HUMINT-type of information, and being able to fuse that information in a way that we haven’t been able to do,” said Tim Owings, deputy project manager, Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
The future capabilities will include being able to share the information more broadly than before whether it is to the operator, pilot or a soldier, he said yesterday at a Pentagon media roundtable.
The program office UAS has been working on common system interoperability developing a standards-based architecture system for things such as command and control and data packages.
“It allows us all to see the same picture at the same time, which is fundamentally changing the way we’re operating,” he said.
By September, everyone will be on the same version, thus MUSIC provides a forcing function with everyone on the same interoperability profile: software version 2.0 (Defense Daily, April 26).
Owings said, while MUSIC is a showcase primarily for the Army and Marines, today, they can receive imagery from practically any joint provider, but decoding the data, the metadata is not openly exchangeable so far.
“What we are trying to espouse to the entire department [DoD] is this standards-based architecture approach,” he said. “The Navy has largely adopted exactly… what we’re doing. I believe, ultimately, you’re going to see everyone migrate to these type of standards that allow us to exchange information openly and among everyone.”
The architecture allows interfaces to be defined that, in turn, “allows us to cookie cut in new capabilities,” Owings said. It doesn’t matter if it’s a helicopter or an unmanned system or a ground receiving system–an open architecture environment allows the exchange of information at a much more rapid rate.
This architecture has spun off programs such as the Federated Unmanned Synchronization Engine (FUSE). This allows intelligence sources to be synchronized. Other programs are pulling in wide area surveillance systems that then allow the Army to see much broader areas.
MUSIC will be held at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. The system engineer responsible for leading the exercise, Michelle Vigo, from the office of PM UAS, said the idea is to have attendees and visitors understand how the Army has been able to bring the platforms together to disseminate data, and how the capabilities affect operators in the field.
MUSIC will spotlight capabilities including the Universal Ground Control Station. “This is the first time we’re demonstrating our three large platforms being operated off common hardware and software functionality,” Vigo said. The three platforms are the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, the RQ-7B Shadow and MQ-5B Hunter UAVs.
A second capability is the Mini-Universal Ground Control Station that will demonstrate the move toward a common ground station for the small family of UAS systems, such as RQ- 11B Raven and the Puma. It will also demonstrate control of the Triclops payload, where sensor packages are mounted on each wing of a Gray Eagle, in addition to the main sensor payload. The payloads can be operated independently. One Gray Eagle in the air can be looking at three different areas with three different operators, Vigo said.
The One System Remote Video Terminal will demonstrate how it can receive video from unmanned aircraft as well as some manned platforms, she said. The bi-directional capability allows the operator to take control of the payload on the large aircraft, so he can point it where he wants, improving situational awareness.
Col. Shane Openshaw, Army project manager, Apache Attack Helicopter, said for MUSIC the office will take what it’s learned over the past years and build on its successes, demonstrating where the helicopter capabilities will go in Block III. The current prototype level II UAS effort, bringing video to the cockpit, will move to level III UAS controlling the sensor package on the UAS, and then to Level IV, the ability to put waypoint directions into the UAS system to move it to a more favorable position.
MUSIC will have Apache helicopters with Level II UAS capability and one Block III Apache that will demonstrate Level III and Level IV controls.
Lt. Col Kirk McCauley, product director for Armed Scout Fielded Systems, manages the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, which will demonstrate its manned and unmanned teaming system. The system adapts and modifies the system used on Apache.
“We’ll be demonstrating a current capability that is being fielded and will be in theater within the next year,” McCauley said.
Kiowa Warrior is able to communicate not only with manned and unmanned assets but with joint assets such as F-15 aircraft with the Bright Star system.
“Not only do we know TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures) that have been used in the past, but because the system is flexible and provides the ability to communicate between so many different platforms we’re going to see different and new TTPs emerge out of that,” he said.