USSOCOM’s Little Helpers
THE TACTICAL ADVANTAGE THAT AN UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE PUTS OVER THE BATTLEFIELD IS ENORMOUS. THE IMPORTANCE WAS DRIVEN HOME WHEN ISRAEL RECENTLY OPTED TO USE AN AIR-TO-AIR MISSILE FROM AN F-16 TO BRING DOWN A HEZBOLLAH SMALL UAV.
Ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have been the catalyst for the acceleration of several defense technologies, not least unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The disparate human and physical geography of these, and other theaters in which the global war on terror is being conducted, has provided a fertile proving ground for innovation in terms of the hardware used as well as the refinement of tactics, techniques and procedures to better take the war to the enemy.
While I-Gnat, Predators and Global Hawk presaged the beginning of combat for OEF, the shift towards defeating insurgency has led to greater use of hand-launched small UAVs across the services. Pioneering work in this area undertaken by USSOCOM from whom a number of lessons learned have been passed to other users.
Technical Sergeant Christian Begnal flies UAVs as a member of 321st Special Tactics Squadron (STS) assigned to the 352nd Special Operations Group. Based at RAF Mildenhall, U.K., the unit uses the RQ-11A Raven small UAV (SUAV).
With a weight of 4.2 pounds and a flight radius of roughly 6.2 miles, the Raven is the current state-of-the-art in-service SUAV. It quickly became the workhorse for the U.S. military reaching the front line quickly via the intervention of the U.S. Army’s Rapid Fielding Initiative. Over 1,000 have been delivered across DoD with several hundred more ordered. In October 2005 the DoD announced that they were to buy the new Raven B, which will have boosted endurance in a similar size and weight envelope. At least several hundred of the new SUAVs are planned once development is complete.
Begnal has flown the SUAV in both Iraq, but mostly in Afghanistan, and offers insight both into how small UAVs are being used today and the challenges and needs of the future. “It is good for post- and pre-mission reconnaissance,” he summarized, describing the utility of SUAVs. “We send it out to gather the information, bring it back and work up whatever we need to for close air support (CAS). After the CAS mission is complete we send it back up for battle damage assessment. “That’s just one type of mission we can accomplish with it,” he continued, “Just to be able to look over mountains to see what is there before we get there and to see if the bad guys are waiting for us is another vital role.” Convoy escort is also a regular duty, with personnel from the 321st STS attached to both USSOCOM and regular forces.
“It is like having your own gunship—without the armament of course—and we get to sit in the passenger seat. You can send it ahead of the convoy to see if there are any ambushes awaiting you. It is just a great asset.”
Flying the Raven while sitting in a vehicle in convoy “takes a little getting used to,” said Begnal. “When conducting convoy operations, we are in a convoy doing roughly 25 mph. Your head is down and you are looking at a video screen so the situation awareness of what’s around you is somewhat diminished.” Pilots and mission controllers are trained to operate the UAV from vehicles at speed on roads as well as in buffeting from cross-country operations.
While providing a range of roles, the biggest role for UAVs is to support CAS, according to Begnal, “If we cannot see a target, then we cannot determine whether or not it is damaged. With a UAV we can get video and stills to complete the bomb damage assessment report afterwards.”
REPAIR IN THE FIELD
The 321st STS remains a small, lean unit with crew and operators tasked with flying the SUAV as well as in-theater repair and maintenance.
Threats to SUAVs come from both the enemy and the risk inherent in landing outside of prepared landing strips. Begnal commented that to date the threats have lacked sophistication, “I haven’t experienced any electronic interference with it and haven’t been jammed but I have had it shot at.”
The Raven has proven very easy to repair. “If it is just a bullet hole you can slap some tape over it. We go down with a repair kit with replaceable noses and propellers, so if anything does get damaged—as long as it’s not destroyed—then we can repair it in the field.”
Each aircraft comes with a day and night capability. These cameras allow for front or side viewing.
Even in the worst case scenario Begnal has found small UAVs remarkably resilient. “The worst damage [I have] sustained was with the Pointer. Coming in on landing it hit rocks, which drove the nose cone into the body. We just wired back and they sent us a new nose. The camera and other electronics, however, survived; they were absolutely fine.”
The earlier FQM-151 Pointer SUAV also comes from the AeroVironment stable. It is from this vehicle that the company developed the Raven, which is roughly half its predecessor’s size.
URBAN TERRAIN OR MOUNTAIN?
Urban or mountainous terrain, Begnal reports, makes little difference in terms of mission duration. “It is the same type of missions [in Afghanistan or Iraq]. You can deploy [the aircraft] in numerous ways—at a fire base where you are stationary or up a mountain—it does not really matter where you are, just where it is needed. We have been able to go out, pinpoint a building and orbit around it without the bad guys even knowing we are there.”
There are however some considerations, as he explained, “A lot is altitude and temperature dependent. The higher you go, the less endurance you will have because the air is thinner and the propeller is used more, draining the battery faster. The lower you are, the better camera images you get and the less mechanical turbulence from mountain ranges, if that’s what you are flying it through.”
NEXT GENERATION
Initially USSOCOM used the Pointer, later acquiring the Raven. The next step for the 321st STS and other USSOCOM users is the Raven B, which will allow the SUAV to be flown and controlled more easily by a single person. Multiple SUAVs can be flown without interference in the same area and flying multiple SUAVs from the single controller. The original Raven is likely to be progressively relegated to a training role as the new drones arrive, as was the case with the Pointer.
For the future, users like Begnal have their own wish lists based on experience in the field. “The biggest thing I would like to see is beyond line-of-sight control of the SUAV. If you do go over the mountain there is a good chance that you will lose the SUAV—it will not crash because you can set it up so it comes back to your home station, so you won’t lose it for good, you will just lose control of it for that mission. [All] that just becomes part of your planning. Whether that will be fixed down the line with satellite feeds I don’t know, but that is about the biggest limiting factor. [Also] I would love to see better cameras with maybe a zoom capability. I know they are on the table, and it is just a matter of when they are going to be fielded. Right now it is a one-to-one ratio. The lower you go, the more detailed the picture is, the higher you go, the wider view.”
GROWING THE MISSION
The growth is usage, driven by demand for these assets to seeing increasing R&D dollars being funnelled into better meeting the surveillance needs of SUAVs. Given this priority, capabilities will only grow, but not at the expense of easy use, size, weight and vulnerability to critical damage. ♦