Tisr 3 3 final

October 2013 Volume 3, Issue 3

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Actionable Intelligence for the Warfighter

Force Protection O UAS Training O Synchronizing ISR OpsFMV Bandwidth ISR in Denied Areas

Intelligence Seeker

Brig. Gen. (Sel.) Michael GroenDirector of IntelligenceMarine Corps


Force Protection iSrSPeciAL Section

Real-time scenes from MetaVR’s visualization system and 3D terrain are unedited except as required for printing. The real-time rendering of the 3D virtual world in all images is generated by MetaVR Virtual Reality Scene Generator™(VRSG™). 3D models and animations are from MetaVR’s 3D content libraries. © 2013 MetaVR, Inc. All rights reserved. MetaVR, Virtual Reality Scene Generator, VRSG, the phrase “Geospecifi c simulation with game quality graphics”, and the MetaVR logo are trademarks of MetaVR, Inc.

With MetaVR visuals used for simulated UAV camera payload video in Kiowa Warrior, F-16, and A-10 FMTs, and UAV camera payload simulations, users can achieve full terrain correlation during their distributed training exercises. UAV operators, helicopter pilots, and JTAC trainees can use the simulated sensor payload imagery in existing ISR assets with accurate KLV metadata.

http://[email protected] 617-739-2667

The new Manned Unmanned Operations Capability Development Laboratory uses MetaVR’s real-time visualization software to simulate Level of Interoperability (LOI) between a simulated helicopter and simulated UAV.

Cover / Q&AFeatures

Brigadier general (Select) Michael groen

Director of IntelligenceMarine Corps

16

Departments Industry Interview2 editor’S PerSPective3 all int/PeoPle14 iSr Kit27 reSource center

W. garth SMithCo-founder and CEOMetaVR

4training the uaS oPerator Advanced simulation training is a cost-effective alternative to live-fire and flight hours for future UAS operators. In the face of steep cuts to DoD’s budget, many in the military and in the industry expect this method of training to increase.By Chris MCCoy

12SPeaKing in tongueSIn this multi-polar world, the need for coalition operations places a premium on the synchronization and standardization of intelligence-gathering procedures and capabilities. NATO, DoD and ISR industry voices discuss recent technological breakthroughs and operations in the field.By Chris MCCoy

20Surveilling deSPite unfriendly SKieSThe Pacific region is home to many of the world’s most sophisticated militaries, and most UAS assets used in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are designed for theaters lacking advanced air defense systems. This has a resulted in a shift in focus for UAS developers.By hank hogan

23tacKling the BandWidth iSSueFull motion video has become an entrenched asset for tactical ISR data collection and dissemination. The ability to track targets over time is lost in still images. The eruption of full motion video intelligence; however, is straining the limits of bandwidth.By Peter BuxBauM

September 2013Volume 3, Issue 3TACTICAL ISR TECHNOLOGY

force ProtectionThe ISR involved in force protection differs from that involved in routine surveillance operations. Big data engines are driving the analysis of ISR streams in the battlespace from the forward operating base to much larger installations.By Hank Hogan

8

28

“The best intelligence capability

and the best operational capabilities in the world are severely

limited if they do not train and

operate as part of a smoothly

integrated whole.”

––Brigadier General (Select) Michael Groen

SPeciAL Section

As of the printing of this issue of Tactical ISR Technology, we are in the midst of a government shutdown. I can only hope that Congress’s lack of prog-ress to put an end to the shutdown is overcome by the time this publication is in circulation.

The shutdown resulted in the furlough of over 800,000 federal employees. This figure included 70 percent of the nation’s intelligence workers, who were deemed “non-essential” employees.

In an October 2 Senate panel hearing with Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper and Director of the NSA General Keith B. Alexander, the scope of the dilemma for the intelligence community was laid bare.

“I’ve never seen anything like this ... This seriously damages our ability to protect the safety and security of this nation and its citizens,” said Clapper. “[The shutdown] is a dreamland for foreign intelligence to recruit, especially as our employees, already subject to furloughs driven by sequestration, will have even greater financial challenges.”

“This has impacted us very hard,” said Alexander. The general explained that the shutdown has led his agency to focus only on the most specific threats against the nation. He also pointed out that the shutdown “has had a huge impact on morale” at the NSA.

Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) questioned Clapper’s presentation of the intelligence community crisis. Grassley’s criticism of Clapper’s presentation centered on the notion of how 70 percent of intelligence commu-nity workers could be legally designated as “non-essential.”

“You either need better lawyers or [you] need to make changes in your workforce,” said Grassley to Clapper.Considering that Clapper’s lawyers are following the letter of the law regarding the shutdown, I thought

Grassley’s comment took a lot of chutzpah.Clapper himself responded that following the law meant retaining only the workers “necessary to protect

against imminent threat to life and property.”Adjusted for inflation, the last government shutdown during the Clinton administration cost an estimated

$2 billion. By allowing these holes in our intelligence community to develop, we risk the loss of something even greater and not as easily quantifiable: our safety.

As usual, feel free to contact me with any questions or comments for Tactical ISR Technology.


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taCtiCal isr tEChnology

Volume 3, Issue 3 • October 2013

Chris McCoyeditor

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$308 Million Contract Modification for Production

of Missiles

Lockheed Martin has received a $308 million contract modification from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command for hardware and services associated with the combat-proven Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment program.

In addition to fiscal year 2013 missile and command launch system production for the U.S. Army, the contract marks the first foreign military sale of the PAC-3 missile to Kuwait. Kuwait is the sixth international customer for the PAC-3 missile.

The contract includes production of 244 hit-to-kill PAC-3 missiles, 72 launcher modification kits and associated tooling, as well as program management. This is the 14th production buy of the PAC-3 Missile Segment by the U.S. government.

“Kuwait’s purchase of PAC-3 Missiles will provide its defense forces with a superior air and missile defense capability,” said Richard McDaniel, vice president of PAC-3 Missile programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “This is another example of the growing global interest for the PAC-3 missile’s capabilities.”

In 2009, Taiwan became the fifth international customer for the PAC-3 missile, joining the Netherlands, Germany, Japan and the United Arab Emirates in fielding the system.

Production will take place at Lockheed Martin’s manufac-turing facilities in Dallas and Lufkin, Texas; Chelmsford, Mass.; Ocala, Fla.; and Camden, Ark. Deliveries will begin in 2014.

Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor on the PAC-3 missile segment upgrade to the Patriot air defense system. The PAC-3 missile segment consists of the PAC-3 missile, a highly agile hit-to-kill interceptor, the PAC-3 missile canisters (each of which hold four PAC-3 missiles, with four canisters per launcher), a fire solution computer, and an enhanced launcher electronics system and launcher support hardware.

New Tethered Unmanned Aerial System Variant

UAV Solutions announced that it has developed a tethered version of its Allerion 25 vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) surveillance unmanned aerial system.

The new tethered system, Allerion 25-T, will be a valuable asset to police and firefighters and border security agents with its range of 250 feet, rapid set-up capability, 12-hour endurance and modular electro-optical/infrared payload.

A tethered intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance UAS platform provides distinct advantages because it allows users to maintain physical control of the UAS, coupled with a direct command and control link via the tether, reducing the requirement for spectrum allocation and enabling secure data dissemination.

The next phase of the ISR variant Allerion 25-T will include the addition of a communications relay, which will make the tethered Allerion ideal for use during natural disasters and events where communications are critical.

The Allerion 25 is a rugged VTOL quad rotor UAS weighing less than 25 pounds, equipped with an electro-optical and thermal imager tilt gimbal dual capability camera. The system has been packaged in a custom enclosure that houses all required compo-nents in the trunk or bed of a vehicle.

Compiled by kMi Media group staffALL INT

Douglas L. Loverro has been appointed to the Senior Executive Service as deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), Washington, D.C. Loverro previously served as executive director for the Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base.

Air Force Major General Michael A. Keltz, director, strategic planning and policy, J-5, Headquarters U.S Pacific Command, Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii, has been assigned as

director, intelligence, operations and nuclear integration, Headquarters Air Education and Training Command, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas.

Air Force Major General Timothy M. Zadalis, director, intelligence, operations and nuclear integration, Headquarters Air Education and Training Command, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, has been assigned as commander, 618th Air and Space Operations

Center (Tanker Airlift Control Center), Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

Navy Rear Admiral (lower half) Elizabeth L. Train, who has been selected for promo-tion to rear admiral, will be assigned as director, National Maritime Intelligence Integration Office /commander, Office of Naval Intelligence, Washington, D.C. Train is currently serving as director for intelligence, J2, Joint Staff, Washington, D.C.

Compiled by kMi Media group staffPEOPLE

www.TISR-kmi.com TISR 3.3 | 3

With the drawdown of UAS assets from Afghanistan and the emerging cuts in flight operations, in theater, it is becoming more important for the military to main-tain crew proficiency through the use of UAS simulators.

“UAS simulators will accurately represent and correctly display all available aircraft, datalink, payloads, weap-ons, automatic takeoff and landing sys-tem, and aircraft subsystems’ responses to failure and emergency conditions,” said Major Voyed Couey, assistant program manager, Shadow Product Office. “Tacti-cal radio communications will be sim-ulated utilizing an appropriate radio simulation that does not limit live radio communications and will also provide a high resolution visual scene for realistic payload operations.”

Couey explained that the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Project Office is moving forward in its preparation to field over 100 UAS simulator systems to the warfighter. The Universal Mission Simulator was a success with the first fielding to Dugway Proving Grounds in support of Shadow initial key personnel training.

“UAS simulator training enables opera-tors’ greater system familiarization while increasing much needed hands-on sol-dier/system experience via simulated crew drills, flight management and communica-tions,” said Couey.

Couey acknowledged that the demands of operating a new, highly complex and dynamic unmanned system in an aus-tere deployed environment are difficult to duplicate in institutional or home sta-tion training. As new UAS units deploy in

support of theater operations, there is a steep learning curve, but recent experience has shown that UAS soldiers are up to the task and it doesn’t take long before they are employing unmanned aircraft with great effectiveness in support of the warfighter.

Virtual reality Scene Generator

One company in the forefront of UAS simulation training is MetaVR. MetaVR’s image generator provides high-fidelity visuals for UAS simulation training. The company’s Virtual Reality Scene Genera-tor (VRSG) can be configured to simulate a UAS in a variety of ways. These range from using VRSG’s internal camera pay-load model, in which the telemetry of the simulated UAV is provided by a distrib-uted interactive simulation (DIS) or high

Training the

How uaS Simulation traininG iS edGinG cloSer to reality.

UAS Operator

By cHriS mccoy, tiSr editor

4 | TISR 3.3 www.TISR-kmi.com

level architecture entity, to fully integrated applications such as the Multiple Unified Simulation Environment/Air Force Syn-thetic Environment for Reconnaissance and Surveillance (MUSE/AFSERS) tacti-cal trainer. The MUSE/AFSERS tactical trainer is used at the UAV training center at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., and other military training sites.

MUSE/AFSERS is also the primary UAS training and simulation system used in DoD for command-level and staff-level joint services training. MetaVR’s VRSG provides MUSE’s visualization component, which generates synthetic payload scene video and/or imagery of the 3-D battlefield with simulated target entities. This video and imagery is subsequently fed to a tacti-cal or generic UAS/intelligence platform control station, where operators perform air vehicle and payload control functions, and an air vehicle and datalink simulation.

Use of VRSG in the MUSE/AFSERS system contributes to making MetaVR one of the largest suppliers of UAS commercial licensed 3-D visualization software for the U.S. military. VRSG is used in simulations for individual, crew and collective train-ing for piloting UASs such as the Shadow, Gray Eagle and Hunter in settings ranging from classrooms (including portable class-rooms) to simulation setups that replicate a full ground control shelter with one-seat, two-seat, or three-seat configurations.

The recently released VRSG version 5.8 delivers a new Scenario Editor applica-tion. This application, which is similar to a game-level editor, allows users to create and edit scenarios to play back in VRSG. Scenario Editor provides a graphical inter-face with tools and content libraries that users can access to build dense 3-D scenes such as airports, forward operating bases and urban areas, with realistic visual char-acteristics of static culture and scripted movements of vehicles and characters. Scenario Editor gives users the tools for building and sharing tactical training VRSG scenarios in DIS networked envi-ronments, ranging from a setting where the instructor and trainees are co-located to training exercises conducted in a dis-tributed networked configuration.

“With Scenario Editor, any user from any background can create massive and complex scenarios. Unlike many com-mercial visualization simulators, with the combination of self-built scenarios and VRSG version 5.8, a user can fly above

an elaborate scene of geo-specific synthetic terrain and clusters of buildings, in a manner that simulates UAVs such as the Shadow,” said Skylar Sanders, former Shadow operator. Sanders is currently attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univer-sity and working at MetaVR as an intern.

The level of detail one can build into a scenario allows the UAV operator trainee to track anything from anti-aircraft guns shooting tracer rounds, to traffic moving on city streets, to chickens strutting about in a henhouse. In Scenario Editor, one can simply click and drag models of objects from MetaVR’s large model libraries into the scenario and then assign them various characteristics and waypoints for a path of travel. For example, by dragging a model of a car into the scenario, a user can then create a path of movement for the car. In this manner, a busy highway can then be constructed through simple copying and pasting of vehicle models and paths. Simulated towns and cities can be created with distinct patterns of life. Coupled with the new physics-based infrared capability in VRSG version 5.8, which can provide

a physically accurate sensor scene derived from a visual-spectrum terrain database, the ability to build scenarios that simulate real-life situ-ations has become simpler.

“Creating scenarios of an IED attack, compound overwatch, and tactical asset entry and exit are just a few of the ways that Scenario Edi-tor can be used to give a UAV payload operator the tools

for realistic training exercises in a simu-lated environment,” Sanders pointed out. “Training with scenarios that push opera-tors to work together as a team can only be accomplished with complex simulations. The level of complexity can be adjusted by the trainer to facilitate any level of ISR necessary.”

Events reported in news media of areas of conflict or disasters can serve as inspira-tion for creating training scenarios.

“Scenario Editor allows payload oper-ators, imagery analysts and others to become active players in the simulation creation, instead of just passive players observing the UAS operator,” said Sanders. “Altogether, a multitude of jobs in the mili-tary and civilian industries can take part in the playing out of each scenario.”

TISR 3.3 | 5 www.TISR-kmi.com

Displayed is a fully configured Predator Mission Aircrew Training System as used by the U.S. Air Force. [Photo courtesy of L-3 Link]

Skylar Sanders

[email protected]

an inteGrated traininG enVironment

AAI, a provider of simulators, reiter-ated Couey’s conception that the primary consideration for UAS simulators is ensur-ing they mimic the real systems as closely as possible. AAI explained that there are a number of factors to take in consideration when designing a realistic simulator for a UAS asset.

“The simulator should consider back-ward compatibility to account for all fielded configurations of the asset,” said David Gwizdalski, senior system engineer, AAI Logistics & Technical Services. “Also, the simulator should offer a level of fidel-ity that matches key characteristics of the actual equipment. With these factors in place, the simulated environment can actually be richer than what is possible within the confines of live training exer-cises with airspace and other limitations.”

It is also important for a future UAS operator to get a sense of the environ-ment where they could be deployed from a training simulator.

“Simulators can help develop key skills in trainees before they are faced with the unique pressures of the deployed envi-ronment,” said Gwizdalski. “One impor-tant skill is detail orientation. The best operators follow established procedures thoroughly and without deviation to mini-mize risk. We take them through these checklists during training to encourage this behavior.”

AAI’s Shadow Crew Trainer can train up to five students simultaneously in an integrated mode including both operator and maintainer trainees. The simulator allows complete recording of the mission for after-action review. Simple graphical user interfaces mimic the actual equip-ment and allow instructors to inject a variety of faults into the exercises easily.

“The Shadow Crew Trainer uses pri-marily commercial off-the-shelf [COTS] hardware, which makes maintenance easier and more affordable for the cus-tomer,” said Gwizdalski. “The trainer is also implemented in a fully enclosed mobile classroom configuration. This is more affordable to construct and maintain, but also helps the customer provide train-ing capability when and where it’s needed.”

AAI’s Aerosonde trainer also provides air vehicle operator and mission payload oper-ator training in a classroom environment.

It is a core element of the Aerosonde train-ing curriculum utilized at the Fort Pick-ett schoolhouse, where AAI trains its own Aerosonde system operators.

“Like the Shadow Crew Trainer, the Aerosonde sim-ulator leverages COTS com-ponents and software for maintainability and afford-ability, and incorporates an easy-to-use graphical user interface for the benefit of both students and instruc-tors,” said Gary Townsend, senior manager software engineering, AAI Unmanned Aircraft Sys-tems. “Most importantly, our Aerosonde trainer is highly scalable. It can accommo-date up to 24 total operator trainees, and can grow from there as necessary.”

The Aerosonde trainer is utilized pri-marily within the Fort Pickett school-house. However, as the aircraft system itself grows in use, AAI is bolstering the capabilities of the trainer and notices great interest in it by potential domestic and foreign customers.

“For the Aerosonde trainer, we are add-ing new capabilities to the system reflect-ing the integration of various new payloads to the Aerosonde aircraft—for example, communications relay and automatic iden-tification system,” said Townsend. “In addi-tion, we are investigating ways to inject environmental conditions such as wind gusts and precipitation that could add to the realism of the simulation and types of emergencies which the operators would be required to manage.”

Gwizdalski explained that the Shadow Crew Trainer customer is the Army National Guard. AAI is executing a software upgrade currently on the National Guard systems, with 20 of 28 sets of modifications completed. “We also have been operating a Shadow Crew Trainer help desk for four years,” said Gwizdalski. “We’re working with our customer to ascertain how the larger Army can leverage the Shadow Crew Trainer as well.”

emBedded Simulation SolutionS

AEgis produces the Vampire family of small UAS simulations that are embedded on the ground control stations for the Raven, Wasp and Puma UAS manufactured by AeroVironment Inc.

“Vampire provides the ability for small UAS operators to train anywhere, anytime

using their actual tacti-cal equipment,” said Del Beilstein, vice president of business development, Tech-nology Solutions. “Vampire is integrated with the Fal-conView mission planning software used by small UAS operators and provides a real-istic and compelling virtual environment for training that includes geospecific terrain, moving 3-D models, simu-lated weather, atmospheric

and time of day effects, along with a host of complex tactical scenarios. There are more than 3,500 Vampire licenses fielded across the U.S., DoD and worldwide.”

One unique feature of Vampire is that it is 100 percent embedded on the fielded hardware for the Raven, Wasp and Puma UASs, so there’s nothing else to take to the field for training. If conditions do not allow live flight, operators can still train effectively in Vampire’s virtual training environment.

AEgis has fielded more than 3,500 Vampire systems across the U.S. Army and Army National Guard, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, and other U.S. government agencies. They also recently developed a classroom training version called Vampire-ITS (V-ITS). Currently being fielded across the Army in support of the Small UAS Master Trainer program, V-ITS allows a single master trainer to manage initial qualification training for up to 10 small UAS teams simultaneously.

FlyinG witH a SaFety Pilot

Northrop Grumman uses multiple training tools to educate and enhance UAS operator skill sets. One of the com-pany’s more recent offerings is SandShark, which is an introductory UAS training system as well as a proficiency trainer for manual takeoff and landing UASs such as the Predator or Reaper. The SandShark Remotely Piloted Aircraft Training System is designed to emulate larger unmanned aircraft with a scaled model that is signifi-cantly lower in price and operating costs.

“Simulators don’t do a very good job of replicating flight in ‘ground effect,’ but because SandShark is an actual aircraft, it experiences the same phenomenon as

Del Beilstein

[email protected]

www.TISR-kmi.com6 | TISR 3.3

larger platforms. It can also be operated through the Internet and 4G cellular network remotely,” said Karl Purdy, cap-ture manager for new unmanned aerial systems, Northrop Grumman Technical Services. “We have flown an aircraft in Montana from as far away as Orlando, Fla., real-time with line-of-sight latency. That gives the customer additional flexibility because the SandShark doesn’t interfere with other Predator or Reaper training. The students can simply dial up one of the SandShark airfields, request some time to fly, and they’re off.”

The time to launch SandShark is five minutes compared to 60 to 90 minutes for operational aircraft. What’s unique is that it has a safety pilot who is co-located with the aircraft and can take control at any time if they feel there are unsafe conditions due to student error, loss of communica-tion or anything else.

“We’ve logged over 4,000 landings conducting remote operations without a single loss,” said Purdy.

imProVinG aircrew Human FactorS SkillS

For over 20 years, Crew Training International (CTI) has developed advanced training solutions for DoD, government and corporate training programs. The company develops course-ware and instructor train-ing for unmanned aircraft systems at the United States Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

“We use innovative learning technologies and current adult learning principles to develop cus-tomized training for each of our contracts,” said Mat-thew Black, vice president of business development. “This training is customized for each contract, specifically, the crews, their aircraft and any current training defi-ciencies or desired areas for improvement. CTI has the ability to discreetly work with each customer to research their exact training requirements and develop a customized program to meet their needs.”

The primary method of CTI’s train-ing is classroom facilitation with extensive hands-on individual and team exercises, instructor-led discussions, immersive sce-nario and role-playing exercises, in addition to case study recreations and review. CTI’s contract with the Air Force’s Combat Air Forces Crew Resource Management pro-gram focuses on improving aircrew human factors skills to ensure that missions are accomplished safely and effectively. CTI develops and facilitates classes taken by over 7,000 U.S. Air Force crewmembers and students annually. CTI’s training extends well into the manned aircraft arena.

“On our RCOCWC-135&E-4B contract, we provide CAT training device instruction, instructional delivery of training materi-als, and develop courseware and instructor training for the tactical missions of the RC/OC/WC-135 flight deck/mission crews and E-4B mission crews at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb,” said Black.

HiGH-Fidelity immerSiVe Simulation

In June of this year, L-3 Link Simu-lation & Training won the re-compete for the Preda-tor Mission Aircrew Training System (PMATS). L-3 Link has had this U.S. Air Force program, which trains both MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper crews, since its incep-tion in 2005.

“Under the initial con-tract we delivered 26 PMATS,” said Jeff Schram, director of business devel-opment for L-3 Link Sim-ulation & Training. “The fielding of these devices and the subsequent training they have provided helped to validate the value that high-fidelity, immersive sim-ulation can bring to crews preparing for operational missions. In fact, you could say that PMATS has proven the value of simulation-based training for the unmanned

community just as Link Blue Boxes did for aircrews during World War II.”

Each of the 26 PMATS units uses an actual ground control station that is inte-grated with L-3 Link’s simulation software

and visual system databases to create a high-fidelity environment that simulates aircraft performance, weapons, sensors, communications, data link operations, emergencies, degraded video feeds and environmental conditions. When train-ing in PMATS, Predator and Reaper crews can undergo initial qualification, mission qualification, continuation and mission rehearsal training.

“Under the recently awarded re-com-pete contract, we are continuing to provide ongoing contractor logistics support and are operating the Training System Support Center for all 26 PMATS devices, which are located at Air Force installations through-out the continental U.S.,” said Schram. “The Air Force has contract options for L-3 Link to build over 50 additional PMATS devices. We also are responsible for follow-on concurrency between PMATS devices and the Predator and Reaper platforms through 2019.”

Schram explained that L-3 Link’s focus is to develop high-fidelity, complex mission simulations that increase crews’ mission readiness enabling their customers to use simulation for a majority of their overall training regimen. On PMATS, they have made simulation technology investments that are enabling the Air Force to achieve over 50 percent of its Predator and Reaper training through use of these devices.

“We will continue to work closely with our Air Force customer and make the technology leaps forward to support the service’s goal to achieve 100 percent of its UAS crew training through simula-tion,” said Schram. “We’re also bringing the same level of innovation to U.S. Army Shadow crew training. The Army needed a capability to train unmanned Shadows working with manned OH-58D Kiowa War-rior helicopters. Our Blue Box enhanced training system in SimuScout is currently training Army crews in Manned/Unmanned Teaming events.”

Altogether, although flight hours will decrease for today’s UAS operators, through an examination of some main companies involved in UAS training, it is apparent that the military will still have options for train-ing through simulation as the drawdown from the war in Afghanistan continues. O

For more information, contact TISR Editor Chris McCoy at [email protected] or search our online

archives for related stories at www.tisr-kmi.com.

Jeff Schram

[email protected]

Matthew Black

[email protected]


By Hank HoGan, tiSr correSPondent

Protecting bases large and small in a warzone comes down to sensing and making sense. The former is getting better, thanks to high-definition video, improved thermal imaging, better radar, the incorporation of all sensors into tactical data networks and other advances. As for the latter, understanding what sensors detect has long been more of a challenge. However, here too progress is being made with the advent of analysis driven by big data engines.

Force protection requires more of both, said retired U.S. Army Major General John Custer. In part, that’s because it requires a different focus of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technology.

“That’s a different side to ISR, which we’ve traditionally looked at as being offensive. Protecting our own forces, either in contact

or a defensive position in an FOB [forward operating base], that requires more analysis. It requires more collection. It requires more platforms,” Custer said.

A former director of intelligence (J2) at U.S. Central Command, Custer is now director of federal strategic missions and programs for EMC Corp. The Hopkinton, Mass.-based data storage and products company is now a player in in big data analytics, having acquired previously independent solutions supplier Greenplum in 2010.

Communications technology is another central component of force protection. Headquartered in New York City since 2007, Persistent Systems LLC

is a global communications technology company which develops, manufactures and integrates a patented and secure mobile ad hoc networking system: Wave Relay. Wave Relay is capable of running

John Custer

witH tecHnoloGy, Force Protection adVanceS.

SPeciAL Section


data, video, voice and other applications under difficult and unpredict-able conditions. The company’s suite of products is field proven and utilized in commercial, military, government, industrial, agricultural, mining, oil and gas, robotics, and unmanned systems markets.

“What makes us unique is our peer-to-peer networking, ability to do high-throughput multicast for real-time traffic. Our Quad Radio Router and dual radio gives us frequency diversity and more system capacity due to the multiple radios,” said Adrien Robenhymer, vice president of business development and marketing at Persistent Sys-tems. “Also, that we don’t have a hop count limit. There is no maxi-mum number of nodes in the network. We can over the air configure the entire network as well as change the key.”

Wave Relay allows forces to enhance situational awareness and force protection by integrating video, voice, data, sensors and devices into a common environment. The system seamlessly connects opera-tors, vehicles, aircraft and unmanned systems for real-time, high-band-width communication. It allows for legacy systems and non-networked systems to be brought in and distributed amongst the users enabling faster actions and decisions at every phase of an operation.

Following the collection of data, analysis, both human and automated, faces some hurdles when it comes to force protection, Custer noted. For example, consider the ques-tion of how to bring together video from an unmanned aerial vehicle aloft today with intelligence such as inter-views of village elders conducted in the past. The bigger picture formed from these two pieces of information has to be presented in a way that any group in theater can make use of. This means that any analysis has to not only be complete and under-standable but also must take place in near-real time.

Analytic advances like the use of Hadoop and Map Reduce tech-nologies are just beginning to have an impact on this problem. These efforts will be helped by the deploy-ment of platforms carrying a bevy of sensors in an unmanned or remotely manned architecture. These develop-ments complement ongoing sensor system improvements.

An example of these trends on the smallest scale comes from Colorado-based Millennium Sensor. Because of how the company’s products are used, analytics are not automated and instead are left up to the operator, said CEO Mike Roberts.

Millennium Sensor targets its devices at squad size or slightly larger forces engaged in tactical operations. Consequently, the com-pany has made sure its products offer the ability to quickly set up, run and take down a perimeter for access denial in an austere environment.

Many of the company’s products are used to protect FOBs or by warfighters as they move through an area on a mission, Roberts said. “They can throw these things out for a couple hours while they rest and then collect them and be gone.”

Although the intended use is by tactical teams operating on their own, Millennium Sen-sor’s products now incorporate the ability to talk to satellites and otherwise link into a larger network. They also offer longer transmission and sensor ranges, now covering several kilometers. A final recent improvement has involved extending the time the system can run on a charge. Weeks are now possible, while before the duration had been measured in days.

Going forward, smaller teams are being asked to do more while simultaneously reducing equipment size and weight, Rob-erts predicted. Satisfying that need may well require getting more performance from exist-ing, tactical sensor networks and interoperability with larger systems, something Millennium Sensor continually works toward.

Protecting slightly larger forces is being handled using various approaches. One comes from SpotterRF, an Orem, Utah-based com-pany that makes compact surveillance radar systems for perimeter security and force protection. In 2012, the company released a back-pack radar kit. Taking only three minutes to set up and weighing less than 20 pounds, it consists of two M600C radars, a network hub, tablet, battery, tripod and cables. It provides wide-area intrusion detection of more than 150 acres and 90 degrees per radar unit regardless of weather conditions or visibility.

The company’s radars weigh only a few pounds and are very stingy with power, consuming less than 10 watts, said CEO Logan Harris. Thus, a standard BA-5590 military battery can power a sensor for 24 hours.

The radar has a built-in web server and acts like any other IP device sitting on a network. Like other motion tracking radars, it detects movement. Avoiding false alarms due to the swaying of trees in the wind or waves on water is possible thanks to work done by SpotterRF.

Mike Roberts

Logan Harris

[email protected]

Top: An infrared panoramic image taken by Spynel. [Photo courtesy of HGH Infrared Systems]

Above: The Spynel is a passive camera for infrared panoramic vision. [Photo courtesy of HGH Infrared Systems]


“We spent a lot of time building these algorithms that filter out signatures that aren’t of interest, particularly wind-blown clutter,” Harris said.

HGH Infrared Systems of Cambridge, Mass., exploits another part of the spectrum for its force protection solution. Operating in the thermal infrared band from 3-5 and 8-12 microns wavelength, the company’s Spynel offers panoramic thermal imaging and threat detection, said Josh Howlett, sales manager for North America.

Constantly scanning the perime-ter once a second, it can detect people out to a distance of up to 6 kilome-ters and vehicles at about twice that range. For instances where higher resolution is needed, such as identi-fication of smaller objects beyond a kilometer, direct slew to cue control of external visible and thermal cam-eras is possible.

It doesn’t react to the move-ment of a flag flapping in the breeze, thanks to adjustable algorithms built into the system, Howlett said. “It looks for heat signature movement and then it confirms that movement over what we tell it. Conventionally, it’s done over three confirmed and consistent movements.”

The ability to suppress false posi-tives can be further enhanced through the use of detection zones. Thus, certain high-traffic areas can be ignored, or areas can be excluded based on the time of day or the day of the week.

For force protection, the system can also be tied into other sensors, such as acoustic devices used for gun-shot detection. This data fusion helps confirm, identify and classify threats, Howlett said.

Fairfax, Va.-based Logos Technolo-gies offers force protection via persis-tent surveillance platforms, such as its Kestrel. This 150-pound package hangs from an aerostat perched a few thousand feet above the ground. It provides sensor data over a mod-erate city-sized area. This region will be surveyed at an intermediate resolution, with only those items and zones of interest being zoomed into for examination via higher resolution full motion video.

An important capability multiplier in the system is the intelligent use of sensor data. For instance, the system can detect movement by looking at changes from frame to frame. But it can also discriminate between movement indicative of a threat and the more innocent vari-ety, said Execitive Vice President John Marion.

“We may require a number of hits in a row before you call it a proper detection. There are other criteria you can add. For instance,

for vehicles you may want them to be above a certain velocity,” he said.

There are 10 or so differ-ent parameters that are tuned to optimize performance, Marion added. In addition to speed and direction, they can include such things as adjustments to account for the background of a scene.

Processing of the data is done on the ground, with the infor-mation traveling down from the aerostat over fiber-optic cables. Consequently, the computing power that can be brought to bear on the problem of interpret-

ing the data is not limited to what can fit within the size,

weight and power constraints of the aircraft. Partly as a result, the analysis can be done in near real time.

An important point is that the image jitter due to movement of the aircraft has to be eliminated. Logos Technologies accomplishes this by building up a 3-D model of the field of view, Marion said.

A company that tackles the little and big force protection picture is SRI International of Menlo Park, Calif. On the small scale the company offers its VerifIR standoff threat detection system. It can be used to pick out hidden explosives carried on someone’s body, doing so by merging the image from a visible camera with one from an infrared camera in a way that eliminates what would otherwise be a source of distortion in the fused image.

“We’ve co-aligned the optical paths of those two cameras so there’s no parallax when you fuse those images,” said Mark Clifton, vice presi-dent of the SRI International products and services division.

The system works because an object concealed beneath clothing won’t be at the same temperature as a person’s body. Hence, it will show up in an IR scan. When overlaid on top of a visible image, this allows trained operators to spot hidden explosives, guns and other threats at distances of up to 60 yards.

The technique is not foolproof, but it can serve as part of a layered force protection setup. Those entering a compound or building, for instance, might have to pass through a metal detector, a millimeter wave backscatter device and a VerifIR camera.

Mark Clifton

John Marion

[email protected]

SPeciAL Section

Josh Howlett

[email protected]

Top: A compact surveillance radar system backpack radar kit deployed in the mountains. [Photo courtesy of SpotterRF]

Above: The Mobile Surveillance Capability is an integrated sensor system. [Photo courtesy of FLIR]


Another SRI product offers quick authentication via an iris scan. When coupled with a device that reveals hid-den threats, this might significantly reduce the possibility of hostiles infil-trating a base.

On the big scale, there’s Terra-Sight. This video exploitation soft-ware from SRI helps manage all of the sensors in a common operat-ing environment. The combination of sensors can provide information no single system can match, and a unified approach like this will likely be the answer to future needs, Clifton said.

Combining and integrating sensors with other data can be likened to being in a doctor’s office for a diagnosis, said Dave Cullin, chief technology officer of FLIR Systems of Wilsonville, Ore. No one result may be conclusive, but the sum total could be.

An example is gunshot detection. The information that a shot has been fired and pinpointing of its origin can be combined with the known location of troops. This can be used to determine if the shot was from friendly or hostile forces. That information, in turn, can help decide what actions to take to enhance force protection.

A particularly tough problem that might benefit from this com-bined approach involves chemical and biological agents. Determining the exact nature of these threats often entails wet chemistry, a process that can take 45 minutes or more to run to completion. Research is underway to develop methods that are faster and more sensitive.

With integration and automation, though, it might be possible to use radars, a visible or an IR camera to detect a plume. This would then be investigated by appropriate stand-off chemical or biological sensors. While waiting for these wet chemistry results to come back, measures could be taken to protect troops or civilians, such as adjust-ing the air conditioning system of a building or giving the command to shelter in place.

In the future, using various bands in the long-, mid- and short-wave IR, along with other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and other sensors, might allow better detection of chemical and biologi-cal threats. That could then be automated and integrated. Speaking of this conceptual approach, Cullin said, “It’s a distributed tricorder in some ways, with disparate data from distributed sensors brought together within the command-and-control function.” O

David Cullin

[email protected]

For more information, contact TISR Editor Chris McCoy at [email protected] or search our online archives for related stories at

www.tisr-kmi.com.


Synchronizing ISR operations is always an important chal-lenge in a battlespace consisting of coalition forces. With the NATO mission in Afghanistan winding down, new troubles are surfacing in the Sinai and other parts of North Africa. Meanwhile, Syria serves as another flashpoint. Standardized and shared sys-tems would play a major role in synchronizing the ISR operations of coalition forces during a military strike in any of these regions.

“Joint ISR is quite an important topic in our division. We determine operational requirements, and seek solutions through research, concept development and experimentation, -as well as a number of initiatives with nations in the field of joint ISR,” said Major General Mels de Zeeuw, assistant chief of staff for Command and Control Deployment and Sustainability, at NATO’s Allied Command Transformation. “The challenges we face as an alliance nearly always involve interoperability … how to get people to use the same language, definitions, and procedure and by that seeking opportunities to work together.”

A DoD spokesperson, who chose to remain anonymous, offered the following information: “Specific to our NATO allies, in a strategic effort to synchronize and integrate ISR operations, the United States is working through the Joint ISR Ini-tiative as agreed within the Defense package at the NATO Chicago Summit.” The DoD spokesperson continued, “Efforts are ongoing to put capabilities in place within NATO by the beginning of 2016 to enable support to future NATO operations such as Operation Unified Protector with (at a minimum) imagery, full-motion video and synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator.”

In order to enhance ISR synchronization, DoD is utiliz-ing the skills of government, academia and industry. The DoD spokesperson explained this leveraging of talent and elaborated on the use of “commercially derived technologies to develop a cloud-based infrastructure with enhanced apps.” The spokes-person said that the purpose of this would be to “create an environment which allows for access to a greater volume of usable ISR-related information available to a dynamic environment of U.S. military, agencies and our coalition partners for better com-bined joint operations.”

Concerning recent NATO operations, de Zeeuw added, “Afghan-istan certainly focused our efforts on synchronizing information, capabilities and operations in the last couple of years.” The DoD spokesperson answered in a similar vein. “Operations in Afghani-stan and elsewhere have demonstrated operationally effective ISR

cooperation among many allied partners.” The DoD spokesperson further elaborated that this cooperation took many forms, saying that these forms included “material and/or analytical contribu-tions from a number of contributing partners that improved efforts to engage the adversary and advance coalition goals.”

One example of a dynamic environment for combined joint operations is the NATO Standard for ISR Library Interface. “That interface was initially designed just for an imagery library, but it’s been expanded in the past few years for other intelligence products,” said John Neumayer, deputy branch head for JISR Branch, NATO Allied Command Transformation. “If nations use this agreed on standard, they’ll be interoperable as they store, retrieve and use raw data, finished products and planning products associated with ISR. This is just one of a family of JISR standards

that is managed by a group called the Joint Capabil-ity Group for ISR under the Committee of National Armament Directors.”

The idea of having standardized and shared sys-tems plays a critical role in guiding industry efforts in synchronized ISR capabilities as well. Com-mon or open architecture ISR platforms, adaptable modular systems and combined workflow systems are standard industry methods used to facilitate the synchronization of ISR capabilities. Esri, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman had much to say concerning their own technological efforts in

the field of synchronized ISR operations. “Today’s ISR capabilities must support real-time operations

using data that can be easily shared,” said Eric Westreich, defense command and control industry manager at Esri. “This rapid response requires us to focus not only on the data coming into an organization but on how to turn the data into answers.

“Defense and intelligence organizations often have difficulty communicating different workflows to each other, so it is chal-lenging to understand and make use of each organization’s avail-able capabilities.”

When asked how to overcome difficulty communicating different workflows between organizations, Westreich echoed an earlier statement by Neumayer. “Organizations can publish their workflows and share them with other groups so they can use each other’s capabilities while maintaining a common view of the battlespace.” Esri provides this common view of the bat-tlespace through a platform known as ArcGIS. ArcGIS applies geographical knowledge in order to design and manage solutions on the battlefield.

Maj. Gen.Mels de Zeeuw

SyncHronizinG iSr oPerationS By cHriStoPHer mccoy, tiSr editor


“Analysts use ArcGIS to gain detailed insight into patterns and trends, and for producing intel-ligence and geospatial products,” said Westreich. Moreover, the ArcGIS system for Mobile allows servicemembers on the ground to access intelli-gence on a wide array of mobile devices. Westreich explained, “ArcGIS for Server is used to orga-nize process, manage and share large volumes of imagery and LiDAR [while] ArcGIS Online is Esri’s cloud-based solution.”

The ArcGIS platform is built on a common informational model known as a geodatabase. This geodatabase is what makes ArcGIS unique. “The geodatabase is the central data repository for stor-ing and managing spatial data. All ArcGIS technol-ogy leverages the geodatabase, which contains the schema for various geospatial datasets such as road networks, elevation data and satellite imagery,” Westreich explained.

NATO’s Core Geographic Service is one such example of ArcGIS interoperability at work. West-reich said that the system “is used to produce maps, map services and image services, conduct geospatial analyses, and provide other geospatial data through-out the NATO Commands.”

Lockheed Martin is another major player in the field of ISR synchronization. In order to confront the challenges involved in ISR synchronization, Jim Quinn, vice president of C4ISR Systems at Lockheed Martin, said, “Lockheed Martin applies open stan-dards and COTS wherever feasible to our systems so, that they are flexible and enhance our ability to introduce new capability spirals as they are modern-ized or enhanced. As important, is architecting the open standards based data architecture and data distribution framework, so that actionable ISR data is made available to warfighting applications that support the speed and effectiveness of command and control.”

When asked what makes Lockheed Martin’s technologies unique, Quinn answered, “Lockheed Martin is focused on developing systems that are flexible and built for change. By that I mean we base our systems’ architectures on open-source commercial standards rather than using proprietary technologies that hinder interoperability.

“Modular architectures ease the customization of mission capability across echelons and deployments, facilitate rapid introduction of new capabilities and use common architectural elements to save in development and fielding costs.”

In further deference to the theme of standardization were the words of Trip Carter, business development director for ISR systems Northrop Grumman Information Systems. “Standard interface and protocols between ISR systems/subsystems is impor-tant. Having a robust mission management construct that closes the loop between tasking the sensors and collection, and then processes, exploits and disseminates the data into actionable intel-ligence is also key.”

Carter explained that Northrop Grumman pro-vides “highly capable sensor systems that have the ability to multitask with many different func-tions, enabling sensors to integrate more easily and effectively with other ISR systems.” Carter then emphasized Northrop Grumman’s work in combin-ing workflow operations. “We have processing and exploitation tools that allow ISR missions to be performed collaboratively between different sensors and the data from those missions to be fused seam-lessly into intelligence products. The processing horsepower, precision geolocation capability and flexibility of Northrop Grumman’s sensor systems to adapt to new threats enables them to serve as a ISR force multiplier for other sensors and forms of intelligence.”

Boeing is another leading firm in the synchroni-zation of ISR operations. Joe Carlin, vice president of Electronic & Sensor Solutions, within Boeing’s Electronic and Information Solutions Division, had much to say on the subject. “Open architectures, common interface approaches and effectively com-mon hardware is where industry is going and clearly where Boeing is going.” He then explained that spe-cific solutions are best served by software capabili-ties residing on common hardware. “Anything that can be done in software you want to do in software.”

Discussing Boeing’s work with open architec-ture platforms, Carlin said, “Common architectures are things you need to plan for from the beginning; you really have to start with an architecture that is opened and expands.” Offering greater perspective, he added the following: “I’m a believer that most of the cases where somebody has taken a system and said ‘I’m now going to make it open,’ it’s been a problem and it doesn’t really get open. [You must] start from scratch or really fundamentally design around those open techniques.”

A specific example of Boeing’s work with open architecture is its Lighthouse architecture. “The Lighthouse architecture is an architecture that is on maritime platforms, across various types of those platforms, and really does afford those capabilities of really being software-specific solutions integrated on a common hardware that focuses on networking and network-enabled operability,” explained Carlin.

Ultimately, as the domain of synchronized ISR operations increases in relevance, the strategy of having standardized and shared systems remains

the same. Solutions put forward by industry leaders address many of the problems encountered by today’s coalition ISR operations. New open architecture platforms, adaptable modular systems and combined ISR workflows serve coalition forces in their ISR opera-tions throughout the battlespace. O

Eric Westreich

[email protected]

Jim Quinn

Trip Carter

Joe Carlin



www.tisr-kmi.com.

Specialize Software for

Unmanned SystemsProxy Technologies Inc. unveiled its

PROTEUS (PROxy TEchnologies Unmanned Software) during AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems 2013 show. The PROTEUS software, part of its Universal Distributed Management System, provides the ability to command, control and manage multiple cooperating heteroge-neous vehicles from a single ground control station. Importantly, the PROTEUS solution has the capability to operate within multiple domains and can be adapted to air, land and sea platforms.

Using the company’s SkyRaider Optionally Piloted Vehicle as its flight test platform, Proxy has been testing and implementing its Proxy Autonomous Control Systems (PACS) product enabling a pilot to instantaneously operate the aircraft autonomously.

“Proxy is poised to offer companies a number of leading software and hardware solutions that will provide cooperative control of autonomous vehicles,” said Bob Davis, chief executive officer and president of Proxy Technologies Inc. “We are interested in partnering with large aerospace firms and aircraft leasing companies to begin converting their existing fleets of commercial aircraft to optionally piloted vehicles using our PACS product. Proxy has converted four aircraft to date using the PACS product,” added Davis.

ISR KIT

Small, 4-Axis Stabilized, High-Definition EO Imaging System for Unstable, Moving Platforms

HoodTech Vision, manufacturer of low size, weight and power stabilized imaging systems for small manned and unmanned systems, introduced a new, high-definition (HD), four-axis stabilized EO imager designed for use on unstable, moving platforms. The system delivers 720p image quality at 30Hz frame rate. It can be housed behind an optical dome on a system weighing approximately 800 grams. This small stabilized system is ideal for high-resolution, high-magnification, daylight imaging applications.

HoodTech Vision’s new stabilized system features 30X optical zoom, with a standard defi-nition 640-by-480 image delivering a 0.6 degree horizontal field of view. It is paired with a dual AVS processing system that provides on-gimbal target tracking, motion de-jitter, image rota-tion, image enhancement and H.264 IP-video encoding. For added flexibility, the system is mechanically configurable for multiple platform requirements.

The new HD EO system is a follow-on to HoodTech’s recently introduced Alticam

09EO1 imaging technology that integrates an HD sensor (on the telescope) with a spotting capability down to 0.6 degrees horizontal field of view on a 1280-by-720 pixel format global-shutter EO imager. The new payload is designed for general purpose imaging in all application areas where high zoom factor is coupled with an unstable mounting. Applications include manned-aircraft airborne mapping and surveillance, imaging from unstable masts and towers and imaging from small, commer-cial, remotely piloted aircraft.

Trimble introduced the Ashtech MB-One Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) module. The MB-One delivers highly accurate GNSS-based heading plus pitch or roll in an advanced industry standard form-factor for system inte-grators. Its embedded Z-Blade GNSS technology uses all available GNSS signals equally, without any constella-tion preference, to deliver fast and stable solutions. The MB-One is an ideal solu-tion for adding precise positioning and heading in a wide variety of applications such as unmanned, agriculture, marine and military systems.

“System integrators demand high performance, reliability and support for their positioning solutions,” said Olivier Casabianca, business development manager for the Trimble’s GNSS OEM products. “The MB-One is designed for easy integration and rugged dependability. Users can leverage the module’s Ethernet capability and easy-to-use web browser interface to quickly and cost-effectively develop their products and solutions.”

The MB-One features an enhanced dual-core GNSS engine with 240 channels capable of tracking a large range of GNSS systems including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou. It utilizes over-the-air satellite corrections using L-Band hardware to achieve decimeter-level accuracy. The module is capable of receiving and decoding precise point positioning to output a highly accurate position solu-tion that removes the need for a local base station.

The Ashtech MB-One module will be available through the Trimble GNSS OEM interna-tional network of representatives and authorized dealers. Evaluation units will be available in the fourth quarter of 2013 and production units are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2014.

Next-generation High-Performance High-Accuracy GNSS Module for System

Integrators


Compiled by kMi Media group staff

Lord Corporation MicroStrain Sensing Systems––a developer of embedded sensing systems for aerospace and industrial markets—has intro-duced its new tactical-grade GPS-Aided Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS): 3DM-RQ-45.

The 3DM-RQ1-45 provides cost-effective ruggedized airborne navigation with 5 degrees/hour gyro bias stability. Additionally, the innovative MEMS archi-tecture achieves tactical-grade performance with the smallest and lightest package in its class.

The new 3DM-RQ1-45 GPS/INS is built on the MIP protocol, Lord MicroStrain’s standard inertial data architecture. With MIP, users access a robust communication standard that ensures efficient long-term devel-opment, maximum versatility and full forward compatibility.

“The 3DM-RQ1-45’s unique combina-tion of performance, size and affordability makes it ideal for primary and/or secondary navigation systems, platform stabiliza-tion, antenna pointing or unmanned systems,” said Michael Robinson, manager, Sensing Systems Sales for Lord MicroStrain. “High-performance MEMS combined with rigorous calibration and sophisticated onboard estimation filtering allows Lord MicroStrain to offer tactical capabilities to

markets that demand precision, but are sensitive to additional weight and integration costs. The new 3DM-RQ1-45 achieves airborne ruggedness in a miniature package that is 23 millimeters tall and weighs only 205 grams. We look forward to working with customers to implement this flexible sensing solution at leading edge of unmanned applications.”

Kimberly Kayler; [email protected]

UTC Aerospace Systems announced the release of the Cloud Cap Technology Piccolo Nano autopilot, the smallest addition to the industry standard Cloud Cap Technology Piccolo family of flight management systems. The Piccolo Nano is designed to meet the requirements of the smallest UAV in both size and price with all the capa-bilities and features needed by the most sophisticated UAVs. UTC Aerospace Systems is a unit of United Technologies Corp.

The Piccolo Nano is a new fully compatible member of the Piccolo auto-pilot family in both software and feature capability. The Piccolo Nano provides a small, lightweight, flexible architecture to support the myriad of designs in small hand-launched or uniquely configured UAVs. This unenclosed, distributable auto-pilot system provides maximum instal-lation flexibility to the system integrator and is a perfect fit in small UAVs where the vehicle structure provides the enclo-sure and the autopilot components need to be distributed within the airframe’s available space.

The Piccolo Nano will be priced to enter the market in the $1,000 range, addressing the need for economy in small UAVs while maintaining a professional-grade fully supported autopilot.

ReconRobotics Inc. introduced the ReconRobotics Video Share system at the AUVSI Unmanned Systems 2013 conference, held August 13-15 in Washington, D.C. Video Share is designed to protect law enforcement and military personnel by distributing real-time video from Recon Scout XL or Throwbot XT reconnaissance robots to multiple operators and entry teams. The Video Share Unit (VSU) works by receiving the video signal from the robot and retransmitting it on a secure Wi-Fi network. Up to five operators can receive this reconnais-sance video by using a proprietary app and a phone or tablet running either Android OS or Apple iOS.

Until now, only the operator of a robot––the individual using the operator control unit (OCU)––could receive and view video trans-missions. What was seen on the OCU would then have to be verbally communicated to other operators or entry teams. By using the VSU, operators can now see in real time what the robot reveals as it moves through the environment––the layout of the rooms, the location of armed subjects and the condition of hostages. This increased level of situational awareness not only protects operators from hidden threats, but also allows them to maintain their tempo of operations and instantly and collectively react to evolving situations.

The VSU can receive robot video transmissions from up to 100 feet away, through walls, windows and doors, and it can retransmit the video signal another 100 feet, thereby effectively doubling the video transmission range of the robot. The VSU can be carried on an operator’s belt or in a cargo pocket, or left stationary within the operational range of the robot.

“This is a significant step forward in the situational awareness capabilities of SWAT teams and dismounted troops,” said Alan Bignall, president and chief executive officer of ReconRobotics. “By instantly sharing reconnaissance video with the team, the VSU delivers an immediate tactical advan-tage that we expect will save many lives and enhance the success of countless missions.”

Cost-effective Tactical-grade GPS-aided Inertial Navigation System

Miniaturized Autopilot System Video Share System Allows Up to Five

Operators to Receive Real-Time Video Transmissions


Brigadier General (Select) Michael S. Groen is a 1986 gradu-ate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. As a junior officer, he served with Marine Air Group (MAG)-39 in Camp Pendleton, MAG-36 in Okinawa and with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). His early experience included deployments to Central America and across the Western Pacific.

Groen attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., graduating with Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering and applied physics, which led to an assignment as a signals intelligence and electronic warfare development and acquisition program officer at Marine Corps Systems Command. He attended the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Intelligence Offi-cer course and was a distinguished graduate of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College.

In 2000, Groen reported for duty with the 1st Marine Division as the deputy G-2. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Groen partic-ipated in combat operations as the division’s intelligence planner. Groen was further designated as the G-2 for Task Force Tripoli, operating in north-central Iraq. He returned to Iraq with the 1st Marine Division as the division G-2, where he was a principal in the redesign of Marine Intelligence with a refocus on improving support to regimental and battalion level operations through the creation of the Tactical Fusion Center.

In 2004, Groen was reassigned to U.S. European Command where he served as the chief of intelligence planning for Europe and Africa. There, he planned intelligence operations in the Bal-kans, Northern Iraq, Central Africa and the Trans-Sahara region. He was instrumental in transitioning intelligence processes into the newly formed Joint Intelligence Operations Center.

In 2006 Groen assumed command of 3d Radio Battalion, Marine Corps Base Hawaii. During this time, the battalion con-ducted its first deployment to the Southern Philippines in support of Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines and continued its support to the 31st MEU. After command, he reported to the Col-lege of Naval Warfare in Newport, R.I. While there, he was selected as the Marine Fellow in the Stockdale Group, assisting the U.S. Navy program to develop joint and operational leaders. Promoted to colonel, he graduated with distinction in June 2008.

In 2008 Groen assumed command of Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division in Camp Pendleton, California. In 2010, he was given the additional duties as the division’s chief of staff and the commanding officer for the 1st Marine Division (Rear).

In August 2010, Groen returned to Quantico, Va., to serve under the deputy commandant for combat development and inte-gration. There, he led the Marine Corps’ Amphibious Capabilities

Working Group, which reviewed naval relationships, doctrine, concepts and capabilities. In that capacity, he also formed and served as the initial director of the Ellis Group, refining concepts for naval power projection and expeditionary operations.

In 2012, Groen became the director of the Marine Corps Strategic Initiatives Group, directly supporting the commandant and senior leadership for institutional and operational issues of strategic importance. Selected for brigadier general, he was reas-signed as the director of Marine Corps Intelligence in June 2013.

Groen’s personal decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Joint Meritorious Service Medal and the Combat Action Ribbon.

Q: As director of intelligence for the Marine Corps, what do you consider to be your priorities?

A: Over the last decade, the Marine Corps has achieved an entirely new level of integration between operations and intelligence at the tactical level. As we return to our traditional role as the nation’s crisis response force, it is imperative that we institutionalize that tight integration. We see changes in the operational environment that will make this integration even more critical.

Brigadier General (Select) Michael Groen

Director of IntelligenceMarine Corps


Intelligence SeekerInstitutionalizing Integration in a Shifting Landscape

Q&AQ&A

Priority one, then, is to ensure the continued combat effective-ness that we experience today. That is easy to say, but a challenge to implement, especially in fiscally constrained times. It implies we preserve our technical edge in sensors and systems. It implies we train effectively to match the way we fight. When units are in regular combat rotations, they see first-hand the role that intel-ligence plays on the battlefield. When those units are not engaged, they often return to ‘canned’ training scenarios that limit the interplay between operations and intelligence. We’ll work hard to ensure that realistic training environments are the norm. The best intelligence capability and the best operational capabilities in the world are severely limited if they do not train and operate as part of a smoothly integrated whole.

Priority two is to ensure that we adapt our intelligence effort to the changing demands of the operating environment. It’s hard to see if you take a short-term view, but we still exist in an era of rapid and transformative change. If you use a calendar instead of a wrist-watch to count the time, these trends of change become starkly clear. That will continue in a post-Afghanistan environment. Moreover, threat technology changes. The character of conflict changes also, although its fundamentally human nature does not. The types of situations we will find ourselves in change. Even our own expectations for situational awareness and decision-making support are changing rapidly. We cannot stand still in the face of this, or seek to return to a pre-9/11 world that no longer exists. For Marines, that means we must stay on the cutting edge of both technology and tactics. We need to systematically leverage both process and technical change to ensure we preserve the qualitative edge that our forces have enjoyed. A peacetime bureaucracy can work against us here. New threats and new opportunities evolve at a Moore’s law pace, but our institutional processes move a bit slower. We have work to do.

Priority three is to invest in our human capital. The intelligence business is fundamentally a human one. We employ information and sensors, but it is people that matter. Nothing that happens in a secure facility makes much difference if it does not influence plan-ning or operations. Creating that human nexus takes investment in the skillsets of modern warfare. We need intelligence Marines that are fluent in operations. We have to create career models that can accommodate long training pipelines and frequent utilization tours. Marines will have to continue to do skills training when they are in the operating forces. Our civilian analysts and systems experts have to be top-notch. In the all-volunteer force, we want to make sure that the right people continue to volunteer, and we want to make sure we create viable, rewarding careers in which they can make a difference. When we think about people, we have to recognize that not every peg is square, nor is every hole.

We think that part of the answer to meeting these priorities is continuing our development into an intelligence enterprise. Thinking as an enterprise means we build the systems, the process and the people that can operate seamlessly as part of a unified effort, regardless of their location. We want to create an environ-ment where no node in the enterprise fights alone. Every S-2, no matter how remote, benefits from the knowledge and informa-tion available to the rest of us. Our enterprise effort brings the broader capabilities of the intelligence community [IC] to the bat-tlefield, and allows our forward units, engaging in crisis response or shaping the operating environment, to serve as sensors for the broader IC.

Traditionally our limiting factor was our ability to collect data. Now the limiting factor is our ability to process, exploit and dis-seminate all the information we collect and turn it into something useful for our commanders.

Q: What sets Marine intelligence gathering apart from the intelligence gathering of the other services?

A: A great question, with some significant implications. At a funda-mental level, the entirety of the information universe is available to every service, and to the broader intelligence community writ-large. What makes that information relevant, however, is how it is applied to planning and decision-making. A lot of very bright folks make strategic errors when they ignore this fact. Some will look at this information environment through their own experiential lens and make sweeping policy or system decisions that may not met the needs of other consumers. Targeting is a great example. Some approach the intelligence effort as the process by which you create precision targets for the employment of precision weapons. For many forces that is exactly right. Viewed through the lens of forces that operate in the human terrain, however, seeking to influence human behavior with tools and capabilities beyond just killing with precision requires an entirely different set of intelligence processes. The joint force needs the advantages of both.

It is not the collected information that differs among the ser-vices so much as the fusion of that information into meaningful intelligence. Marine Corps missions demand forward deployed forces that cover wide regions of the globe. They have to be ready to move swiftly from one potential crisis to another. They have to be ready to hand out blankets one day, but reinforce an embassy 500 miles away the next. Our fundamental organization, the Marine air ground task force [MAGTF], is intentionally multi-domain. It has a ground element, an aviation element, a logistics element and a command element all under the charge of a single commander. Marine intelligence has to cover them all. Creating intelligence for this rapidly employable force requires a global, not just a theater orientation. The sun never sets on the Marine intelligence effort, as we support units poised to intervene around the globe.

We do it by leveraging the work of the entire IC and bring-ing it to the tactical edge. While we benefit enormously from the analysts at the intelligence agencies, we also offer placement and access that return the favor. Our intelligence partnership with the rest of the IC is a two-way street. As we build our intelligence data systems, for example, we recognize their dual nature. Before crisis hits, the flow is mostly ‘down’ from the IC to the tactical edge. When crisis strikes, the flow immediately reverses, with Marines on the ground feeding situational awareness ‘up’ to the rest of the IC and to higher-level decision making. As Marine forces buy time for strategic decision-makers, the Marine intelligence effort con-tributes to the situational awareness that anchors those decisions in the reality of what is happening on the ground.

At the tactical level, intelligence is oriented on supporting our Marines at the forward edge. A great example of the focus of Marine intelligence on tactical operations is the company level intelligence cells. We saw tremendous value in pushing dedicated intelligence Marines and capabilities to the company level in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think there is significant potential for pushing even more resources down to smaller tactical formations. Because we generally operate in austere expeditionary environments, our


equipment needs to be robust, power-efficient, small and light-weight. Marines need equipment that can operate in ‘any clime and place,’ and is easy to use and maintain.

Q: With the U.S. strategic rebalance to the Pacific, what is the role of Marine intelligence? How are you changing to meet these new challenges?

A: The Pacific has long been a focus for Marines. It is where we grew up as an institution. Much of our iconic legacy was built there. It is where we innovated new ways of doing business in the Philippines, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and now in other places. While we continue to support global demands, we never actually left the Pacific. We’ve always had Marines forward deployed, both on the ground in Okinawa and at sea with our Marine expeditionary units. Today, these Marines are spread across the Pacific theater, working to shape the operating environment, build relationships of trust with our allies and training for crisis response or rapid intervention in contingencies.

On a practical level, the shift to the Pacific will likely mean smaller forces spread throughout a vast geographic area conduct-ing a broad set of missions. New platforms like the MV-22 create an effective radius of crisis response that extends for hundreds of miles. There are few places in the vast littoral that stretches from the Korean Peninsula to Africa and the Mediterranean Sea that sea-going Marines cannot get to quickly with a range of combat capabilities. That poses incredible intelligence challenges. Fast-moving crisis response forces often will outrange their own col-lection capabilities. This creates a demand signal for the Marine intelligence enterprise to leverage the collection capabilities of the entire joint force, integrating that information into timely and relevant intelligence.

It also means that Marine forces provide special opportuni-ties for increased situational awareness for the joint force. We are working to increase our ability to feed theater intelligence require-ments, working with the other services and the Joint Intelligence Operations Center. The Pacific demands a much closer alignment of naval intelligence among Marine and Navy collection and analy-sis platforms. As a stakeholder, we watch carefully how the Navy continues to develop its own collection platforms and architec-ture. There appears to be much opportunity in unmanned systems and platforms that can operate in the maritime environment. The range of potential information requirements extends from space to sub-surface mines and obstacles, and everything in-between. Situ-ational awareness and intelligence across the joint force is going to be the difference-maker.

Finally, our ability to share information among our key allies and partners in the Pacific must necessarily expand. We have relearned a lot about coalition warfare over the last decade, espe-cially in Afghanistan. From an intelligence perspective they have a lot to teach us. After all, it is their neighborhood. We need to be very proactive in ensuring the success of our partners and allies in this important region.

Q: How is Marine Corps Intelligence adapting to the shrinking of the budget due to sequestration?

A: The key to successfully navigating the current situation is to take a long-term approach. This will not be the first time that the

joint force has faced a period of fiscal austerity, and I’m sure it will not be the last. Our role, like our predecessors, is to be careful stewards of taxpayer resources while ensuring that we stay aligned with the threat. That is a big challenge. In our corner, we have a well-earned reputation for being the ‘frugal force,’ and that will have to be doubly true now.

In the ideal, our defense resourcing would be premised on strategy. That strategy, in turn, would be premised on the threats to our citizens, allies and interests. This all rests on a foundation of intelligence, creating the demand that we be ‘out there’ in the operating environment. Forward deployed forces and collection capabilities from across the joint force are necessary for us to protect our nation. ‘Homeland security’ takes on a whole new meaning in this globally integrated environment. Is your home-land secure if you have no markets for your global trade? Is it secure if your citizens who live and work overseas are threatened? These ideas should shape the allocation of resources and the intel-ligence effort that results from them. It is a false choice to talk of either a technically advanced force or one that has the capacity to operate forward to keep the peace. We clearly need a balance of both.

Sequestration certainly is a game-changer. The Marine Corps is very much a ‘people’ force. The preponderance of our resources is invested in our human capital. That puts tremendous pressure on our investment accounts, limiting our ability to stay apace with the threat. Marine investment accounts have always been very lean. On the intelligence investment front, we have always practiced a ‘parasitic’ acquisition strategy, seeking to lever-age the investments of other services and SOCOM first before we try to develop any unique capabilities ourselves. That will likely become even truer as we seek to work very closely with the Navy and the Army to leverage joint investments and create seamless capabilities.

Even in austerity, there is room for optimism. We are standing at the doorstep of a new age, and it is almost breathtaking to think of the world of opportunity that lies at our feet. Even the clouds of fiscal austerity cannot block the rays of this sun. If we do not have resources for large material investments, then we will apply our human and intellectual capital to ‘process’ improvements. The ‘ways’ we will create actionable intelligence in the future will be at least as important as the ‘means.’ In this area, I am counting on the innovation of a generation of combat experienced Marines to help remake our analytic and dissemination enterprise. The Marine Corps intelligence community will continue to offer the best value for the American taxpayer.

Q: A large number of our articles deal with the roles played by unmanned systems. How do you expect these platforms to adapt to performing their ISR role in denied airspace?

A: I guess I would start by pushing back on the idea that unmanned systems should be limited to airspace. To date, I don’t think we have even scratched the surface of what robotics and unmanned autonomous systems can do. We have greatly advanced the state of the art for UAS in the last decade, but there is every bit as much of a challenge in the land and sea domains. Since Marines work best at the seams where all of the physical domains come together, we need systems that are responsive in all of them.


One of our challenges is that both government and industry have had a hard time thinking about ‘cross-domain’ robots. Much of the innovation has come via selected stovepipes. We have built unmanned systems that can do existing tasks in more efficient ways. We can imagine existing tasks undertaken with reduced risk to humans. We haven’t thought as much about game-changing unmanned or autonomous systems that can fundamentally change the way we fight, breach, repair, influence, communicate, deceive, deny and even heal. Can you use unmanned systems to create non-lethal effects? How do you combine functions on a single platform? How do you extend human senses and control in a way that it feels natural to an operator? In the modern environment, we are foolish to put flesh against steel. Unmanned and autonomous tools are our best means to avoid this.

We should also be careful about accepting the linear attrition-ist mindset that accompanies the discussion of denied terrain. In the emerging security environment, it will be as important to out-think our adversaries as it will be to out-fight them. The idea that the enemy will shoot back is hardly a new one. The equally aged idea that we should allow him the advantage of choosing the timing and location of the fight, then force our way through his prepared defenses, needs some creative updating. The compelling advantage of the UAS force is that it can use multi-domain capa-bilities to present a series of asymmetries against a less-nimble opponent. That means denial, deception, information operations and maneuver in space and time. While Marines understand that expeditionary capabilities are naturally suited to this fast-moving battle of wits, unmanned systems are uniquely suited to over-whelm an adversary’s situational awareness, to present him with false targets, to support information operations, to mask the main effort and to attack one domain by using another.

For Marines, there is vast opportunity in the provision of battlefield sensors—autonomous or unmanned—that allow even small units to develop their situational awareness. We are tremen-dously excited about the RQ-21A small tactical UAS, and are eager to expand the range of payloads and sensors that we can carry aboard. We are ready for a next generation of multi-spectral unat-tended ground sensors; ones that can deploy autonomously, find their targets, report back from afar and reposition themselves as required. We think there is new potential to leverage things like mesh networks to turn existing ground sensors into a larger and much more effective mobile network for battlefield surveillance. We also need to ensure that the data a sensor collects can be effi-ciently processed and transmitted to a decision maker in a timely fashion. We think autonomous or unmanned systems can allow smaller units to have larger effects. That potentially saves money, lives and time.

Q: How is the Marine Corps intelligence enterprise working with automated systems to better manage tactical data?

A: We are incredibly proud of the professionals at the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity. This is our service intelligence center, and they have taken the lead on our enterprise innovation and imple-mentation. It is one of the most cost-effective elements of the IC, having an impact much greater than its small budget would suggest. They figured out early that the challenge with enterprise is not to just digitally connect the various nodes. Connectivity is a necessary condition, but that is where the real task begins.

The true value of the enterprise organization comes only when you have standardized products, data structures, training, archiving, tagging and analytical tradecraft.

Where our analysts today spend about 80 percent of their time looking for relevant data and 20 percent using it, we would like to turn that on its head. We are seeking ways to bring data to the analyst, not the other way around. When we start to achieve that, it opens up new areas for advancement in analytic processes. Automated analytics, one-button tools for standardized tasks, new methods for visualization of information, ‘big data’ forecasting and predictive intelligence are where our investments in automated systems will really begin to take off.

The same idea applies to our tactical data. A MAGTF generates an incredible amount of data as it operates, most of it about its own health and operating condition. From an intelligence perspective, we need to smoothly integrate what forward units sense and per-ceive, without asking them to submit lengthy written reports after a long day in the field. If you think about that a little more broadly, we should also be expanding those ideas to all sources of data. Automated monitoring pending equipment failure, reporting sup-ply levels and conducting administrative actions could reduce the tail to tooth ratio. It does not make a lot of sense to have separate data systems for intelligence, operations, administration, logistics and many other functions. One data architecture with multiple applications applicable to specific war fighting functions would significantly lighten the footprint of tactical units, while reducing the number of support personnel that would be required to deploy into harm’s way.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

A: It is always a good time to be a Marine. With the whole world seemingly going to heck in a hand-basket, it’s a great time to be in the intelligence business too. To work every day with men and women who are both is very satisfying. I am very optimistic about the future of our intelligence enterprise.

All of our Marine Corps operating concepts rest on a solid foundation of battlefield awareness and relevant intelligence. We have generations of combat-experienced Marines who understand what is possible when operations and intelligence are tightly woven into a seamless capability. It is my job to make sure we have the wisdom to protect this capability when resources get thin.

In the old days, guts and a rifle could get you through a lot of bad situations, but that came at a human cost. On the modern battlefield, understanding the enemy is the first step to out-thinking him. On this battlefield, deeply rooted in the human terrain, a robust intelligence enterprise is the key enabler to achieving the right effect, in the right place, at the right time. Guts and a rifle are still required, but now we can do a better job of putting that young Marine in a position of advantage versus his opponents. We can provide Marines with the qualitative advantage that has allowed them to overcome any obstacle. We can reduce the human cost that is accrued from situational ignorance. I appreciate the innovation of industry in helping us build this enterprise vision.

Be assured that your Marines enter this new age with eyes open for opportunity. We remain committed and resolute in defense of our nation. We remain … always faithful.

Semper Fidelis. O


In the future, it may not always be possible to fly the mostly friendly skies. Airborne vehicles in Afghanistan can often operate without worry about hostile or civilian traffic. That won’t always be the case, and this has implications for the aerial platforms used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Consider two such ISR platforms: high altitude, long endurance and urban aircraft.

Unmanned examples of both already exist; however, advances promise an increased ability to operate in less permissive airspace. For instance, mis-

sions in cities could soon benefit from swarming, a technique in which vehicles work together like ants to tackle big tasks.

tHe View From on HiGH

For aircraft in a contested environment, what matters will not be the operating alti-tude but rather the sensor and analysis capabilities of the platform, said the U.S. Air Force ISR Agency GEOINT Capabilities Chief Major Edwin Frazier. “Our success will be based on objectively distinguish-ing between kinetic and non-kinetic target

signatures that we truly consider inacces-sible or denied, and those we assess are realistically collectible.”

The ISR Agency partners with Air Com-bat Command in conducting ISR operations for medium- and high-altitude platforms. Among the latter are the manned U-2 and the long endurance unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk. Cruising for extended periods at a great height brings benefits in terms of keeping watch on a location and its surroundings.

“The vantage point of a high-altitude long-endurance platform not only provides the ability to surveil a point of inter-est, but allows access to a very wide area,” said Major Peter Hasley, weapons and tactics chief at the ISR Agency.

Built by Northrop Grumman of West Falls Church, Va., the Global Hawk has a 131-foot wingspan and weighs about 32,000 pounds at takeoff. It can operate up to 60,000 feet, has a 10,000 nautical mile range, and can stay airborne for as long as 32 hours. It requires a standard runway, fixed facilities

and support personnel, although only some of these are deployed with the aircraft.

Since they are unmanned, these vehicles have no need for onboard life support sys-

tems. Instead, weight and space can be used for sen-sors, processors, commu-nications and other gear. There also is another ben-efit to going unmanned.

“The limits of the human body to be able to sustain opera-tions in an aircraft are also removed, and that’s what allows us to start getting into the much longer durations for mis-

sions,” said Alfredo Ramirez, director and chief architect of HALE (high altitude, long endurance) systems for Northrop Grum-man’s Aerospace Systems sector.

For instance, the U-2, perhaps the most famous manned high-altitude aircraft, has an endurance maximum of about 10 hours. In contrast, the Global Hawk can stay aloft three times as long. Thus, unmanned sys-tems are much more efficient at keeping a

adaPtinG uaV tecHnoloGieS For uSe in conteSted airSPace.By Hank HoGan

tiSr correSPondent

Alfredo Ramirez

20 | TISR 3.3 www.TISR-kmi.com

spot under constant watch, at least in terms of the number of aircraft needed.

Loitering at an altitude twice the height of Mt. Everest has its pluses and minuses, according to Ramirez. A positive is that more ground can be covered by sensors. However, a drawback is that the sensors must be of higher resolution and greater performance than would be needed at lower altitude. This translates into heavier and costlier optics, as well as higher pixel count visible and infrared focal plane arrays or other imaging technology.

Scanning more area over a longer period of time also means that a considerable amount of data will be generated. In turn, this demands more robust communication gear capable of offloading the data, more storage onboard the vehicle and more image processing in the aircraft. The latter is par-ticularly important in tactical situations, where analysis needs to be as close to real time as possible.

When it comes to less permissive air-space, one tactic would be to produce vehicles with low radar profiles. Northrop Grumman has already created the low radar observable X-47B, an unmanned combat air system, for the Navy. Achieving stealth capability requires paying careful attention to aircraft shape and the materials used, Ramirez said.

Next-generation unmanned systems will address some of the limitations of current aircraft, said Bob Ruszkowski, director of UCLASS program development for Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md. The company has significant experience developing unmanned aerial systems of many different types and sizes for its customers.

Tomorrow’s unmanned aircraft will have to be able to operate in a spectrum of potential settings. Some of these environments will be anything but permis-sive airspace, and success in such conditions will require advances in technology.

“Development in automa-tion, bandwidth management and onboard processing will be key,” Ruszkowski said.

Onboard processing, auto-mated data culling and augmentation using simulated contextual data are just some of the techniques that may be used, he added. This will help get people out of the picture by applying some intelligence to what sensors detect, instead of transmitting every pixel of imagery. This send-every-pixel approach

can be particularly wasteful of bandwidth and human attention if most of a scene is static or if most of an environment is known and mapped.

There also are likely to be ongoing inno-vations related to endurance. The Orion from Manassas, Va.-based Aurora Flight Sciences was selected by the Air Force and is soon to be operational. This unmanned aircraft can fly for five days at a 20,000-foot altitude.

The endurance limit for high-altitude aircraft was set by the unmanned Zephyr from the Hampshire, U.K.-based defense firm QinetiQ. Powered by the sun, the aircraft has flown for up to two weeks at a maximum

altitude of 70,000 feet. A modified version, the Mer-cator, has a ground speed of five meters a second, or just over 11 miles an hour.

These aircraft are light, with the Zephyr tipping the scales at 117 and the Merca-tor a mere 70 pounds. That slightness and a slow cruis-ing speed are seen as assets, however. In the event that

something goes wrong, which could be more likely to happen in contested airspace, there is less of a safety risk to anyone on the ground from the vehicle itself. The Belgian Air Force cited this as one reason why it is interested in vehicles of this type for opera-tions over densely populated Europe.

“There is no real technical limi-tation for a large-size UAV,” summed up Jacques Chemla, director of business development for the UAV-building MALAT division of Israel Aerospace Industries. The company is headquartered at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport.

“The difficulties are more on the budget required to develop and the product final price. Price of the UAV is generally related to its size,” Chemla said.

One other constraint is platform certifica-tion, he added. As is the case with cost, flight safety and reliability, requirements generally increase with unmanned aircraft size.

GoinG to town

The same lack of technical constraints is not the case for the smallest class of unmanned vehicles, the micro- and nano-sized UAVs that weigh a few pounds or less. Here, the difficulty is not the cost, which is much less than that of larger unmanned aircraft. Rather the challenge is how to fit sensors and communications gear into the allowable payload. Fortunately, these petite unmanned systems are benefiting from inno-vations in electronics.

For instance, the smallest aircraft made by Israel Aerospace Industries weighs a scant 0.6 kilograms, or 1.3 pounds. In part, it is so light because advances have significantly reduced the weight of communications gear,

Steven Gitlin

A Heron 1 UAV with maritime patrol radar and satellite communications capabilities. [Photo courtesy of Israel Aerospace Industries]


the camera and other critical components. Small UAVs that weigh less than 20 pounds extend the capability for ground forces to operate autonomously in urban environ-ments, Chemla said.

Another tiny UAV example is the Nano Hummingbird from AeroVironment of Mon-rovia, Calif. As the name implies, the 19 gram, or half ounce, aircraft flies by flapping two wings. These allow it to hover and fly in any direction, said spokesman Steven Gitlin.

Built as a proof of concept in 2011 under a contract with the Defense Advanced Proj-ects Research Agency, the aircraft carries a small color camera. It was successfully flown for up to 11 minutes. Despite its size, the vehicle can handle urban environments, even if conditions outside a building are not calm.

“It can operate in some winds,” Gitlin said.

The company has not yet turned the technology into a product. But, it has done so in the past with other demonstration aircraft built to satisfy a military contract. Gitlin noted that AeroVironment’s late 1990s Black Widow project formed the basis for the 14-pound Wasp III, which was adopted by the Air Force in 2007.

Another example of small system comes from BCB International of Cardiff, U.K. The company’s SQ-4 RECON consists of an aerial drone that weighs less than 300 grams, or two thirds of a pound. It features a video and high-resolution still camera, as well as 10 ultrasonic sonars.

Its size and sensor package means that it can be used to penetrate and search a build-ing or narrow spaces, said Project Manager Barry Davies. Thus, it could be suitable for urban areas.

The four-rotor helicopter-like aircraft offers a secure flight control system that leverages standard, commercial WiFi tech-nology, Davies noted. “The control of the drone is done via a 2.4Ghz, 5.4Ghz 802.11 b/g/n WLAN with encryption. Video, audio and telemetry are all combined into TCP packets and transmitted over the same link.”

There are technologies being developed at BCB International that will allow such small systems to gang up in swarms. The goal is to have the ground system control several drones so that they can be com-bined into scalable teams that can tackle big projects.

An illustration of what can be done with a swarm comes out of research by Vijay Kumar, an engineering professor at the

University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He and his team have modified commercially available four-rotor remote controlled air-craft, adding processing power, sensors and other technology.

The goal of the work is to better under-stand cooperative behavior among animals. Ants, for instance, will move a piece of food, with each ant doing some of the work. In this way, together they move an object too large for any individual ant. This collabora-tion is done without designating a leader and with each ant only communicating with its nearest neighbors.

The researchers have shown that a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles can assemble objects, collaboratively pick up items too heavy for an individual aircraft, fly in a changing formation through an opening, map out a building, and even play a well-known song. Although still in basic research and development, the swarm concept has attracted attention.

“We work with the Army Research Labo-ratory and the Office of Naval Research on aerial robots and swarms,” Kumar said. “Applications for law enforcement and first response are possible today.”

Technology imitating a biological sys-tem could also solve problems faced by the smallest UAVs in an urban setting, said John Raquet, director of the Air Force’s Advanced Navigation Technology Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. One issue

that small aircraft have is they bump into things when flying autonomously indoors.

Researchers have investigated how bees travel down a hallway and found their secret, Raquet said. Bees try to keep the visual flow of left and right walls roughly equal. An algo-rithm like that can be used to keep aircraft from getting too close to either wall. How-ever, vision processing can take considerable computing power, which could be in short supply on the tiniest unmanned vehicles. Another type of power, this time electrical, is consumed by communication, something a swarming approach can demand a lot of.

Air Force investigators are working to solve these problems. For their projects, they often make use of commercially avail-able quad-rotor indoor flying drones. It’s a case of exploiting consumer technology to ultimately benefit the military mission of urban ISR.

Of these readily available unmanned aircraft, Raquet said, “From an algorithm development point of view, it’s very nice. They’re cheap. They cost $300. We can build our algorithms on top of them, providing a great example of leveraging commercial products.” O

The Nano Hummingbird is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. [Photo courtesy of AeroVironment Inc.]

For more information, contact TISR Editor Chris McCoy at [email protected] or search our online

archives for related stories at www.tisr-kmi.com.


It is by now

axiomatic that today’s

warfighters, commanders

and intelligence analysts rely on

full motion video (FMV) for ISR,

force protection and situational aware-

ness. FMV has become ubiquitous in war-

fare—its use by U.S. forces exploded in Iraq

and Afghanistan—with unmanned aircraft,

ground sensors and other remote sources provid-

ing vast amounts of intelligence, surveillance and

reconnaissance data.

Video brings a key added value over

still-imagery intelligence in its ability to

observe targets over time. FMV provides

a capability to understand human activity

over and above the insights to be derived

from still imagery.

But the use of FMV in tactical situa-

tions also strains the bandwidth warfight-

ers have available to transmit data, imagery

and voice communications. The U.S. mili-

tary has responded by striving to provide more network

bandwidth, but also by employing various techniques

and technologies to push more data over the available

capacity. Future developments likely include the localized

staging of video, much as is done by commercial Internet

providers like You-

Tube and Netflix, and

deploying optical networks

to take the strain off of radio

transmissions. Demand for band-

width is likely to continue to grow, chal-

lenging military ingenuity and resources for

some time to come.

“Whether it is the urban environ-

ment of Baghdad or the mountainous and

compartmented terrain of Afghanistan, the

Army has encountered and overcome numerous

impediments to the collection and dis-

semination of ISR data, ”said Tony

Budzichowski, a program management

division chief within the Army’s Program

Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic

Warfare, and Sensors. “One such impedi-

ment is the bandwidth requirements for

full motion video.”

Budzichowski was referring to a pro-

gram to provide FMV bandwidth to forward

operating bases in Afghanistan. Spectrum is still at a

premium on the battlefield, noted Mike Monteleone, a

tactical networks branch chief in the Army’s Commu-

nications-Electronics Research, Development and Engi-

neering Center. “Depending on where the FMV source is

By Peter BuxBaum, tiSr correSPondent

tHe riSe oF Full motion Video iSr and tHe metHodS to comBat tHe limitS oF BandwidtH.

Mike Monteleone


and where it is going, it may take multiple communications hops to get to its final destination,” he said. “[When it comes to] who is getting the data, [and] who has access to it, [that] is where band-width limitations have a huge impact.”

The limitations on bandwidth highlight the issue of user and usage prioritization. “Everyone wants to get their eyes on the video,” said Mon-etelone. “You really need to think about who needs to use the FMV and in what format. Not all of the video has to be high definition for all uses.”

“Bandwidth constraints can be dealt with by understanding what a disadvantaged user wants to do with the data so that you can adjust the expecta-tion to meet the available bandwidth,” said Mike Manzo, director for geospatial solutions at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems. “If the primary mission of users is not to save lives, if they are doing second- and third-level exploitation, they may be able to stand a degraded video signal. Those users who require real-time access because they are trying to save lives can receive priority.”

“The issue is not necessarily a limitation of bandwidth but the prioritization of capabilities,” agreed Air Force Colonel Amando Gavino, chief information officer for the Air Force ISR Agency. “If you are delivering FMV from one sensor your bandwidth might be okay, but if you are receiving video from 10 sensors simultaneously, bandwidth issues will occur.”

But there is no question that the demand for bandwidth has outpaced the ability of the military to supply new capacity. The numbers speak for them-selves. “Just two years ago, the average bandwidth requirements for a typical user were 50 kilobytes per second,” said Budzichowski. “Today, the require-ment is well over one megabyte per second.”

Prior to the installation of FMV capabilities, most forward operating bases (FOBs) in Afghani-stan did not have sufficient network infrastructure to carry or share FMV, according to Budzichowski. “They were using line-of-sight connectivity with radios unsuited for FMV transmission, which presented several problems includ-ing long delays in accessing data,” he explained. “The Army’s first step was to extend the bases’ networks to the FMV source and upgrade their infrastructure to enable them to receive or share FMV. Once the network infrastructure was in place and working well, FMV was then moved onto that network.”

Each FMV location was equipped with a baseband kit compris-ing a video encoder, two routers and one uninterruptible power supply to provide a persistent network and IP relay connection point at each FOB. High-capacity series microwave line-of-sight radios with a data throughput of up to 300 megabytes per second were installed to link FMV sites. Sites are also equipped with a secure Voice over Internet Protocol phone and laptop for voice communications.

The FOBs were also given the capability to share FMV with adjacent FOBs and with other FOBs within a regional command. This implementation has enabled combatant commanders and soldiers to achieve improved situational awareness.

“With this improved awareness, they can take more decisive action to save lives and thwart enemy plans,” said Budzichowski. “To install FMV in Afghanistan, the program manager had to over-

come constraints in bandwidth and integrate into the existing WIN-T network infrastructure to move massive amounts of data with minimal interrup-tions or delays in either its transmission or access.” WIN-T, or the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, is the Army’s tactical network.

The Air Force has its own bandwidth extension program in development, which it expects to deploy by the end of this year. At the moment, the Air Force manages bandwidth at the war fighting level. “We have personnel that deconflict frequencies and make sure that there is a separation between locations using the same frequencies,” said Troy McGath, chief of data link management at the Air Force ISR Agency. “We also provide FMV chipouts to units. The Air Force ISR Agency is the lead for com-mon data link [CDL] development for the entire Air Force, not just the ISR community,” McGath added. “CDL is the first tactical mile for ISR. It is the most critical piece for getting ISR to the ground.”

Air Force ISR is currently working on a mul-tiband common data link which will provide a bandwidth extension for Air Force users. The CDL program is designed to achieve data link interop-erability among multiple ISR collection systems operated by the armed services and intelligence agencies.

“The Army is already using its CDL,” said McGath. “Air Force users required a different wave form, which is currently in development. We have more high-capacity requirements and we need to twist our bandwidth differently than the Army. Some test models are currently being utilized and we expect it to be in full development and released later this year.”

The Air Force also expects to deploy technolo-gies that allow network managers to dial up and dial

down bandwidths available to specific users depending on the pri-ority of the FMV being transmitted. “We will be able to prioritize what is important from an ISR perspective,” said Gavino. “If there are five FMV streams to be downloaded and one of them has prior-ity, we can dial down the bandwidth available to the four so that the fifth can come down quicker and be made available to troops on the ground as soon as possible.”

Future bandwidth extensions will likely be concentrated on optical networking, according to McGath. “Data rates are in the gigabit range on optical networks,” he said. “Data moving over optical doesn't clog radio frequencies. That capability is the most cutting-edge thing we are working on.”

Tradeoffs of frame rate and resolution are necessary when working in a bandwidth constrained environment, such as in Afghanistan, according to Budzichowski. “To mitigate the impact of these tradeoffs, we employed two different types of bandwidth,” he said. “Low-bandwidth FMV is used to achieve situational aware-ness because the impact of frame rate and resolution to execute a given task is not as significant. High-bandwidth FMV is used for

Col. Amando Gavino

Troy McGath

Mike Manzo


exploitation purposes because the impact of frame rate and resolu-tion here is significant. Greater clarity is required to successfully exploit data as compared to using data for situational awareness.”

Prioritizing different FMV uses is the focus of an approach devised by Digital Results Group. “The point is the reliable delivery of something,” said Stephen St. Mary, the company’s executive vice president. “A dismounted solider using a tablet or smartphone will get something different than a commander in an operations center because of the difference in available bandwidth. The soldier may get 15 frames per second while the commander gets the full stream.”

DRG’s approach is threefold. First, it federates access and retrieval of FMV by synchronizing its metadata for situational awareness and forensic retrieval. “That way we are moving only small bits of data to make the video discoverable,” said St. Mary. “We’re not moving big data sets. The goal is to keep as much data at rest as possible but on demand for discovery and access.”

The second aspect of the approach is to detect the device of the network user and the avail-able bandwidth. “We then generate an on-demand stream tailored to that device and the bandwidth they’ve got,” said St. Mary. “That way the pipes don’t get clogged and the guy on the tactical edge doesn’t throw his device in the back of his HMMWV because he isn't getting anything off the network.”

The third aspect of the approach is to aid in cre-ating lightweight, bandwidth-friendly intelligence products based on the most relevant snippets of the video.

Many of the Army’s efforts to manage bandwidth have been articulated as part of urgent require-ments emanating from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and have involved exploiting commer-cial off-the-shelf technologies. Some of these are now being incorporated into programs of record. “We are looking to leverage commercial technolo-gies and open standards,” said Monteleone. “Some of these leverage multicast technologies similar to YouTube in which multiple users can access the same video on different devices and at different formats and resolutions.”

That is an approach being advocated by more than one of the military’s industry partners. One way that internet video provid-ers manage data and bandwidth is to pre-stage data locally, noted Manzo. “Providers like Netflix and YouTube pre-stage data in regions across the planet so that the video is streamed closer to the user,” said Manzo. “We developed thin client and thick client versions of file location systems. The thin version allows real-time exploitation of the video and saves users on infrastructure, hard-ware, back-end and sustainment costs. The thick client version is for the small percentage of analysts who can’t withstand any lag in the transmission of data because they are in mission critical posi-tions. For mission critical functions you would have to move the data to the application.”

“We are trying to treat video the way a lot of commercial broadcasters do,” said Tom Wilson, director of integration and

operations and exploitation at Lockheed Martin Information Systems. “The idea is consume the data where it is collected so that data doesn't have to be moved around. We envision a cloud-based consumption model for how tactical video and video

and all sorts are moved around the enterprise. A YouTube or a Netflix model is where DoD needs to move.”

Lockheed Martin Information Systems has a capability called Geoflix which can consume hun-dreds of different video feeds and then rebroadcast them using standard-based consumption models. “This is a browser-based consumption model that allows you to use the HTTP protocol to consume video streams,” said Wilson. “That could work reasonably well, but if you have to distribute video over larger areas you also want to look at caching technologies so that video can be stored closer to where it will be consumed. HTTP-based streaming enables on-demand and live adaptive bitrate video delivery of standards-based media over regular HTTP connections. This approach lets customers leverage cache infrastructures and provides tools for integration of content preparation into existing encoding workflows.”

The Motion Industry Standards Board (MISB), a DoD unit within the National Geospatial-Intel-ligence Agency formulates standards for motion imagery and associated metadata. “Standards are really important,” said Wilson. “MISB standards enable the discovery of FMV data and transform the consumption of FMV into an enterprise capability.”

Prioritization of content and bandwidth also comes into play when it comes to the tactical collec-tion of FMV on the ground. Raytheon’s MAINGATE radio system, which has been deployed in theater, enables warfighters to capture video on the move, such as from a vehicle on patrol and then beam that data back to the command post.

MAINGATE radios are able to transmit video at 10 megabits per second over UHF spectrum with an effective bandwidth of 14.4 megahertz. “The pri-mary technique we use to squeeze the data across

the available bandwidth is to utilize a mesh network,” said George Vardakas, director for Tactical Communication Systems at Ray-theon. Mesh networks allow radios to organize themselves into ad hoc networks as needed.

“We can schedule more than one user to use the same fre-quency by auto-organizing into smaller sub-networks, as long as they are geographically separated and won’t cause any collisions,” Vardakas explained. “The key is we don’t have to plan these little subnetworks. The system automatically organizes that way based on geographical distribution and traffic load.” The system has been deployed in Afghanistan and is being used by U.S. and non-U.S. joint forces there.

Hardware capacities can also be tweaked to increase the throughput of networks. “We have made changes to modulation and coding to increase the throughput of an 18-inch effective aperture antenna from 500 kilobits to two megabits per sec-ond,” said Karl Fuchs, vice president of technology at iDirect

Stephen St. Mary

Tom Wilson

Karl Fuchs

[email protected]


Government Technologies. “On the horizon, high-throughput satellites are being launched which will provide four to five times the throughput of today's constellations.”

Developments in wide-area motion imagery can be instructive in how FMV bandwidth issues can be negotiated. Although not strictly speaking full motion video, these persistent surveillance systems actually generate more data than FMV, according to John Marion, Executive Vice President.

“One approach is to compress the data on the aircraft or on whatever platform it is being gathered and send all compressed imagery over a radio data link,” said Marion. “Or, what we think makes more sense is to add a fair amount of compu-tation with the sensor to do processing there and basically provide analysts with a product over much smaller data links. Analysts are usually looking for something specific in the persis-tent surveillance imagery. The idea is to send them only the parts they need.”

A similar principle can be applied to FMV, according to St. Mary. DRG already assembles the equivalent of NFL highlight reals that distill eight- or 10-hour UAV missions to just a few minutes of video. “It is possible to automatically identify the significant parts of a Predator mission based on flight patterns,” he explained. “The UAV will normally orbit over its targets but fly straight when it is

flying between one target and another. When we see the UAV loiter we can use an algorithm to detect the metadata from the platform and start at that point to collect and capture something to go into a light-weight intelligence product right then and there.”

Having established FMV capability at more than 150 forward operating bases, the Army continues to make improvements based on user feedback and new needs. “A recent, significant enhancement involved ensuring that users in theater understood where the FMV capability resided and how to reach

a given FMV node to access video feeds,” said Budzichowski. “Now, a user may simply click

on a given node and immediately receive video from that node.” But bandwidth remains a looming issue. “As more data is gen-

erated and disseminated and as more users look to the network to transmit specific types of information, bandwidth requirements will likely increase dramatically,” said Budzichowski. “The Army is now analyzing future needs and their impact on bandwidth to gain a better understanding of bandwidth requirements as balanced against video quality.” O

John Marion

With more than a decade as editor of Military Information Technology, Harrison Donnelly has the background, relationships and understanding to lead MIT, widely considered the “Voice of Military Communications and Computing” and the most effective and trusted way to reach military IT professionals. His continuity of service guarantees the highest quality of editorial coverage, and makes advertisements in MIT all the more valuable. In a time of turmoil and change in both the defense and publishing worlds, “Hank” is someone who people across the community turn to when they want to deliver a message that makes a difference.

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W. Garth Smith co-founded MetaVR with Richard M. Rybacki in 1997. Smith holds the position of chief executive officer of MetaVR, overseeing all corporate operations, new business development and product development strategy.

MetaVR creates 3-D real-time PC-based visual systems and virtual worlds that pro-vide the fidelity of geospecific simulation with game-quality graphics.

From 1990 to 1993, Smith worked for Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN) on the SIMNET project. Smith worked on the AGPT program, which was the German Army equivalent of the SIMNET technology. Smith was the least talented of all the software engineers at BBN.

Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from West Virginia University.

Q: How is MetaVR positioned to face these steep cuts to military spending caused by sequestration?

A: Increasingly, military organizations recog-nize the value of the simulation training envi-ronment as a way to supplant certain aspects of training that have traditionally been con-ducted live. Military budget cuts force a high return on training investment, resulting in more emphasis on simulation—and visuals are a key part of simulation. And we tend to have some of the lowest prices in the mili-tary simulation industry. This approach has enabled us to be in business for 15 years. With the pending budget changes, we expect to see increased sales as customers need more cost-effective and sustainable products.

Simulation training reduces the cost of training on real aircraft and ground vehicles. For example, it reduces costly fuel and air-frame wear and tear. Often, simulation train-ing eliminates the geographical constraint as well. By eliminating the need to travel great distances to train at a physical training site, it enables warfighters in many situations to train remotely in networked environments to learn new skills, gain accredited training hours and keep current on skills all with the goal of improving combat readiness.

Our customers give us direction on Vir-tual Reality Scene Generator [VRSG] features and enhancements to support their training needs. For example, UAS simulation training is a market our products have supported for a number of years. More recently, the need to train joint terminal attack controllers [JTAC] for close air support missions has become critical, and we have seen increased sales of VRSG as result. Last year was a record rev-enue year for us, and in the third quarter of this year we have surpassed all of last year’s sales. Feedback from JTAC and UAV opera-tor trainers led us to develop two significant features that are in the latest release of VRSG: Scenario Editor and physics-based infrared simulation.

Q: What UAS training platforms are cur-rently supported by MetaVR’s visualization software?

A: The U.S. Army’s Shadow Crew Trainer, and Grey Eagle, Hunter and Aerosonde trainers. Also the U.S. Army uses VRSG in Universal Mission Simulators for UAS within the Army’s training aids, devices, simulators, and simu-lations training suite. The simulator is the next-generation simulator in support of the Army’s new Universal Ground Control Sys-tem; it incorporates multifunctional software approaches to provide UAS operators with a high-fidelity training experience for individ-ual, crew and collective training for piloting Shadow, Gray Eagle and Hunter UAVs.

We provide geographic-specific detailed terrain and entity models that are used by our customers to generate both simulated video and geo-referenced still-frame imagery. A key feature of VRSG is its ability to stimulate

real ISR assets with its real-time MPEG-2 or H.264 video generation with embedded Key-Length-Value metadata using either EG 601 or MISB 104.5 standards. The result is that VRSG can generate video feeds that do not differ in format and contents from the real data feeds from autonomously manned systems.

Q: Could you tell us about MetaVR’s terrain generation tools?

A: Accurate 3-D terrain is a fundamental piece of the simulation training environment. MetaVR’s suite of terrain tools for Esri ArcGIS enables users to build a geospecific synthetic environment quickly using whatever imag-ery, elevation and shapefile data they have for a given region while leveraging the industry standard ArcGIS platform. Once the geospe-cific terrain has been built, users can then create pattern-of-life scenarios on the terrain with our new Scenario Editor tool. And they can generate an infrared profile of their ter-rain to suit the training conditions.

Q: Can MetaVR’s visualization software expand further into the civilian UAS training market in the U.S. or abroad?

A: The low cost and versatility of VRSG makes it an option for simulation applications other than military training, such as homeland security or emergency management train-ing. Such use will likely increase as result of the natural progression of UAV use in U.S. airspace. For example, right now, students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University are training with VRSG in exercises that simulate realistic payload operator situations such as a firefighter scenario, simulating civilians trapped on a mountain with encroaching flames of a forest fire. The instructor exag-gerates the wind speed and direction, making it challenging for the UAV pilot to effectively navigate the aircraft, and also create a strug-gle by proxy for the camera operator to stay on task. Another scenario simulates a prison escape, which highlights multi-grid scanning for heat signatures at night. O

[email protected]

W. Garth SmithCo-founder and CEO

MetaVR

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW Tactical ISR Technology


Distributed Common Ground System-Army The DCGS-A is the Army’s primary means of processing and disseminating ISR information. PM DCGS-A explains this system in an exclusive report.

Data Storage The need to store vast sums of data is a feature of the modern battlespace, and the technology for storing this data is advancing.

CFBLNet The Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network (CFBLNet) provides agile turnkey C4ISR R&D solutions to DoD.

Dyke Weatherington Dyke Weatherington is the director, Unmanned Warfare & Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, Strategic and Tactical Systems in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition.

Unattended Ground Sensors Modern unattended ground sensors automatically detect the presence of persons or vehicles and transmit information to those who need it in the field.

Multispectral Imaging The ability to detect specific frequencies across the electromagnetic spectrum allows modern ISR operators a plethora of intelligence data.

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