BAE Systems' ARGUS-IS shown aboard a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter during testing. Photo: BAE Systems via Business Wire

Last week DARPA awarded two contracts funding high-resolution, wide area infra-red persistent surveillance system. The U.S. Air Force awarded BAE Systems about US$50 million to deliver a high resolution sensor for persistent surveillance over a wide area. BAE has been developing such a system under two other programs – DARPA Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance-Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) and Army Airborne Wide Area Persistent Surveillance Sensor (AWAPSS) programs. The current system will be designed to enable a joint forces command in theater to constantly monitor critical areas of interest, using infra-red and video imagers, offering high degree of target location accuracy.

Part of the capabilities of WAMI sensors are to automatically track moving targets over a wide area. These images present two methods of presenting moving targets over surveillance images, showing multiple individual tracks and functional areas determined based on densities of movements. Photos: Kitware Inc.

DARPA is also seeking to improve the processing of the vast volumes of imagery data produced by WAMI sensor systems. Last week the agency has awarded Kitware Inc. a US$13.8 million contract for the development of image analysis support for wide area motion imagery systems. Kitware is developing these new workstations as part of the Persistent Motion Imagery Analysis Tool for Exploitation (PerMIATE) program, assisting analysts in discovering and analyzing high-value intelligence content embedded in massive amount of WAMI data, both online and forensically. Leveraging advanced computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data visualization in an integrated workstation PerMIATE will reveal and highlight the most critical information in a clear and intuitive presentation, enabling video analyst to quickly validate or refute intelligence leads through deep exploration of the underlying evidence, resulting in substantial reductions in analyst workload as well as increasing the quality and accuracy of intelligence yield. DARPA is developing such analytic tools as part of the Persistent Stare Exploitation and Analysis System (PerSEAS) currently underway.

The U.S. Army is planning to field at least 36 Beechcraft 350ER aircraft equipped for persistent surveillance and reconnaissance, under the Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance Surveillance System' (EMARSS), Photo: U.S. National Guards

The U.S. Army is embarking on an acquisition program of a new aerial surveillance manned aircraft designated ‘Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance Surveillance System’ (EMARSS), augmenting tactical ground units with persistent surveillance, intelligence gathering and situational understanding, supporting their ‘Overwatch’ capability. The new program of record represents a low-risk approach to field advanced, critical intelligence gathering capabilities based on the field operationally Hawker Beechcraft 350ER (C-12) aircraft.

The EMARSS will be equipped conduct reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition operations in support of ground combat units in overwatch and to maintain a persistent presence over demonstrated at-risk areas. The program calls for the delivery of four engineering and manufacturing development aircraft within 18 months of contract award. The Army will have an option to buy four additional aircraft as part of the low-rate initial production phase. These aircraft will support the Army’s Aerial Exploitation Battalions (AEB), operated under the Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM).

Proposals for the program were submitted in June 2010. The program calls for the delivery of four engineering and manufacturing development aircraft within 18 months of contract award. The Army will have an option to buy four additional aircraft as part of the low-rate initial production phase. Northrop Grumman, Boeing and L-3 are known to compete for the program as prime contractors. While Boeing and Northrop Grumman are eying the program which surfaced as a major C4ISR program of record, L-3 is well positioned to compete with the experience it gathered through the Liberty MC-12 platform. The C-12 has also been operating successfully on airborne counter-IED missions, supporting Task Force ODIN in its IED hunting activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Germany's first Euro Hawk unmanned aircraft, built by Northrop Grumman and EADS Defence & Security, approaching landing on its maiden flight June 29, 2010. The Euro Hawk landed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where it will undergo a final series of operational testing and evaluation prior to its ferry flight to Germany. Photo: Northrop Grumman

The Euro Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS), built by Northrop Grumman Corporation and EADS Defence & Security, successfully completed its first flight June 29. The high-flying aircraft took off at approximately 10:32 a.m. PDT from Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale, Calif., manufacturing facility and climbed to 32,000 feet over Palmdale’s desert skies before landing nearly two hours later at 12:24 p.m. PDT at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

The German Ministry of Defense awarded a contract in January 2007 to EuroHawk GmbH a 50-50 joint venture company by Northrop Grumman and EADS Defence & Security, for the development, test and support of the Euro Hawk SIGINT surveillance and reconnaissance system.

Based on the Block 20 Global Hawk, Euro Hawk will be equipped with new signals intelligence (SIGINT) mission system developed by EADS, providing standoff capability to detect electronic and communications emitters. A ground station consisting of a mission control and launch and recovery elements will be provided by Northrop Grumman. EADS Defence & Security will also provide a SIGINT ground station, which will receive and analyze the data from Euro Hawk as part of an integrated system solution.

The Euro Hawk has a mission endurance of 30 hours and a maximum altitude of more than 60,000 feet. It is an interoperable, modular and cost-effective replacement to the aging fleet of manned Breguet Atlantic aircraft, which have been in service since 1972 and will be retired in 2010. Subsequent systems are anticipated for delivery between 2016 and 2017 following successful testing and introduction in German operational service.

Northrop Grumman is planning to conduct an aerial refueling demonstration performed by two Global Hawk HALE UAVs, under a DARPA funding. Illustration: Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman, National Air and Space Agency (NASA) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are planning to demonstrate aerial refueling of a NASA Global Hawk autonomous aerial vehicles by a sister ship.  The program will be designated KQ-X.

The agency allocated US$33 million for Northrop Grumman, to conduct the autonomous refueling demonstration within the next two years. The demonstration perform the first-ever fully autonomous rendezvous, rejoin, station keeping, aerial refueling, and formation separation of two unmanned aircraft.  The flight will be conducted at altitudes typically flown by the Global Hawk’, hence, overcoming inherent limitations of high altitude flight in thin atmosphere and limited control authority associated with long-endurance aircraft. “The importance of aerial refueling is clear in the way military aviation depends on it today,” said Jim McCormick, the DARPA program manager for KQ-X. ”This demonstration will go a long way towards making those same advantages a reality for the next generation of unmanned aircraft.” A successful outcome will allow developers of future unmanned aircraft to produce more cost-effective systems that rely on aerial refueling for the most demanding missions.

Northrop Grumman will retrofit two of the high altitude long endurance (HALE) UAVs, one aircraft pumping fuel into the other in flight through a hose-and-drogue refueling system. The aerial refueling engagement will be completely autonomous. Engineering work will be accomplished at the Northrop Grumman Unmanned Systems Development Center in Rancho Bernardo, California. Pilots from NASA, NOAA, and Northrop Grumman will fly the Global Hawks from the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, also in California. Sargent Fletcher, Inc. and Sierra Nevada Corporation are major KQ-X subcontractors.

The roll out of the first X-47B UCAS-D. Photo: Northrop Grumman

The first flight of the U.S. Navy’s X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator has been postponed by several months and will take place at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. in the second quarter of next year (2010). Originally, it was scheduled for late 2009. Naval Air Systems Command UCAS-D program office (PMA-268) and the aircraft designer Northrop Grumman continue pre-flight testing of the aircraft to ensure the system’s readiness to fly early next year.

According to Capt. Martin Deppe, program manager in Patuxent River, Md., the thorough pre-flight tests are required to build confidence in this ‘new class of aircraft’. “The Navy is breaking new ground here, and given both the resulting technical complexity and strategic importance of this program, we’re taking a closer look before first flight to sort out any integration issues. We intend to do it right.” The X-47B will be the first unmanned jet aircraft to take off and land aboard an aircraft carrier. It also will be the first all-new aircraft of any kind to operate on the flight deck in more than 30 years.

Deppe said. The current tests include the X-47B ground-based check-outs, surrogate aircraft flight testing, and lab-based integration testing. Low-speed taxi testing is expected to commence in December 2009. Despite this delay, Deppe is confident the program will remain on-schedule for sea trials in 2012. The unmanned aircraft will demonstrate that a long-range, low-observable, flying-wing unmanned combat aircraft can operate safely from aircraft carriers and refuel in-flight to achieve ultra-long mission endurance.

UCAS-D Marks ‘Sea Change’ in Naval Strike, ISR Capabilities

The introduction of unmanned combat aircraft on board aircraft carriers will open revolutionary new capabilities for military aviation and naval aviation capability in particular. Scott Winship, Northrop Grumman vice president and Navy UCAS-D program manager defines the new capability as ‘sea change in military aviation’. Captain Martin Deppe, the U.S. Navy Unmanned Combat Aircraft System Program Manager explains the Navy’s vision “We look forward to a time when we can introduce a new long range, persistent, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) — strike capability to the carrier decks of tomorrow.”

The first Unmanned Combat Air Systems (UCAS) developed by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Navy was unveiled on December 16, 2008 at the company’s manufacturing plant at Palmdale, California. The new aircraft, designated the X-47B is the first of two aircraft Northrop Grumman will produce for the Navy to demonstrate unmanned combat aircraft operations from the deck of an aircraft carrier. The Navy awarded the demonstration contract to Northrop Grumman in 2007 and aircraft assembly was completed in just over a year.

Following the roll out, the UCAS will undergo subsystem and structural testing through 2009, leading to the first flight scheduled in fall 2009. Carrier suitability tests and demonstration will be carried out during the sea trials planned to begin in late 2011.

The X-47B UCAS is produced by Northrop Grumman and industry teammates including Dell, Eaton Aerospace, GE Aviation, GKN Aerospace, Goodrich, Hamilton Sundstrand, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Moog, Parker Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, Rockwell Collins and Wind River.