UAV Annual Report FY 1996

OUR SECOND UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV) ANNUAL REPORT provides an overview of the Defense Department's UAV program activities for fiscal year (FY) 1996. The Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO) is chartered to manage the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Program (DARP), which includes both tactical and endurance UAVs among its component program elements.

DURING THE PAST YEAR, UAVs have seen major programmatic changes, have continued to demonstrate unique capabilities, and have experienced increasing acceptance by operational users. This report highlights their recent achievements, describes their acquisition plans and issues, and projects the DARO's UAV vision for the future. Key accomplishments, together with a DoD-wide perspective, are summarized below.

I've seen the cities of men and understand their thoughts.

Homer, c. 900 B.C.

As indicated by Homer's insightful statement, THE CONCEPT OF INFORMATION DOMINANCE has a long history. What is so vastly different today is that technological capability, system performance and operational infrastructure support have converged to allow us to exploit new opportunities in ways never before imagined. For years warfighters have articulated the needs for situational awareness, target identification, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant battlespace knowledge, and information superiority. Now we have the ability to move from words to deeds.

The DARO's first responsibility is to develop and maintain the DoD's integrated airborne reconnaissance architecture as a framework for the development and acquisition of improved airborne reconnaissance capabilities. Today, we have an abundance of exciting and important collection, processing, exploitation and dissemination opportunities and the problem is to make choices among them and integrate them into the architectural structure. For our manned platforms, we have a game plan to selectively improve sensors. For our UAVs, we are now ushering in new capabilities in both platforms and sensors to constitute our family of tactical and endurance UAVs. As our architecture migration pictorial shows
(page 3), we are concentrating on the best "mix" of manned and unmanned systems to meet warfighting needs well into the next century.

Last year we published our first UAV Annual Report. This is our second edition, and its purpose is to provide updates from 1995 and highlight the significant accomplishments that UAVs have achieved this past year, FY 1996. Simply stated, UAVs are moving from words to deeds. They are being recognized in out-year "vision" documents as providing both a cost-effective solution to our goal of extended reconnaissance and bases for other high-value military and civil applications. There are many Services and agencies involved in the rapid improvements and fielding of UAVs, and on their behalf we are pleased to publish this second edition.

OVER THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS, our expanding UAV community has tackled new doctrinal, operational concept, requirements and interoperability issues. It was a year of "firsts" on many fronts and each achievement is the product of a great deal of dedicated effort and DoD-contractor teamwork.

The video mosaics on the covers were provided by
the National Information Display Laboratory (NIDL).

a. Analysis and Architecture. The overarching efforts that went into refining our integrated airborne reconnaissance strategy as well as laying the groundwork for a joint, interoperable mix of UAVs
in an architectural framework deserve much praise. We need to continually improve the analytic base on which decisions are made. The analysis must reach to an assessment of the contribution of intelligence systems to military outcomes in scenarios that are judged to be consequential. Several efforts to quantify the airborne reconnaissance force mix, such as the Reconnaissance Study Group, Joint Warfare Capability Assessments, the SIGINT Mix Study, the C4ISR1 Mission Assessment, DARO analysis, the National Reconnaissance Office imagery mix study and others, have proven most helpful. Thus, we see our reconnaissance architecture as embedded in a larger information system roadmap. The value of any architecture is in helping to shape investment decisions for the future, and we have started this process.

b. Acquisition Initiatives. Integrating acquisition reform initiatives into our UAV programs has helped lead the way for other DoD Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) programs. For example, the Predator ACTD was the first successful ACTD to transition to a production program and its experiences will be applied to other DoD efforts. Four of our five active UAV programs are (or were) ACTDs Outrider, Predator, DarkStar, and Global Hawk; Pioneer is a fielded system and are progressing well. In addition, integrated product teams (IPTs) are helping to develop requirements and concepts of operations (CONOPS) for the Tactical Control System (TCS), a new development to assure interoperability between our UAVs and their intelligence products for joint operational users. IPTs have also helped to determine tactical synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and data link options. Another key area of IPT support is identification of commercial processes, products and services to support our open architecture.

c. Funding Support and Program Prioritization. The Congress has been very supportive of the Department's UAV programs and, for the third year in a row, has added funds to our UAV efforts. In addition, the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) prioritized UAV programs and provided stability in the joint requirements process that supports warfighter needs. The new JROC Review Board (JRB) has also helped us by framing UAV issues, evaluating operations, and proposing recommendations for JROC consideration. The number one priority for UAVs remains the tactical UAVs (Outrider and Pioneer), with Predator and the High Altitude Endurance (HAE) UAVs as numbers two and three, respectively.

d. Achievements. During the last year, we have accomplished the following UAV program-specific actions:

On 2 May 1996, the Tactical UAV, or Outrider, ACTD contract was awarded for a 24-month period of performance. First flight will occur six months after contract award and a low-rate initial production (LRIP) option for six systems may be exercised before the ACTD ends, i.e., late in
FY 1998. The current requirement is for 62 systems (at four air vehicles [AVs] per system), plus attrition spares.
Predator has been the most operationally active UAV program this year. During FY 1996, Predators have flown more than 530 missions for nearly 2,500 flight hours 159 missions and 1,169 flight hours supporting Bosnia operations alone. Predator flew the first UAV SAR and Ku-band satellite link mission this year. Dissemination of imagery via the quickly constructed Joint Broadcast System provided a long-sought-for "common picture of the battlefield" to multiple receiving sites both in-theater and back in the U.S. It also operated under control of, and sent information to, a submerged submarine during one demonstration exercise, and supported a carrier battle group during another. Predator's marinization feasibility study has been completed and its report will be available in early FY 1997. The JROC identified near-term configuration upgrades that include UHF voice radio, IFF, and wing de-icing. The SecDef approved system and program management agreements for its follow-on acquisition and operational support. The current operational requirement is for 16 systems (at four AVs per system), plus attrition spares.

Pioneer also deployed to Bosnia and supported the 1st Armored Division; additional Pioneers support fleet operations offshore. The Congress provided funding to improve both engine performance and the avionics. Pioneer has experienced an unusual rate of mishaps this year, but the improvements cited will help the situation. Thus, Pioneer has helped us gain experience to improve reliability for all UAVs. We are planning to extend its operational life from FY 2000 to 2003, when Outrider is expected to be available in quantity. The revised requirement is for nine systems through FY 1999 (at five AVs per system), with a gradual phase-out.
DarkStar experienced both its first flight and its first mishap within 24 days of each other. The first successful fully autonomous UAV flight with a low-observable design took place in March 1996. The mishap took place in April and resulted in a year's delay and an approximately $22 million impact to the program. To correct the problem, three configuration design changes are being considered: "hiking" the nose gear, moving the main gear, and sweeping the wings. The next flight is planned for May 1997. DarkStar's eventual force size is being determined.
Global Hawk is proceeding well. The wing and body were mated without a problem. Static and integration tests are on schedule. First flight is scheduled for 1997. This will be the first UAV to use a common processor for both electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) and SAR imagery. Global Hawk's eventual force size is being determined.
The TCS development is now underway. The JROC fully supports a common, modular and scalable ground station for tactical UAVs. The TCS will be compliant with the Joint Technical Architecture (JTA), Airborne Reconnaissance Information Technical Architecture and the Joint Interoperability Interfaces, thereby assuring UAV and product interoperability and utility among multiple operational users.
Finally, Hunter has enjoyed considerable success during the past several months. Although the DoD decided to cease production after the LRIP buy of seven systems, Hunter has performed flawlessly on several exercises and demonstrations to refine UAV employment concepts, and, like Pioneer, continues to be used for payload development.

FROM A DoD-WIDE PERSPECTIVE, Joint Vision (JV) 2010, published in July 1996, represents the vision of the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), for joint warfighting in the 21st century. Its C4I "building codes" are contained in the JTA. Our Integrated Airborne Reconnaissance Strategy and its implementing Airborne Reconnaissance Information Technical Architecture remain in full agreement with JV 2010's provisions for the employment of information to support its key operational concepts dominant maneuver, precision engagement, full-dimension protection, and focused logistics. We are continuing to study how UAVs can support joint warfighting concepts as the Defense Department prepares for the Quadrennial Review of Roles and Missions during FY 1997.

Finally, in the post-Cold War era we can expect our forces to be deployed for a variety of purposes in many parts of the world. The rule, rather than the exception, will be deployment with coalition partners, notably NATO members. We will need to be interoperable not only with our own forces but also with NATO forces and those of our coalition partners.

All in all this has been a good year for UAVs and we expect an even better year, next year. Thank you for your continued support.

MajGen Kenneth R. Israel, USAF

Director, Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office Supporting the Warfighter

1 Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.