"This exciting approach to earth observation gives scientists a way to look longer, closer, and more frequently at some of the most remote areas of the Earth, places that were previously too dangerous or too expensive to monitor in detail," said Barbara J. Ryan, USGS Associate Director for Geography. "The flexibility and relative low cost of unmanned aircraft systems will enhance our ability to track long-term landscape change. In addition, we can quickly assess landscape altering events, such as wildfires or volcanoes, in areas with challenging logistics." 

In many cases, UAS technology is simply the most cost effective way to gather earth observation data for a wide variety of applications: managing federal lands; investigating climate change; mapping and charting; conducting environmental risk assessments; responding to and recovering from natural and human-induced disasters. 

Even in less remote areas, manned aircraft flights may not be feasible at times due to long flight durations, hazardous weather conditions, and associated operations cost. Satellite-based observations can be hindered by course image resolution, limited sensor capabilities, and repeat orbiting cycles of days or weeks. The use of UAS technology allows flexibility in delivering timely data. Furthermore, data collection by UAS can be specifically tailored to the required resolution and radiometric parameters of individual investigations. 

An important focus of the USGS UAS Program, a component of the USGS Land Remote Sensing Program, is to leverage the commitment that the defense and intelligence communities have made in supporting UAS research. Working in partnership with many other Federal agencies, academia, and industry groups, the USGS will promote UAS technology for civil, domestic applications. Offices for the new program will be located at the USGS facility in Lakewood, Colo.

The Fire Scout is a key enabler for LCS and significantly contributes to its designated warfare mission areas of anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare and mine warfare. The modular nature of the ship to accomplish the designated mission is perfectly complemented by the Fire Scout and its modular mission payload capability. However, due to changes in the LCS development schedule, the Navy intends to conduct the Fire Scout Operational Evaluation (OpEval) aboard an FFG-7, Oliver Hazard Perry class ship. This will provide the fleet with unmanned aerial system support as soon as possible. 

According to the current schedule, the Navy will conduct Technical Evaluation on the Fire Scout on FFG-7 in the fall 2008 and OpEval in the summer 2009. The Fire Scout will reach Initial Operating Capability soon after OpEval in 2009. The Navy will continue to support LCS Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) efforts in fiscal year 2011. 

"This is great news for the Navy and for the Fire Scout," said Doug Fronius, MQ-8B Fire Scout VTUAV program director for Northrop Grumman’s Integrated System sector. 

"It's a win-win situation because the Fire Scout gets to progress through testing and initial operational capability. It will be ready to deploy on operational missions and will be ready when the LCS needs it." 

Fire Scout VTUAV restructuring is in the best interests of the Fleet and the U.S. Navy Fire Scout VTUAV program because it enables the Navy to continue supporting LCS integration and will provide a more mature system for LCS deployments. 

Fire Scout is capable of landing on all air-capable ships, so integration efforts will focus on dynamic interface testing, supportability assessments and data management. The Navy and Northrop Grumman are working together to define and develop a roll-on/roll-off Fire Scout ship deployment package that will facilitate this effort. 

Fire Scout is currently conducting envelope expansion, software validation, payload integration and data link testing at the Webster Field annex of Naval Station Patuxent River, Md.

"It is, indeed, a moment of great pride and satisfaction for all of us, as acquisition of this capability will certainly contribute towards augmenting our fighting potential," Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed, chief of the air staff, Pakistan Air Force, said at a ceremony marking the occasion. 

Ahmed added that Pakistan would soon equip its UAS fleet with the "most modern and lethal" payloads to meet such requirements of modern warfare as operating jointly with foreign forces and fighting asymmetrical threats. 

Pakistan characterized its UAS capability as part of its overall air defense strategy.

The National Transportation Safety Board convened an unusual two-day seminar on UAS in the NAS on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 29-30, in Washington, D.C., complete with testimony from government and industry officials, model vehicles and exhibits (including one from the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International). 

The meeting was prompted by the panel's investigation of the 2006 crash of a Predator flown by the Office of Customs and Border Protection, an accident found to be caused by operator error. 

"We realized we needed to know more about the current and future operation of these vehicles," said Board Member Kitty Higgins. She said it's clear that UAS use is growing and joked that one day "our pizzas will be delivered by UAS." 

Testimony from Doug Davis, who heads the Federal Aviation Administration's Unmanned Aircraft Program Office, made it clear that no one should look to the sky for pizza just yet. The FAA has begun work on making flight rules for small vehicles—weighing 20 pounds or less—but those won't be finished until 2010 or 2011, and he said bigger vehicles may not fly routinely for another decade or more after that. 

He said it's possible that special restricted categories could be set up for vehicles used for things like pipeline patrol, where they are flying over largely unpopulated areas, but he said a fully certified avionics suite for larger vehicles that could provide "sense and avoid" capability won't be ready until 2020 or 2025. Until then, operators using larger UAS won't be able to "file and fly" because their vehicles won't be able to see other craft and get out of the way, a key component of safety in the NAS. Instead, they'll have to get Certificates of Authority that outline where and when they can fly or have temporary flight restrictions to keep other vehicles out of the way. 

The FAA is partnering with two police departments, in Miami, Fla., and Houston, Texas, to evaluate the use of small UAS for surveillance. Those programs have yet to start, however. Miami is still buying a Micro Air Vehicle from Honeywell and Houston is looking for funding to pay the expenses of Insitu employees who would be needed to help operate the ScanEagle vehicles the department hopes to use. 

Thomas Runyon of the Houston Police Department said his office didn't realize that just because FAA proposed the demonstration didn't mean the FAA would pay for it. He said the department could start flying in 60 to 90 days if it gets a Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the FAA and if it finds $1 million to support Insitu's people. 

Asked where he's looking for the money, he said, "a rich uncle, anybody who's willing to write a check." 

Board Member Deborah Hersman asked Davis if his office is understaffed. He has 14 employees now and is expecting a couple more. The FAA is "staff challenged across the board," he said, "and my organization is no exception." 

The FAA wanted to limit the police demonstrations to two, although police all over the country would like to use UAS to supplement existing helicopter fleets. Davis added that his office can't take on a large number of pilot programs now. 

However, he said FAA approved 100 COAs a year in the last two years, up from 50 a year in 2005. 

Capt. Ellis Chernoff of the Air Line Pilots Association said when sense and avoid technology is ready it would be useful for manned aircraft as well, but until then he'd like to see UAS carry transponders to mark their location. 

"So far, the accident record does not support the claim that they [UAS] operate just like any other airplane, just without a pilot on board. They are very different," he said. 

For one thing, they tend to be small and sleek, which is good for military use but not good in public airspace where Cessna pilots and other aviators are trying to avoid collisions. 

However, Lt. Col. Charles Kowitz of the U.S. Air Force Safety Center said UAS do have advantages. A high-flying Global Hawk UAS can lose its communications link to the ground and its engine and still glide to a landing, touching down within 10 feet of a runway's center line. 

"You do that to a fighter pilot and he ain't gonna make it," Kowitz said. 

Melissa Rudinger, the vice president of regulatory affairs for the Aicraft Owners and Pilots Association, said 77 percent of AOPA members want to share the skies with UAS but the integration should be "seamless"—that is, no flight restrictions and the unmanned vehicles are able to avoid other craft and operate at the same level of safety as manned vehicles. 

"It's no small task," she said. "It's easy to say ... but hard to implement." 

Brett Davis is editor of AUVSI's Unmanned Systems magazine.

Statement on Russian Downing of Georgian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle 

United States urges all parties to engage in a lasting political solution 

STATEMENT BY SPOKESMAN SEAN MCCORMACK 

Georgia – Shooting Down of Unarmed UAV 

The United States is deeply concerned by the shooting down of an unarmed Georgian UAV, by a presumably Russian MiG-29, over the Abkhazia region of Georgia on April 20. Such incidents escalate tensions, contradict the spirit of the UN Friends process, and risk destabilizing the entire Caucasus. We urge all parties to engage in serious discussions aimed at reaching a lasting political solution, including by engaging on the recent peace proposals made by the Government of Georgia. 

We reiterate our unwavering support for Georgian sovereignty and territorial integrity and are concerned by the presence of a MiG-29 aircraft in Georgian airspace without Georgian authorization, and by the use of weapons from this aircraft in shooting down an unarmed Georgian UAV. We support UNOMIG initiatives to enhance military transparency in the region, as well as its investigation of the shooting down of the Georgian UAV. 

We also reiterate our concern over recent actions by the Russian government to upgrade relations with the Abkhaz and South Ossetian authorities, which challenge Georgian sovereignty and call into question whether Russia can continue to function as a facilitator toward a solution in the region. 

We agree with the stated goal of Russia and the other members of the Friends of the Secretary General of easing the isolation and poverty of the population in the separatist regions. This can only be achieved by working closely with the Government of Georgia, which has responsibility for the well-being of the people living on its territory. We call on Russia to work together with the Government of Georgia and to place renewed priority on the safe return of refugees and displaced persons to Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The Department of the Navy announced today that the Northrop Grumman Corp. has been awarded the system development and Demonstration (SDD) contract for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS).

The BAMS UAS contract award is the culmination of a year-long source selection process since the Navy received industry proposals in May 2007. The $1.16 billion cost-plus-award-fee contract is to develop a persistent maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data collection and dissemination capability that fulfills the maritime war fighter's requirement for continuous battle-space awareness. The BAMS UAS will be developed using Northrop Grumman's RQ-4N platform.

"This announcement represents the Navy's largest investment in unmanned aircraft systems to date. The extraordinary efforts leading to this announcement have helped the BAMS UAS program begin to develop a persistent ISR capability never before available to the fleet," said Capt. Bob Dishman, program manager for the BAMS UAS program. "This is a significant milestone for the BAMS UAS program, concluding a deliberate and meticulous source selection process that adhered to stringent Federal Acquisition Regulation and Naval Air System Command source selection processes and documentation requirements."

The BAMS UAS is an integral part of the maritime patrol and reconnaissance Force. As an adjunct to the P-8A Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft, the BAMS UAS will provide persistent maritime and littoral intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to joint forces and fleet commanders worldwide. This capability will enhance battle-space awareness, improve force projection capabilities and protect and defend the fleet and the nation. 

Northrop Grumman's Statement 

U.S. Navy Awards $1.16 Billion BAMS UAS Contract to Northrop Grumman 

LOS ANGELES - April 22, 2008 - The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) an 89-month, $1.16 billion contract for System Development and Demonstration (SDD) of the service's new Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System (BAMS UAS) program. The BAMS UAS will provide the U.S. Navy with a persistent maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) system to protect the fleet and provide a capability to detect, track, classify, and identify maritime and littoral targets. 

"We are honored that the Navy selected our team to provide this critical advanced capability to help fulfill its mission to protect our warfighters, our nation and its allies from maritime threats," said Ronald D. Sugar, Northrop Grumman chairman and chief executive officer. "We believe our approach, based on the proven capabilities of the Global Hawk, delivers the best value to the Navy and the American taxpayer, further supporting the National Maritime Strategy and the Global War on Terrorism." 

Northrop Grumman's RQ-4N, a marinized version of the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle, will be the platform for the BAMS UAS suite of maritime surveillance sensors and communications systems. 

"This BAMS UAS contract highlights Northrop Grumman's leadership in unmanned aerial systems and its legacy of using engineering innovation to fulfill critical customer system requirements," said Gary W. Ervin, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector. "We're looking forward to being the Navy's partner in developing this vital capability for the service's Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Forces." 

The Northrop Grumman BAMS UAS is a multi-mission maritime ISR system that will support a variety of missions while operating independently or in direct collaboration with fleet assets. The RQ-4N will be able to provide a continuous on-station presence while conducting open-ocean and littoral surveillance of targets. When operational, BAMS will play a key role in providing commanders with a persistent, reliable picture of surface threats, covering vast areas of open ocean and littoral regions, minimizing the need to utilize other manned assets to execute surveillance and reconnaissance tasks.

"Northrop Grumman was chosen for the BAMS UAS SDD contract based upon a deliberate and meticulous source selection process designed to make a best value determination on behalf of the Navy," said Captain Robert Dishman, program manager, PMA-262. "With Northrop Grumman as our industry partner, we are ready to begin SDD and take the next step towards delivering a persistent maritime ISR capability to the Fleet and warfighter." 

In addition to serving as the Navy's BAMS prime contractor and unmanned aerial vehicle supplier, Northrop Grumman has developed the BAMS Multi-Function Active Sensor active electronically scanned array radar at its Norwalk, Conn., facility. Other RQ-4N BAMS team members include: Raytheon, which will support the Mission Control System segment and provide the electro-optical/infrared sensor; L-3 Communications, which will provide communications integration; Aurora Flight Sciences, which will provide the V-tail assembly and other composite structures; Rolls-Royce Corporation, which will provide the aircraft engine; Sierra Nevada Corporation, which will provide the Electronic Support Measures system; and Vought Aircraft Industries, which will supply the wing. 

Northrop Grumman performs Global Hawk sub-assembly work at its Unmanned Systems Center, Moss Point, Miss. The company anticipates performing final assembly at its St. Augustine, Fla. Manufacturing Center. 

The RQ-4N is the latest addition to a growing family of unmanned systems developed by Northrop Grumman. The BAMS system builds on the company's extensive experience with autonomous flight control that includes thousands of flight hours by the combat-proven RQ-4 Global Hawk, the MQ-5B Hunter, the MQ-8 Fire Scout vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) tactical unmanned system -- the first completely autonomous VTOL aircraft to land aboard a Navy vessel underway -- and the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System -- the first unmanned air vehicle scheduled to perform carrier landings. 

Boeing's Statmement 

Boeing Statement on U.S. Navy BAMS Decision 

ST. LOUIS, April 22, 2008 -- Boeing has been informed that the U.S. Navy has chosen another company for its Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aircraft system contract. 

We are obviously disappointed and believe our proposal best fit the Navy's unmanned persistent maritime surveillance and reconnaissance needs. Our next step is to be debriefed by the Navy. After we have reviewed the details behind the award, we will make a decision concerning possible options. 

The Boeing Company would like to thank everyone who helped us on the BAMS proposal, including our industry teammates Gulfstream, Raytheon, Honeywell and Rolls-Royce. 

Lockheed Martin's Statement 

We are very disappointed with the U.S. Navy's decision in the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance program competition. We will wait for the formal customer debrief to better understand the decision and criteria used to select the prime contractor.

The ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer) measures approximately 7.5 meters wide with six legs measuring six meters each. The robotic vehicle would be capable of carrying a moon base thousands of miles, greatly expanding the range of astronauts. 

NASA is testing two smaller prototypes of the vehicle at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. 

The ATHLETE's long legs would enable astronauts to move the base from the lunar lander, whose 15-ton payload would sit six meters from the ground. The vehicles design allows it to either roll or walk, depending upon terrain. Later this year, NASA plans to test the vehicle in the desert climate of the American southwest. 

NASA plans to begin establishing bases on the moon in 2020.

The Vulture contractors will design and develop an unmanned aerial system able to fly on station and perform its mission for five years without interruption. 

The Vulture program envisions a system carrying a 1,000-pound payload drawing five kilowatts of power that is able to stay airborne for an uninterrupted period of at least five years while remaining in the required mission airspace 99 percent of the time. 

During the program's first phase, a 12-month analytical effort, the three contractor teams will conduct trade studies to determine the design concept that best satisfies the operational tasks and optimizes design capability. They will also explore various vehicle configurations while concentrating on reliability and mission assurance design aspects. The phase will conclude with a concept design review of sub-scale and full-scale demonstration vehicles and the supporting technology development plan to reduce risk on key technologies. 

Vulture will leverage space satellite operations and design paradigms, in which long life and extreme reliability are routine, and bring this concept to the realm of aircraft operations in order to provide a level of mission reliability previously unknown in aircraft operations. Vulture will provide pseudo-satellite benefits such as increased platform availability and consistent and persistent coverage, and allow smaller fleet sizes. 

The Vulture program will focus on developing innovative technologies and approaches for in-flight energy collection or refueling and ultra-reliable systems or systems able to be repaired in-flight. Other new technologies that will be developed and that are key to the ability of the Vulture system to provide the desired mission reliability include multi-junction photovoltaic cells, high specific energy fuel cells, extremely efficient propulsion systems, in-flight precision autonomous materiel transfer and docking, extremely efficient vehicle structural design, mitigation of environmentally induced loads, and innovative vehicle control concepts. The Vulture program is not developing payloads, but is focused on development of the airborne system able to provide the objective mission reliability. A system able to remain on station for five years could have utility in a variety of missions such as communications relay, surveillance and reconnaissance, and signals intelligence. 

In the program’s second phase, DARPA contractors will refine the demonstrator designs, continue technology development and risk reduction efforts, and conduct an uninterrupted three-month flight test of a sub-scale demonstrator. 

The third and final phase of the program will consist of a flight test of the full-scale demonstrator vehicle, during which the Vulture system will demonstrate the ability to operate continuously for 12 months.

Gates says the military should think about how to accomplish future missions "in the most affordable and sensible way," including deploying more UAS. 

"Today, we now have more than 5,000 UAVs, a 25-fold increase since 2001. But in my view, we can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt," he said. 

"My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield. I've been wrestling for months to get more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets into the theater. Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it's been like pulling teeth." 

To help expedite things, Gates said he has created a Department of Defense-wide task force to rapidly work this problem, in a way similar to how another task force hustled bomb-resistant vehicles into Iraq and Afghanistan. 

"The deadlines for the task force's work are very short," he said. "... For those missions that still require manned missions, we need to think hard about whether we have the right platforms - whether, for example, low-cost, low-tech alternatives exist to do basic reconnaissance and close air support in an environment where we have total control of the skies - aircraft that our partners also can afford." 

The full transcript of his speech is here.

A Russian Mig-29 fighter jet shot down an unarmed UAV as it performed a routine mission near Abkhazia, a breakaway Georgian region now controlled by separatists backed by Moscow, Georgia said. The country’s air force commander cited videotape footage showing an unmarked fighter jet firing a missile at the drone. 

Russia denies any incursion this weekend into Georgian airspace. 

Yet, Georgia says radar records indicate the Mig-29 took off from the renegade province and crossed into Russia after the attack.

The RP-7 Remote Presence Robotic System, a wireless, mobile robot, was used to allow Army Staff Sgt. Erik Lloyd to meet his seven-day-old son, Blake, on April 10. 

"The RP-7 can move untethered, allowing a remote physician seated at a control station to freely interact with patients, family members and hospital staff from anywhere, anytime," the story says. 

"In this case, the robot gave Lloyd the opportunity to interact with Blake and with his wife, Kristie. Because of his deployment, Lloyd had missed Blake’s April 4 birth." 

Lloyd is assigned to the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houson, Texas, and is currently serving with the Deployed Combat Casualty Research Team, located with 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. 

"While Lloyd looked through a computer screen in Iraq, his wife Kristi and members of the institute’s staff gathered around an RP-7 in a conference room at Brooke Army Medical Center here, to introduce the soldier to his baby boy." 

The full story is here.

The company hopes to promote its JAUS standard by encouraging students to use it in the competition. The company will offer the toolkit at no cost to registered participants in the 2008 AUVSI competitions, helping teams to address interoperability challenges associated with unmanned systems. 

The JAUS toolkit will include most of the functionality of the commercial version with a limited message set—those defined by the competition rules. The company says that although they will provide documentation for the toolkit, they will not bias the competition by providing students with direct support for implementing and using JAUS. 

“We have developed a competition version of our RE2 JAUS [software development kit] to provide students with a proven, real-world solution for unmanned systems interoperability,” says Jorgen Pedersen, president and chief executive officer of RE2. “By implementing JAUS during the unmanned systems competitions, students will bring both an understanding of interoperability standards and JAUS expertise with them as they transition into the workforce.”

The company hopes to promote its JAUS standard by encouraging students to use it in the competition. The company will offer the toolkit at no cost to registered participants in the 2008 AUVSI competitions, helping teams to address interoperability challenges associated with unmanned systems. 

The JAUS toolkit will include most of the functionality of the commercial version with a limited message set—those defined by the competition rules. The company says that although they will provide documentation for the toolkit, they will not bias the competition by providing students with direct support for implementing and using JAUS. 

“We have developed a competition version of our RE2 JAUS [software development kit] to provide students with a proven, real-world solution for unmanned systems interoperability,” says Jorgen Pedersen, president and chief executive officer of RE2. “By implementing JAUS during the unmanned systems competitions, students will bring both an understanding of interoperability standards and JAUS expertise with them as they transition into the workforce.”

UAVs are used by all four military branches for missions ranging from reconnaissance and surveillance to attack; and each branch is represented in this exhibit: Predator, DarkStar, X-45A (Air Force); Shadow 200 (Army); Dragon Eye (Marine Corps); and Pioneer (Navy). Likewise, a wide variety of technologies are on display: jets, piston-driven props and electric motors for propulsion; and surveillance radars, precision bombs and missiles for combat use. 

"The UAVs are positioned over 'In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight,' a photographic exhibition of visually intriguing elements of aircraft and spacecraft," museum director Gen. J.R. "Jack" Dailey said. "By installing the two displays together, we hope to suggest parallels between technology, culture and the arts." 

The first true UAVs—aerial vehicles capable of returning to a successful recovery after the prescribed mission—were developed in the late 1950s, but America's military began looking into the use of unmanned aerial vehicles during World War I. Both the Army and Navy built functional unmanned aircraft before the war ended in November 1918. During World War II, unmanned craft had developed to the point where they could be controlled from a remote location by radio signals, usually sent from another aircraft following behind. Modern UAVs are technologically advanced aircraft but would be incomplete without effective command and control, especially trained support personnel, effective mission-related sensors and particular weapons that enable mission accomplishment. 

The following UAVs will be featured in the new exhibition: 

* General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. MQ-1L Predator A: The Predator is capable of both reconnaissance and attack missions. It has been used in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and other global locations. The U.S. Air Force Predator displayed flew 196 combat missions in the skies of Afghanistan and was one of the first three UAVs to fly operational missions there after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Predator Development Team won the 2002 National Air and Space Museum Trophy for Current Achievement. 

* Lockheed Martin/Boeing RQ-3A DarkStar: The DarkStar was developed by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and Boeing Defense and Space Group to provide sustained reconnaissance information from anywhere within enemy territory, day or night, in all types of weather. 

* AeroVironment RQ-14A Dragon Eye: In early 2001, the Naval Research Laboratory and the U. S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory designed and built the Dragon Eye reconnaissance mini-UAV. Dragon Eye is a fully autonomous, hand- or bungee-launched UAV designed to provide tactical reconnaissance and surveillance information to field commanders. The Dragon Eye is on display in a case also containing its computer control, eye goggles (to see what the sensors see), a parts-and-tool kit and bungee-cord launching system. 

* Pioneer UAV Inc. (IAI/AAI) RQ-2A Pioneer: The Pioneer performs a wide variety of reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and battle damage-assessment missions. Pioneer's electro-optical sensors and infrared camera provide real-time images of the target area to field commanders. The vehicle on display served with the U.S. Navy during the 1991 Gulf War. On one notable mission, a group of Iraqi fighters surrendered to the vehicle as it flew over their heads. Marines were directed to their position, where they then captured the fighters.

* AAI Corporation RQ-7A Shadow 200 (Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle): The RQ-7A is a twin-boom pusher design and has nonretractable tricycle landing gear for conventional, wheeled takeoff and landing. The RQ-7A also can be launched from a catapult and has a tail hook to catch arresting cables for a shorter landing run. Screamin' Demon flew with the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division, Stryker Brigade Combat Team No. 2 and the 82nd Airborne Division. Its last combat flight in Iraq took place Sept. 12, 2005, totaling 124 missions and nearly 500 flight hours. 

* Boeing X-45A Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS): The X-45A was the first modern unmanned aerial vehicle designed specifically for combat strike missions. The X-45A first flew in May 2002. Air vehicle No. 1 performed the first autonomous flight of a high-performance, combat-capable UAV; the first weapons release from an autonomous UAV; and, with air vehicle No. 2, the first autonomous multivehicle coordinated flight.  

This exhibition is made possible through the generosity of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., builder of the Predator UAV. 

The National Air and Space Museum building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is located at Sixth Street and Independence Avenue S.W. The museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is located in Chantilly, Va., near Washington Dulles International Airport. Both facilities are open daily from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. (Closed Dec. 25) Admission is free, but there is a $12 fee for parking at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

Designed for reconnaissance and strike, the system comprises a vehicle along with mobile ground control, launch and repair elements. Designers intend the system to perform battlefield reconnaissance, target spotting and strike. Strikes against targets spotted during reconnaissance may be executed by either the drone or other weapons after the UAV transmits information via highly-secure communications. 

With a wingspan of 5.63 meters and a fuselage length of 4.6 meters, the UAV weighs less than 500 kilograms with a flight radius of 150 kilometers and an altitude of 50 meters to six kilometers. 

The craft also carries an emergency parachute should landing in tough terrain prove too risky.

India and Israel say their new helicopter would be capable of operating in severe weather conditions, according to media reports. Unlike the unmanned helicopter first developed by the United States in the 1950s, this drone would employ automated takeoff and landing systems, useful for land and sea. 

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and Israel Aerospace Industries say their helicopter would also feature dual automated operating systems for enhanced safety. The two nations say their drone would prove extremely useful aboard navy ships.

Inventor Adam Ning Chu of Colorado Springs, Colo., designed an inflatable but aerodynamic saucer-shaped vehicle that carries below it a gondola containing a motor, batteries, sensors and control mechanisms. Flying above 100,000 feet, the hybrid UAV would use a propulsion system to lift into high-altitude winds, thereby rising above the buoyancy of blimps and other inflatable aircrafts. The vehicle would steer itself by rotating its gondola, pitching down and thrusting forward when accelerating. 

The maneuverability enables the vehicle to operate continuously, even in high winds. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office assigned the patent to Multimax Inc. of Largo Md.

A senior Bush administration official told media this week that the military decided to intensify its air strikes ahead of political changes in Pakistan that may reduce opportunities to fly missions in that country. In an effort to “shake the tree,” the military employed Predator air strikes to dislodge terrorist operatives from hiding, providing U.S. intelligence services the opportunity to glean new information from local sources on the ground there. 

Currently, the U.S. military flies Predator drone missions over Pakistan with the understanding that they target only foreign operatives rather than local Taliban members of Pakistani nationality.

"It was a picture perfect flight, landing flawlessly on centerline with enough fuel remaining to continue for two more hours," said Jerry Madigan, Northrop Grumman vice president of high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) systems. "The pilots and ground crew, as well as Edwards Air Force Base senior leadership were very impressed with the Global Hawk's performance, meeting or exceeding every flight objective." 

"The Global Hawk has been performing beyond our expectations and this flight is a testament to the U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman's commitment to providing world-class, innovative systems for our military forces," said Bryan Lima, Northrop Grumman Global Hawk chief engineer. "This was the longest mission ever flown by a HALE or MALE (medium-altitude long-endurance) aircraft." 

Designated AF-8, the first Global Hawk Block 20, tail no. 04-2015, surpassed both the official and unofficial world un-refueled endurance records for operational unmanned airplanes previously held by the Block 10 variant. 

"This was a major milestone for the entire Global Hawk team and is a critical data point in supporting upcoming production decisions," said Col. Chris Coombs, acting Global Hawk program director for the 303rd Aeronautical Systems Group at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. "Even after 10 years of flight, the Global Hawk continues to amaze us. Truly a feat of outstanding engineering, no other unmanned aircraft has yet to come close to matching its combat-proven capabilities and versatility." 

To date, three Global Hawks are currently deployed in support of the global war on terrorism (GWOT), logging more than 15,700 combat hours with more than 21,000 total program flight hours and 95 percent mission effectiveness.  

"Northrop Grumman's 60-year history of providing more than 100,000 unmanned systems to military customers in the U.S. and abroad, coupled with this endurance record, have cemented their reputation in producing outstanding unmanned systems," added Col. Coombs. "Under the Air Force contract, Global Hawks cost approximately $28 million each averaged across the entire fleet of 54 aircraft." 

As the world's first fully autonomous HALE unmanned aerial system providing persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to warfighters, the Global Hawk is designed to fly up to 65,000 feet for more than 35 hours and see through any inclement weather at any time. 

Global Hawks are flown in four locations across the globe: Beale Air Force Base, home of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing and the RQ-4's main operating base, near Sacramento, Calif.; Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California; Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland; and in support of the GWOT.

After spotting the group in Mt. Cudi in Sirnak, the Turks began shelling the area, deploying tanks and ammunition to units along the border during an ongoing operation that also covered the areas of Mt. Herekol and Mt. Kato. By Thursday, the Turkish military had sent 10 military trucks carrying commandos along with 10 private trucks loaded with supplies. 

Turkey says the militants had been planning an imminent attack against government buildings and military installations. The military had equipped the Israeli-made UAV with high-resolution cameras to surveil mountainous regions along the border.

During the 1.5-hour flight on Jan. 7 at the Boardman, Ore., test range, ScanEagle, with ImSAR's NanoSAR payload installed, completed several passes over the target area at various altitudes and ranges. The targets included vehicles, structures and corner reflectors. Data collection onboard the ScanEagle worked as planned, and SAR imagery was later created on the ground. The next step in flight testing will be to create imagery aboard the UA in real time. 

The NanoSAR is a 2-pound system approximately the size of a shoebox. The weight of standard SARs ranges from 50 to 200 pounds. 

"In the past, the advantages of SARs' all-weather imaging capabilities have been the exclusive domain of only larger unmanned aircraft. Now, even the 40-pound ScanEagle can carry both an electro-optical or infrared camera and a SAR payload at the same time," said Carol Wilke, ScanEagle chief engineer for Boeing. "SAR is now at the lower end of payload weight budgets instead of at the top. 

"The NanoSAR technology's ability to see in hazy, cloudy, rainy or foggy conditions is ideally suited for the maritime environment," Wilke added. "Combined with ScanEagle's long-endurance capability, NanoSAR offers a cost-effective solution for customers' surveillance requirements." 

Logan Harris, chief technology officer for ImSAR, said, "SAR is the best tool to get certain jobs done, such as finding small vessels on the ocean. But because of the size, weight, power and cost of SAR systems, it just hasn't been possible to get this capability to the warfighter on a broader scale. NanoSAR has changed that. The NanoSAR is built on Printed Circuit Board technology that is rugged and can be rapidly and cost-effectively manufactured." 

Since 2004, the ScanEagle system has proven on a daily basis that it is the best-value solution to support warfighters in the field around the world. It has logged more than 70,000 combat flight hours with the U.S Marines Expeditionary Force, the U.S. Navy and the Australia Defense Force in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Navy has logged more than 900 shipboard recoveries using ScanEagle.
ScanEagle, a joint effort of Boeing Advanced Systems' Advanced Precision Engagement and Mobility Systems and Insitu, was developed as a low-cost, long-endurance autonomous unmanned aircraft to provide persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance as well as flexible, rapid deployment for a variety of government and civilian applications. 

A ScanEagle UA carries inertially stabilized electro-optical and infrared cameras. The gimbaled cameras allow the operator to easily track both stationary and moving targets. Capable of flying above 16,000 feet and loitering over the battlefield for more than 24 hours, the platform provides persistent low-altitude reconnaissance.

ScanEagle is launched autonomously via a pneumatic SuperWedge catapult launcher and flies pre-programmed or operator-initiated missions. An Insitu-patented SkyHook system is used for retrieval -- the aircraft catches a rope suspended from a 50-foot-high tower. The patented system makes the ScanEagle system runway-independent, with a small footprint similar to that needed for vertical takeoff and landing vehicles.

The Technical University of Branschweig and British Antarctic Survey completed 20 flights between October and December, including four flights over the Weddell Sea—without losing a craft. 

The scientists outfitted the drones with equipment to record the exchange of heat between the atmosphere and the ice of the frozen Weddell Sea. In the winter, the bright white ice reflects heat back toward the atmosphere, helping to cool the planet. Climatologists began to study the region to better understand the interplay between sea ice and climate change. 

The 40-minute flights covered 45 kilometers, taking 100 measurements per second, scientists reported. Researchers said the Antarctic provided a good open place to test the aerial systems, given the stretches of barren, unpopulated land. 

The institutions plan to further put the systems to the test during the upcoming Antarctic winter.

The company said it's bidding for the Navy and Marine Corps' Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems/Tier II competition, which is expected to begin this spring. 

KillerBee is a blended-wing vehicle, which Raytheon says sets it apart from similar-sized UAS. Company officials say it's a flexibile and modular platform. 

"KillerBee offers the warfighter an affordable unmanned aircraft system with longer endurance and the ability to carry a larger payload," says Ken Pederssen, Raytheon vice president of Advanced Programs. "Because the Raytheon team is using proven, existing technology, KillerBee can be fielded in the near term." 

Raytheon will use a sensor package from New Hampshire's Optical Alchemy and will act as the prime contractor and systems integrator. 

Company officials say the competition marks Raytheon's biggest move into the unmanned systems arena, where it plans to use its integration abilities to build advanced systems that focus on getting data to the warfighter. 

Raytheon/Swift is expected to go up against Boeing/Insitu's ScanEagle, already in use by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, as well as potential competitors that include AAI corp., BAE Systems, Aurora Flight Sciences and Arcturus.

"All is well. Science & Technology progress is being made from the Coalition Joint Task Force Troy, J8 shop. The past seven days have gone by very fast. They have involved a lot of testing in support of the Counter-IED fight. 

Every night I sit in on the Commander's Update Brief to Col. Lutz, the Commander of TF Troy. Every night we hear of efforts made by the insurgents to disrupt, interfere and slow down the progress of bringing 'the essentials' of everyday life to the Iraqi people and the coalition forces. However, every night we hear of heroes addressing the IED threat." 

Read the rest here. 

About this Blog: AUVSI Members are involved with the most exciting developments in unmanned systems technology on earth and in space. 

AUVSI Member Rob Simmons is a program manager in the U.S. Navy acquisition program responsible for procuring new technology for explosive ordinance disposal such as mines, improvised explosive devices, etc. He has volunteered for a few months in Iraq as both an IED technical adviser and acquisition adviser. 

In this blog, Rob shares his first-hand observations and experiences with unmanned systems being used every day in Iraq. AUVSI hopes this blog will serve as more than simply a home for this correspondence. It is our hope that this will provide an impetus to document lessons learned which, despite great intentions, often go unrecorded.

Military commanders say the Afghanistan war lends itself particularly well to the use of UAVS with an airspace uncluttered by private aircraft and unthreatened by sophisticated anti-aircraft weaponry. Though useful for reconnaissance and offensive operations, Coalition operations have sometimes suffered for lack of UAV support. 

The British military last year deployed the Herti UAV, manufactured by BAE Systems of the UK, and is now seeking to acquire the U.S.-made MQ-9 for the Royal Air Force and Israeli-designed Hermes 450 for its army. The UK also tested the U.S.-made Reaper. 

To date, the British military has had to rely heavily on shared UAV resources.

A RQ-4 Global Hawk touched down on Feb. 28 at Edwards AFB, Calif., marking a decade of flying in the Air Force. Thus far, the aircraft has flown more than 20,000 hours, of which 15,000 were flown in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The aircraft has a maximum altitude of 65,000 feet and an endurance of more than 30 hours, providing live imagery of large geographic areas to field commanders. 

The Air Force interviewed Tom Bryson, deputy manager of engineering supporting for the 452nd flight test squadron, for the occasion. “The significance of 10 years to this point in time is just amazing because we went from an unproven UAV to a very successful first flight here,” Bryson said. 

“I had a front-row seat of this amazing aircraft,” Bryson said. “I was totally amazed to see its capabilities.” 

The Air Force says reservations among some about unmanned aircraft dissipated after seeing the tremendous tactical benefits provided to the military, resulting in numerous lives saved among American and coalition warfighters.

The forum will be convened April 29 to May 1 in the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center in Washington. The forum will provide an opportunity for the Board and interested parties to understand the safety implications presented by the growing use of UAS in the National Airspace System.  

Issues addressed will include:  

- Regulatory standards,
- Integration with the National Airspace System,
- Perspectives of current UAS operators,
- Design, certification and airworthiness,
- Human factors,
- Future UAS applications and perspectives of current users of the National Airspace System.  

The forum is a result of the Safety Board's investigation into a Predator B unmanned aircraft that crashed near Nogales, Arizona, in April 2006. The Board's October 2007
meeting on this accident resulted in 22 safety recommendations to address deficiencies associated with the civilian use of unmanned aircraft.  

"The Nogales accident surfaced a number of important questions that need to be addressed if UAS's are to operate safely in the National Air Space," said Board Member Kitty Higgins, who will chair the forum. "We are very interested in the military's experience with UAS's, training of pilots, maintenance of the aircraft, communication with Air Traffic Control and oversight of UAS operations by public use agencies and other operators."  

The forum will include representatives from the military, industry, the FAA, and government agencies involved in UAS operations. Interested members of the aviation community and general public are encouraged to attend.  A forum agenda will be announced by press release in mid-April.  

Representatives from the UAS industry also are invited to set up display booths and unmanned aircraft vehicle scale models that demonstrate unmanned aircraft systems and technologies. Display space is limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Organizations interested in setting up a display should contact Mr. Daniel Bartlett at the NTSB at daniel.bartlett@ntsb.gov with their specific requirements no later than March 28, 2008. Requests for display space after this date cannot be accommodated.

Speakers at the Royal United Services Institute of the United Kingdom raised the possibility at a meeting of the 177 year-old military affairs group. 

“Sooner or later, we’re going to see a Cessna programmed to fly into a building,” Rear Adm. Chris Parry, of the Ministry of Defense, told the Associated Press. Smaller unmanned aircraft represents the security hole to Western governments given low cost and the ability to evade radar. 

With relative ease, terrorists may build cheap robots from hardware collected at junkyards and intelligence gleaned from the Internet, Parry and other experts say. In 2006, Hezbollah sent a number of unmanned aerial vehicles into Israeli airspace a few years after a half-dozen Hamas militants died while attempting to rig a remote-operated aircraft with bombs. 

Other reports say groups linked to Al Qaida have considered the use of unmanned aircraft in waging attacks.

The glider traveled 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) below the surface between St. Thomas and St. Croix in the Virgin Islands more than 20 times since its December launch, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the Webb Research Corporation, both located in Falmouth, Mass. 

The team says the glider may "fly" independently for as long as six months, rising to the surface periodically to orient itself by GPS. Although most underwater gliders rely on battery power, researchers say the new propulsion method allows for cheaper vehicles and extended running hours. 

Researchers working for the U.S. military are now developing similar underwater vehicles that would not need to rise to the surface for GPS, according to experts who spoke at AUVSI's Unmanned Maritime Systems Technology Review 2008, held last month in Florida.

The federal government agreed to permit the Miami-Dade Police Department certification to use the Micro Air Vehicle, made by Honeywell of Morristown, N.J., after a successful demonstration flight in Laguna, N.M. 

The police plan to test the vehicle in real-world situations in urban law enforcement for four to six months. Similar to one intended for the Army's Future Combat Systems, the MAV boasts vertical lift, quick flight and an ability to hover as it “stares” using electro-optical infrared sensors. 

Honeywell says the police department agreed to buy one vehicle and lease a second for the demonstration, which would involve tactical police situations. Police helicopters pilots would fly the 18-pound (8.2 kg) man-portable vehicles. 

The company says they expect to win several large contracts for their vehicles, keeping busy a factory in Albuquerque, N.M. capable of building 100 units per month.

Dyke Weatherington, the U.S. Defense Department's deputy director for unmanned warfare, said the message of the DOD's recent unmanned systems roadmap is "we have to work a lot harder at the beginning for integration." Weatherington spoke Friday at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's Unmanned Systems Program Review 2008 in Washington, D.C. 

For instance, the DOD's UAS Planning Task Force, which released the roadmap late last year, is seeking to reach as much common ground between the U.S. Air Force's Predator program and the U.S. Army's Sky Warrior program as possible. 

Both are based on General Atomics Aeronautical Systems' venerable Predator, but for a while the services were treating them as completely separate programs. Now they are near agreement on moving to a common platform, instead of two variations, common payloads, including weapons, and even common training. 

"I think this is a really good news story that we've been able to achieve," Weatherington said, although much work remains to be done. 

DOD is also moving to converge its grab-bag of unmanned aircraft system programs, Weatherington said. It's moving from flying the Desert Hawk, Dragon Eye and Raven A to the Raven B, from the Hunter, I-Gnat and Predator to the MQ-1C Sky Warrior, and from the Pioneer to the Shadow. 

Weatherington said in addition to the billions of dollars in the fiscal 2009 budget request intended for unmanned systems, the war-funding budget supplemental now pending before Congress contains more than $500 million just for UAS. However, he said the department needs to decide how to fund the systems it wants when supplemental funding bills go away. 

Flight hours are increasing along with the spending, he said. For 2008, he said he expects that amount to go above 350,000 hours of operation. 

Col. Don Hazelwood, head of the U.S. Army's UAS Project Office, said unmanned systems are among the unsung heroes of the military surge in Iraq. 

Hazelwood said the war has pushed the services to develop joint, interoperable systems such as the Sky Warrior. Echoing Weatherington, he said, "I'm happy to report that the Army and Air Force have reached a 99 percent agreement on the platform for the MQ-1C series of aircraft," Hazelwood said. 

In the future, he said, "We need to focus much more on integration with the war-fighter and less on the hardware, which is not to say that [the hardware] is not important." 

In the near term, he said, the military will use commercial technology to begin building "multiple domains with multiple capabilities that talk to each other."

The Navy is focused on "not just getting the sailor out of the minefield, but getting the sailor off the mine," James Thomsen, the program executive officer for littoral and mine warfare for Naval Sea Systems Command, said Thursday at AUVSI's Unmanned Systems Program Review 2008 in Washington, D.C. 

Thomsen said the Navy is looking for cheap, expendable unmanned underwater vehicles as part of the Littoral and Undersea Surveillance program, "the only place where we're pursuing throw-away systems." 

The Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program has a heavy unmanned systems component, including for anti-mine warfare. However, Thomsen and other speakers said that industry, particularly companies seeking to develop for the LCS, should focus on being compatible with its control system and on building reliable systems with a need for minimal maintenance. 

Capt. Mike Good, NAVSEA's PEO for LMW/PMS 420, said 15 sailors serve as a mission detachment for the LCS, so they don't have time to work with balky or unreliable systems. 

Several speakers at the Thursday program, which focused on maritime systems, said they need more reliability and autonomy, better control and communications and advanced sensors, not new platforms. 

The reliability of systems has a "huge influence" on whether unmanned systems "are accepted in the fleet," Thomsen said. 

"It's got to be embedded into the forces that we work with today. We cannot add infrastructure to the fleet," he said. 

Capt. Paul Siegrist, NAVSEA's PEO for LMW/PMS 403, said there are several technological challenges facing the Navy's effort to expand the use of unmanned vehicles. In the short term, he said, the service wants reliable launch and recovery, reliable communications and better platform integration, among others. 

Medium-term needs include greater autonomy and more advanced sensors that can send real-time information if needed, retain information that can wait, and have the wisdom to know the difference. 

"There will be information that we need to get back to the warfighter now, now, now," Siegrist said. 

The Navy is working on a variety of other unmanned systems, from airborne mine detectors to unmanned surface vehicles to unattended netted sensors that can ride out sea storms and relay information to satellites. 

The service is also seeking an unmanned replacement for the SEALs Delivery Vehicle, which can currently carry four Navy SEALs but requires a pilot and navigator. An unmanned version could dispense with the pilot and navigator and carry six SEALs. 

"Basically, we want to put six people and stuff ashore ... and recover them and take them back to the submarine," said Capt. Patrick Sullivan of Naval Special Warfare's Program Office (PMS 340). "We need to have the thing be able to fly itself." 

AUVSI's Unmanned Systems Program Review 2008 continues Friday. Friday's presentations will focus on airborne systems. 

Brett Davis is editor of AUVSI's Unmanned Systems magazine.

"There's no substitute for an eye in the sky and there’s no substitute for 'bots' on the ground," Tom Curtin, chief knowledge officer of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, said Wednesday at the kickoff of AUVSI's 2008 Unmanned Systems Program Review in Washington, D.C. The first day of the three-day program focused on ground systems. 

To integrate robotic vehicles into the services, the U.S. Department of Defense established a consortium of industry partners in a move to allow corporations not only to meet military requirements but to actively plan research for future systems. 

"The purpose is to better engage industry and academia," said Anthony Melita, program system analyst for Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise. "In doing so, we hope to provide opportunities for non-governmental organizations to plan research" and generate ideas. 

The Pentagon would then enter into a legal agreement with the consortium of corporations and academic institutions for seven years with a budget of $175 million. By initiating the consortium, the military hopes to quickly attract a field of non-governmental organizations—by April 21—to begin planning for fiscal year 2009. 

The triumvirate of government, industry and academia plans to integrate robotics within the services in the coming years, endeavoring to liberate the warfighter from dangerous urban convoys and other battle scenarios prone to guerrilla warfare tactics. 

Jeffrey Jaczkowski, representing the U.S. Army's AFRL/TARDEC office, said the military has already reached the cusp of such a breakthrough. However dramatic the internal combustion engine and armor plating were in military history, the use of unmanned and semi-autonomous vehicles in military convoys would represent a seminal moment, he said. 

In recent months, the Army tested unmanned convoy vehicles through more than 1,200 kilometers, devising ways to allow warfighters to leverage robotic intelligence. In the test, researchers set a group of semi-autonomous vehicles racing down a roadway, where the systems encountered contingencies similar to those seen in the dynamic environment of a busy urban highway. 

In one scenario, an enemy attack or random traffic obstruction causes the lead vehicle to suddenly brake, requiring the trailing vehicles to adapt quickly without incident. During the course of testing, the military achieved an improvement of 400 percent in safety and reaction time, Jaczowski said, hastening the day when robots take the human soldier further from the field. 

Already the military points to a casualty rate of 150 bomb-disposal robots in Iraq, which means a similar number of men and women returning home unscathed to their families. Robots are the first line of defense in anti-explosive ordnance operations. 

Byron Brezina, of the Naval EOD Technology Division, said that before the current wars anti-bomb robots numbered only in the "low hundreds," but there now are more than 1,300. Soon that number will double, to the point where "we're getting close to one robot for every two EOD techs." 

AUVSI's Unmanned Systems Program Review continues Thursday, Feb. 28, and Friday, Feb. 29. Thursday will focus on maritime systems and will feature a keynote address by James Thomsen, Naval Sea Systems Command’s program executive officer for littoral and mine warfare. Friday will focus on unmanned air systems. 

Matt Mientka is associate editor of AUVSI's Unmanned Systems magazine.

According to a solicitation from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, the Army wants "to procure on a sole-source basis the manufacture of three MQ-5 Hunter aircraft" from Northrop Grumman. 

The MQ-5B is based on the earlier RQ-A Hunter, originally developed by TRW and Israel Aerospace Industries. Northrop Grumman inherited the program when it bought TRW and upgraded the vehicle, which now uses heavy-fuel engines and can carry the Viper Strike and BLU-108 submunitions. 

The Hunters, both armed and unarmed, are in heavy rotation in Iraq, operating out of Balad Air Base and Contingency Operating Base Speicher. 

Although the program originally was killed due to a perceived lack of reliability, operators in Iraq have told Unmanned Systems that it's a very reliable platform, clocking in 17-hour missions day after day. The Hunters flying from Speicher are armed, and recorded the first weapon strike from an Army UAV in late 2007.

General Dynamics Robotic Systems is a part of General Dynamics Land Systems (Sterling Heights, Mich.), a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD). 

General Dynamics Robotic Systems will manufacture the semi-autonomous security vehicles and provide spare parts, training and technical services for a five-year period. The work will be done at its Westminster, Md., production facility. 

Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada will receive the first four robotic security vehicles produced under this program. Since 2005, the MDARS demonstration vehicles have been evaluated at the depot, logging more than 8,000 hours and 28,000 miles of service. 

MDARS autonomously conducts surveillance activities including checking for intruders, remotely investigating alarm sources, monitoring high-value inventory and assessing facility barriers, such as the doors of storage bunkers. MDARS is a diesel-powered, 4-wheel hydrostatic-drive vehicle, with a payload capacity of 500 lbs. The vehicle is equipped with a real-time obstacle avoidance system and 360-degree sensors. It can operate for 16 hours without refueling and at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. 

"General Dynamics Robotic Systems has taken MDARS from concept to full-scale production," said Phil Cory, vice president, General Dynamics Robotic Systems. "MDARS will minimize numerous physical burdens to Hawthorne's human security force while reducing their exposure to potentially deadly situations."

Speakers and topics will be as follows: 

• Laurence Newcome, UAS expert and an author of the DoD UAVS Roadmap - will provide a forecast of UAV utilization and future DoD and DHS initiatives. 

• Jeff Bauer, Deputy Director of Business Development for the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) - will speak on lessons learned and First Responder applications and their relation to the Certificates of Authorization (COA) process. 

• Glen Witt, Director of Airspace Operations at TAAC (Technical Analysis and Applications Center) at the New Mexico State University - will discuss other aspects of Government Agencies usage and the COA process for DoD and DHS. 

The open, no-charge meeting will be held in the Eagle Room of NASA Building 943 (adjacent to the main gate) at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, California with presentations commencing promptly at 11:30 a.m., March 4, 2008.  Immediately following the individual presentations, a panel discussion and Q&A session will run from approximately 12:30 until 13:30 or later. A light lunch will be available with a suggested donation of $15 to defray the expenses for the meeting. 

If you plan to attend or require further information, please call or email Robert Simmen, Chapter Secretary, phone/recorder (650) 654-0174; or email rls@onebox.com.

During the next few months, the federal government plans to organize its UAV efforts, creating an aviation monitoring system to track such aircraft, according to Izvestia, a Russian publication. 

For a brief time during the 1970s, Russia led the world in air force technology and began building unmanned drones, producing 950 Tu-143 reconnaissance airplanes through the 1980s. The Russian UAV industry soon collapsed with the Soviet Union, however. Not until last year did the government make serious commitments to producing a next-generation of unmanned aircraft for military and commercial purposes. 

Russian aircraft manufacturers MiG and Sukhoi plan to develop drones for the military.

The Defense Department released its budget request for fiscal 2009 on Feb. 4, as did the other agencies in the federal government. 

The Air Force's budget request is $143.9 billion, $41 billion of it earmarked to modernize and recapitalize the force. That would include buying 93 aircraft, 52 of which would be unmanned aircraft. 

The Air Force wants to buy 38 General Atomics Aeronautical Systems-built MQ-1B Predators for $600 million, nine of GA-ASI's larger MQ-9A Reapers for $300 million and five high-flying Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawks for $1.1 billion. The service also wants 642 Hellfire missiles to be fired from Predator vehicles. 

The U.S. Army's $140.7 billion share of the budget request includes $10.5 billion for research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E), down $1.5 billion from the fiscal 2008 budget, and $24.6 billion for procurement, up $2 billion from fiscal 2008. 

That includes some of the first procurement money for the Future Combat Systems, the comprehensive Army modernization plan that includes networks of manned and unmanned vehicles. 

The $330 million for FCS procurement in the budget includes procurement money that will mostly go for the Non-Line of Sight Cannon (NLOS) but which will also fund acquisition of Honeywell's Micro Air Vehicle and iRobot's Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) for accelerated testing. 

While most of the FCS budget is still in the RDT&E line item, "this is one of the things you begin to see here in the procurement budget," says Lt. Gen. David Melcher, a military deputy for budgeting who spoke at a series of briefings held Feb. 4 at the Pentagon. 

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps' $149.3 billion budget request includes money for three MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopters. The service had planned to buy five, but budget pressures forced that number to drop, says Rear Adm. Stan Bozin, director of the Navy's Office of Budget. 

He says there are no problems with the Northrop Grumman-built system, but "it's a reduction based on competing requirements." 

The Navy has also cut procurement of the Littoral Combat Ship, which is expected to make heavy use of unmanned equipment, including air vehicles and underwater systems. Teams headed by Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics are competing to build the ships using very different designs, and Bozin says the outcome of sea trials this summer will be critical to the program's future. 

The fiscal 2009 request would fund two ships (down from earlier plans for six), but Bozin says "how we proceed will depend greatly on how these two ships perform when they come out of the [shipbuilding] yards." 

The U.S. Coast Guard is taking a tentative step back into the unmanned vehicle market after deciding last year not to proceed with its plans for buying vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft systems. 

Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen told a U.S. House of Representatives oversight subcommittee last year that neither the Bell Helicopter Eagle Eye or Northrop Grumman's Fire Scout were "mature enough to warrant full-scale production." The Coast Guard originally planned to buy 45 Eagle Eye vehicles as part of its sprawling Deepwater modernization program, but it also took a look at the Fire Scout helicopter, developed for the U.S. Navy. 

In its budget documentation, the Coast Guard has pulled the $33.8 million it planned to spend on the Eagle Eye for construction and acquisition in 2008 and instead put in a budget item of just $3 million for a study of UAS alternatives, with no further funding identified in the remaining four years of the five-year defense plan. 

The study "may include recommendations for alternative [vertical takeoff and landing UAVs], tactial UAS, mid-altitude land-based UAS, none of the aforementioned options, or a combination of the options used together," Coast Guard budget documents say. 

The federal budget request now moves to Capitol Hill, where hearings on defense spending are scheduled to begin this week. 

Brett Davis is editor of Unmanned Systems magazine.

Davidson first began working with AUVSI in 1988. In his 20 years the Association has experienced 400 percent worldwide membership growth and has expanded its service offerings, which now include numerous publications, international events, knowledge products and other membership benefits. "I am very proud of the global growth in the Association – including Affiliate Organizations in Canada and Australia – and the tremendous increase in member services that we have been able to provide," said Davidson. "We've come a very long way in supporting this industry and maturing as an organization." 

AUVSI's Board of Directors has created a transition committee and has commenced a search for a new executive director. The committee will be working with an executive search firm to fill the position and expects the process to be completed by June.   

Davidson will move into a position as head of the AUVSI Foundation, a charitable organization that exists to support AUVSI student competitions and other unmanned systems-related educational initiatives. 

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is the world's largest non-profit organization devoted exclusively to advancing the unmanned systems community. AUVSI's 6,000 members worldwide come from government organizations, industry and academia. AUVSI is committed to fostering, developing, and promoting unmanned systems and related technologies.