Boeing is "pleased to be in on the ground floor"
of developments in unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) according to Mike
Heinz, VP for unmanned systems at the company's Integrated Defense
Advanced Systems (IDeAS) group. Heinz heads a new division established
18 months ago to approach a market that is growing at 20-25% within
the Pentagon budget.
Heinz says that Boeing's expertise in putting together large,
complex systems will be valuable as UAVs become smarter, more
reliable and more closely tied into battlefield networks. "Until
recently, there had to be a pilot in the loop," says Heinz.
Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk is autonomous, "but it orbits
in its own safe zone," Heinz points out. "UAVs need
to become more adaptable, not just autonomous. We have to reduce
operator workload. That's been a real thorn in our side. Typically,
we have had multiple operators per vehicle"-raising operating
costs-"but where we want to go is multiple vehicles per operator."
In the future, Heinz says, UAVs will respond automatically to
changing situations and to what other vehicles do.
Another necessary change, says Heinz, is to break down barriers
between systems. "Up to now, all these systems have been
stovepiped, with their own mission control systems, and their
own specially trained operators and maintainers." The result
is that UAVs cannot be deployed without their own dedicated support
equipment. "The Defense Department's worst nightmare should
be the proliferation of stovepiped systems," says Heinz.
"There's a crying need for a common mission management infrastructure."
Boeing is dividing its UAV work into three sectors, says Heinz-tactical,
combat and high-altitude long endurance (HALE) vehicles. In tactical
vehicles "our strategy is to partner," Heinz says. "It's
not our intent to duplicate air vehicles that dozens of companies
are doing very well." In May, Boeing announced an agreement
with General Atomics, builder of the Predator UAV, under which
it will integrate Predator control functions into its E-3 AWACS
and AH-64 Apache.
As for HALE vehicles, Boeing is looking at high-technology designs
that could stay airborne for "days or weeks," Heinz
says. "There are lots of opportunities beyond Global Hawk
in terms of payload, endurance and missions. One prime example
is a communications relay." Heinz envisions the equivalent
of a geosynchronous communications satellite, flying at 60,000
feet rather than orbiting at 22,000 miles: "Consider the
bandwidth you could get." Boeing is looking at new technologies,
such as a stratospheric airship using both solar and hydrogen
power and fuel-cell-powered aircraft, to turn such visions into
reality.
Potentially Boeing's biggest unmanned project in the medium term
is the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV). The company is flying
two 12,000-pound X-45A UCAV prototypes at Edwards AFB, California
under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program,
but the project is growing larger and more ambitious at the insistence
of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "OSD [Office of the
Secretary of Defense] is insisting on maximum acceleration, to
get vehicles into the hands of commanders."
A new joint USAF/Navy UCAV program office is being formed, and-under
current plans-will rapidly develop and acquire as many as 36 X-45Cs,
a 36,500-pound vehicle with a 4,500-pound bomb load and the ability
to loiter for two hours at a 1,000 nmi combat radius. With a new
flying-wing shape, the X-45C design can be adapted to land on
an aircraft carrier, while the USAF version will be able to refuel
in flight.
Heinz acknowledges that the bigger UCAV will cost more than DARPA
hoped when the project started, but says that it is "still
within the realm of possibility" that the price tag will
be half that of the Joint Strike Fighter. Navy and USAF requirements
are beginning to merge, says Heinz, and the total UCAV requirement
"could be in the hundreds and could possibly be 1,000 aircraft.
What drives it is how well it's accepted, and what utility it
brings to the commanders that they can't get with JSF."
