Cobham Aerospace Connectivity has been selected by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) and the U.S. Army to provide the anti-jam GPS systems for the MQ-1C ER Gray Eagle Extended Range (GE-ER) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) platform.
As part of a multi-domain operation equipment suite that is compatible with existing GE-ER aircraft, the DACU-8 capability provides assured positioning, navigation and timing to the Gray Eagle ER UAS, weapons and sensors. According to Cobham, this modification to the Gray Eagle ER UAS ensures the platform can provide reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition and attack capability, even in a GPS contested environment.
The digital antenna control unit (DACU) and controlled radiation pattern array antenna system were chosen for their performance in jammed and benign environments, as well as their ability to output direction finding to on-board systems, Cobham said. This direction-finding capability allows the system to perform as a sensor, enabling the platform to identify, locate and respond to the jamming threat.
“GA-ASI and Cobham collaborated very closely on integration activities and on-platform performance evaluations to deliver cutting edge technology for the U.S. Army,” said Matt Cadwell, North America sales director at Cobham. “Cobham is very proud to support GA-ASI’s leadership through the ‘survive, persist and thrive’ evolution in denied environments. The DACU-8 capability ensures GE-ER’s ability to persist in a contested environment, providing critical RSTA capability in a contested environment, supporting the Army, as well as the joint force.”
Robotic Research LLC has added Retrotraverse to its AutoDrive-M autonomy kit. The autonomy kit is equipped on the U.S. Army’s Palettized Load System (PLS) logistics trucks.
Robotic Research demonstrated the Retrotraverse capabilities with three of the U.S. Army’s PLS trucks, each towing trailers. “This is a major step forward for our company and has broad application both in autonomy and platooning. The capability solves the potentially life-threatening problem of an autonomous platoon of military vehicles being unable to navigate out of a dangerous situation,” said Alberto Lacaze, president of Robotic Research. “This automated platooning capability will ultimately extend the reach of soldiers without putting them in harm’s way.”
The Retrotraverse feature allows a platoon of heavy-duty trucks with trailers to autonomously reverse. Several autonomous vehicle providers in the trucking industry are demonstrating platooning in benign conditions, where the weather is ideal and road surfaces are smooth and marked.
Robotic Research has been specifically focusing on addressing the edge cases, such as poor weather, dust and off-road conditions, to ensure a robust autonomous system that is necessary for operating in all conditions and during mission-critical operations for the military.
If a platoon drives into a dead end, or similar edge case where it cannot make a U-turn, the platoon of vehicles with trailers needs to be able to reverse out of the situation. Retrotraverse can make this happen.
“Anyone who has backed up a truck with a trailer knows how difficult it is to navigate,” said Joe Putney, director of commercial systems at Robotic Research. “The autonomous Retrotraverse feature was able to reverse a truck and trailer faster than even our most skilled drivers. This feature is not just lifesaving, it’s time-saving, and it has the ability to reduce one of the greatest pains truck drivers have.”
In 2018, Robotic Research was awarded a three-year, $49.7 million contract by the U.S. Army to provide its autonomy kit for large convoy resupply vehicles. Robotic Research has since delivered nearly 100 unmanned platooning trucks.
The United States Army has awarded Collins Aerospace a Phase III contract to build the second generation of its Mounted Assured Position Navigation and Timing System (MAPS).
The MAPS program adds anti-jamming capability for soldiers in GPS-contested environments. In 2019, MAPS Gen I units were installed on Stryker vehicles of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany.
Phase 3 of the MAPS Gen II program “begins combat platform integration in preparation for low-rate initial production,” according to an Oct. 7 Army press release.
MAPS Gen II includes M-code GPS receivers, provided by BAE Systems, along with anti-jamming antennas, sensor fusion and inertial measurement units to deliver assured PNT to soldiers.
MAPS Gen II is part of the Army’s goal to accelerate the development and fielding of modernized soldier capabilities.
“Less than a year after we equipped the first generation of MAPS in Europe we’re already pushing forward with the development of Gen II,” said Willie Nelson, director of the the Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (APNT) Cross-Functional Team (CFT). “This award comes less than a month after our Mounted APNT requirement was approved. The timing could not be better.”
MAPS Gen I includes A and B kits, consisting of cable and mounts to use on a vehicle and a military GPS paired with non-radio frequency technologies.
The Phase III Other Transaction Authority contract covers product maturation and begins combat platform integration, clearing the path to low rate initial production.
Army Stryker ground combat vehicle. (Photo: Karolis Kavolelis / Shutterstock.com)
The MAPS GEN II is comprised of the NavHub-100 PNT Distribution Device, the Multi-Sensor Antenna System (MSAS-100) and an optional speed sensor. The NavHub-100 works in concert with the MSAS-100 to produce a trusted A-PNT solution that can be distributed through serial interface, Victory Ethernet and RF distribution to multiple client systems.
MAPS GEN II supports the U.S. Army PNT Reference Architecture by leveraging modular technologies from across Collins’ A-PNT portfolio and industry. This scalable architecture builds upon the modular open system architecture (MOSA) standards and includes the All Source Positioning and Navigation (ASPN) generic message definition to support plug-and-play sensor integration and the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) to host portable software capabilities.
The MAPS GEN II system not only supports direct replacement of the Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR) on military platforms, it also provides exceptional A-PNT performance in GPS-contested and GPS-denied environments.
The U.S. Army is opening a new office and laboratory to develop agile position, navigation and timing solutions to reduce soldiers’ dependence on GPS, according to reports in C4ISRNET and Defense News.
The new PNT modernization product office will focus on developing and deploying solutions that keep soldiers operating in areas where the GPS signal has been denied, degraded or spoofed. The office will open Oct. 8, and will use an open-systems architecture.
The new office will also host an Open Innovation Lab, a space where commercial entities can work with the Army to develop PNT solutions. Within lab, the Army has set aside space for the CMOSS (C4ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards) Lab and the Network Cross-Functional Team’s Orion Forge at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
The lab will be physically separated from the more classified areas of the site to encourage engagement with industry. Technologies to be explored include radio frequency systems, GPS, alt-nav, chip-scale atomic clocks, other timing technologies and celestial navigation.
According to the reports, the technologies will be fielded fast, with new solutions every five years. This is in contrast to the usual method of a decade spent developing technologies meant to last 20 years so that soldiers can always combat adversaries’ capabilities.
Andradige Silva, electronics engineer for the C5ISR Center’s Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate, and Maj. Doug Williams, assistant product manager for the Joint Battle Command-Platform, access the C4ISR/Electronic Warfare Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS). (Photo: U.S. Army)
SMC awards multiple rapid prototyping agreements for joint modernized GPS handheld device; four demonstrations to be held
The Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR) in use in 2011. (Photo: U.S. Army)
On June 26, the United States Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center awarded three separate rapid prototyping agreements to Collins Aerospace, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and the Technology Advancement Group for a total of $41.1 million.
The firm-fixed price agreements are for the development of a basic working prototype of the joint modernized GPS handheld device. The contract provides the government with innovative solutions demonstrated via hardware and software prototype development.
The purpose of this rapid prototyping effort is to produce a joint modernized handheld smaller in size with low power consumption, increased military-code capability, and improved anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities compared to the equipment now used by the military.
4 demonstrations coming
This is the second competitive objective under the current Phase I strategy and is the result of a down-select from five to three vendors. It builds off the first objective of Phase I, which focused on mock-ups and drawings.
These agreements provide for four demonstrations to be held with Army and Marine Corps representatives. The demonstrations give the end users an early opportunity to provide feedback and the ability to influence the final design — ultimately making for a more seamless transition to operations.
“This is the first major update to the military’s GPS handheld device in more than 15 years,” said Col. Clifford Sulham, User Products Division chief. “The advanced capabilities of this device will allow our airmen, soldiers, sailors and Marines to conduct operations in GPS-challenged environments.”
In the United States, trucking companies and the Army are both developing systems to automate moving groups of trucks. While trucking companies are mostly interested in “platoons” of trucks drafting off of each other to save fuel, the Army wants its “convoyed” trucks to be hundreds of meters apart to improve their chances of surviving an enemy attack.
Battlefield challenges
While the biggest danger for platoons of commercial trucks is crashing, military convoys can be threatened by attacks with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or rocket-propelled grenades.
Civilian truck drivers also benefit from a robust infrastructure, said Bernard Theisen, division chief for Ground Vehicle Robotics at the U.S. Army’s Ground Vehicles Systems Center (GVSC). For example, nearly all platooning trucks are limited to using roads and highways that have been mapped at centimeter-level resolution with lidar, can communicate over 3G or 4G networks, and have excellent GNSS signals. “I would love to have all that information,” Theisen said, “every time I send a robotic convoy vehicle out there.”
By contrast, the military must design a system that assumes “no comms, no prior data, and no infrastructure,” Theisen explained. “Sometimes a bridge that used to be there has been blown up or we may have put a new bridge across the water overnight. A building that was there yesterday got blown up and is now blocking the road. You cannot pre-plan that in the map and expect it not to change.”
Nevertheless, the civilian and military efforts share some challenges, Theisen acknowledged, including “perceiving the world, understanding it, processing the data, and making the right decisions.” Unlike robots, humans are very good at coping with the unexpected. “You can only train a robot so much, there will always be situations that it does not know how to handle.”
In a military convoy, every fourth or fifth truck may have a mounted gun to protect the convoy. The convoy will typically include one or more ambulances, wreckers and fuel tankers. “It is a different application than for Amazon or FedEx to send a couple of trucks down the highway,” Theisen said.
Leader-follower
In leader-follower applications, GVSC installs the same hardware on all its trucks. “This facilitates software maintenance, because you don’t need to have different versions,” Theisen said. If the convoy’s leader is disabled from a mechanical or battlefield issue, it is easy for a soldier on the next truck to authorize his truck to take over as the convoy’s new leader. “We have also created cases where the leader takes that road months ahead of the followers,” said Alberto Lacaze, co-founder and president of Robotic Research. “So, the leader does not need to be a part of the convoy.”
Rough terrain doesn’t affect navigation, except that in hilly terrain trucks might have more side-to-side drift than in a flat area. “We often use a three-axis IMU [inertial measurement unit] instead of a two-axis IMU, which might be all you need for a commercial application on flat roads,” Theisen said.
“The commercial problem is almost like carrying a group of trailers that are not mechanically connected,” Lacaze said. It is crucial to be able to tie in the vehicles’ low-level controls so that they maintain a very short separation. If those vehicles were trying too hard to maintain those very close distances by frequently accelerating and decelerating, the fuel-savings advantages from drafting would go away. By contrast, for military applications the exact distance between the trucks doesn’t matter much, but their side-to-side error does. “You would like all vehicles to be driving within one tire width of the lead vehicle’s tracks,” Lacaze said. “That has many advantages — for example, if that road has been demined.”
While commercial and military software largely overlap, their sensor requirements are fundamentally different. “Most commercial vehicles are not checking to see whether there is a crater in the middle of the road,” Lacaze said. Military vehicles need to detect such damage to the infrastructure and respond quickly.
Still, the military is interested in “the gigantic amount of mapping of the available infrastructure” being done by private companies, Lacaze said, because most military convoys are not in war-torn areas, but delivering materiel to bases in areas with some infrastructure.
Robotic modes
GVSC purchases commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) systems and integrates them into its trucks, Theisen explained, producing five robotic modes:
Warning, which consists of “idiot lights” and buzzers alerting human drivers that, for example, they are straying out of a lane or are about to hit something
Driver assist mode, which helps drivers brake, accelerate and steer
Teleoperation, which consists of driving the truck from a remote location
Waypoint navigation, which uses a GNSS waypoint path that can either be pre-programmed or pre-driven and then replayed
Leader-follower, in which the first vehicle leads and potentially any number of vehicles follow.
Regarding the driver assist mode, Theisen pointed out that “all these features are very common in high-end cars and you are seeing them coming into many Class 8 trucks. We don’t do any development in the Army from that standpoint.” Regarding the leader-follower mode, the first truck can be driven in any of the other four modes.
GVSC is the lead system integrator for 30 robotic palletized loading systems (PLSs) that the Army has at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and another 30 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Nevertheless, a human driver usually leads the robotic convoy. The driver determines the best route, assesses the situation, and is normally followed by three unmanned systems. “That is why we call our system semi-autonomous,” Theisen said.
The role of GNSS
The Olli shuttle, equipped with Robotic Research’s AutoDrive kit, is deployed on busy boardwalks, campuses and public roads. (Photo: Robotic Research)
For both commercial platooning and military convoying, GNSS signals are used for redundancy but not as the primary source of measurement of the distance between the trucks. “None of the systems that we have deployed on the commercial side — for example, with Local Motors vehicles (the Olli shuttle) — rely on GNSS,” Lacaze said, though they will use those signals if available. The high accuracy of their inertial systems make it hard to spoof or jam GNSS receivers, because the system would detect any changes in the GNSS solution and the vehicles would continue running on inertial navigation if the GNSS signal were jammed.
“We assume that we will not have GNSS information because sometimes we are jamming ourselves or are being jammed or the enemy could be spoofing us,” Theisen said. Most of GVSC’s systems use “nav boxes” sold by multiple vendors that enable vehicles to navigate for long periods without GNSS signals. They typically combine one or two GNSS receivers, an IMU or several smaller ones, a combination of wheel encoders or ground sensors to determine ground speed, and a digital compass.
GVSC’s trucks also use lidar to generate voxel maps of their current surroundings, and then share them with the other trucks in the convoy. Each vehicle tracks the vehicle in front of it and can just follow it, if it has insufficient position information or good visual cues.
GVSC looks for the highest possible GNSS accuracy, whether using civilian GNSS receivers or military Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) units. “We also take advantage of the future M-code,” Theisen said. “We do have capabilities that the civilian marketplace does not have.”
Remaining obstacles
The remaining bottleneck in the development and implementation of convoys of autonomous military vehicles is the approval process, Lacaze said. “Currently, if we make changes to the autonomy systems, the testing parts of the government are asking us to drive hundreds of thousands of miles before providing approvals. It is still a challenge to figure out at what point these vehicles are safe enough to provide to the soldiers and what the cost of doing so is.”
For these systems to take off, better processors, sensors (cameras, radars and lidars) and algorithms are required, Theisen said. “There is way more sensor data that you can collect and process in real time.”
Featured photo, provided by Robotic Research: Army convoys can stretch for miles. The U.S. Army’s Autonomous Ground Resupply trucks shown here are connected with Robotic Research’s autonomous technology.
A new system, called WarLoc, makes it possible to locate warfighters and first responders in GPS-denied environments.
Created by Robotic Research, a manufacturer of autonomy and robotic technology, the system provides localization and positioning data for teams entering underground facilities and traveling inside buildings and in urban canyons.
According to the company, multiple systems — including, besides WarLoc, robotic systems, UAVs and manned vehicles equipped with its technology — collaborate to enhance accuracy and maintain the localization of teams.
Its system, the company said, is unique in that “it has very small 3D position error in such a small package” and its filtering algorithms, rather than being centralized, are “distributed and opportunistic in nature to provide the best solution given the communications available.”
In January, Robotic Research received a $16.5-million order for WarLoc from the U.S. Army Product Manager Sets, Kits, Outfits and Tools (PM SKOT) to support forward-deployed U.S. military personnel. The company will deliver the WarLoc units to equip four deployed U.S. Army Brigade Combat Teams. The first batch has been shipped. The procuring organization, PM SKOT, provides Army and Joint Services oversight of the lifecycle for all sets, kits, outfits and tools used by U.S. soldiers.
Distributed System
A self-contained localization system typically relies on GNSS signals, when available, complemented by inertial navigation. By contrast, the WarLoc is a distributed system meant to work as a team, said Alberto Lacaze, Robotic Research’s co-founder and president. The problem, he explains, is how to filter these devices. Centralized approaches, in which every device sends its information to a central computer that does all the filtering, “work very well for an incident commander with a group of first responders going into a building, where the distances are relatively small.” However, he pointed out, they do not work when communications go down.
The alternative approach is to filter the information opportunistically, in a distributed fashion, which is what WarLoc does. In GPS-denied environments, “there is a process that synchronizes all the nodes once the communications have been established,” Lacaze said. “However, if you have, for example, two team members that are each in their own radio bubble, their solutions will continue to be optimized and other team members might be in their own bubbles, so their solution is also being optimized. If these two teams get in contact, their information will get synchronized and collectively optimized.”
The system, he adds, is “heavily reliant on the inertial solution and dead reckoning.” The more units can communicate and share data, the more accurate the navigation solution is. “In a relatively small package, we can achieve better than 1% error of distance traveled for a single unit,” said Lacaze. “Once you have multiple units communicating and measuring with each other, the solution gets significantly better.”
WarLoc, which contains all the required hardware and software, connects to a system used by first responders and the Department of Defense’s Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK) also being used in GPS-enabled areas. “Our system can be used not only for tracking humans, but also for tracking animals and other devices, such as robotic systems or vehicles,” Lacaze said.
Relative Localization
On the commercial side, the company has created a kit for autonomous shuttles and is deploying it in about 20 cities around the world. Like WarLoc, this device also works in GPS-denied areas, such as on an underground shuttle on a university campus. “We just won a contract to automate the busses that go through the Lincoln Tunnel,” Lacaze said.
Busses or shuttles using Robotic Research’s system “learn landmarks in the area that they are traversing and use them as an aid in localization, in conjunction with inertial units,” Lacaze said. “The vehicles learn their surroundings.” They don’t care about their absolute position, he explained, only about their relative position with respect to those areas. This is similar to pre-GPS directions like “Make a left at the post office, then a right at the gas station.” They can also use a common landmark. “If the first vehicle is seeing a certain building and knows its lat/long and the second vehicle saw that building some time ago, it can measure its distance from it using its own inertial system.”
While warfighters communicate their position information via their personal tactical radios to ATAK, which then shares it through its current radio infrastructure, vehicles on the road communicate it through dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) radio, a cell network, or some other network.
Other Robotic Research Programs
Robotic Research’s technology supports a range of robotics and autonomous vehicles in GPS-denied environments, including shuttles and buses for public transportation, hybrid unmanned aerial and ground vehicles (UAVs and UGVs), and trucks in the U.S. Army Autonomous Ground Resupply (AGR) Expedient Leader-Follower program.
The company is the prime contractor on several Army programs, including AGR, which consists of robotic trucks that the Army will begin to deploy. “We have delivered close to 100 of those trucks,” said Lacaze. “So, for example, if you are in a convoy and you need to know whether your warfighters are inside or outside a truck, WarLoc can tell you.”
Robotic Research’s AutoDrive autonomy kit, which can be retrofitted to vehicles of all sizes, provides autonomous functionality on surfaces ranging from urban-improved roads to off-road terrain, while the vehicle collects and analyzes data. The technology provides automation to one of the largest international shuttle providers as well as to the largest U.S. manufacturer of commercial buses, according to the company.
In February, the company announced it will begin testing totally unmanned, fully autonomous, low-speed shuttles in the second quarter of this year. It will initially involve attendants in fixed on-site locations, then will aim to move attendants to an offsite safety-monitoring facility.
U.S. forces and air-defense missile batteries across the Middle East were placed on high alert Jan. 7 in preparation for possible Iranian drone attacks, reports CNN, including all Patriot batteries and forces in the area.
U.S. officials told CNN that intelligence mounted about a threat of an imminent attack against U.S. targets in the wake of the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. U.S. intelligence also observed Iran moving military equipment, including drones and ballistic missiles, over the last several days.
The movement may be an Iranian effort to secure its weapons from a potential U.S. strike, or put them in positions to launch their own attacks.
Iran has put missiles on its drones that have been used in other attacks, including a significant attack on Saudi oil installations last year (see below).
Targets of concern are U.S. locations in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
2019 Drone Tensions
Drones forces from both sides targeted assets in 2019. In June, Iran shot down a U.S. military drone that it claimed was an intruding American spy drone entering its territory. The U.S. said the drone was shot down in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz.
In July, U.S. Marines jammed and destroyed an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz from aboard the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, because the drone has closed too close, to approximately 1,000 yards. Iran denied losing any of its drones.
In September, Iran was blamed for an attack on the Saudi oil industry, with drones and cruise missiles assumed launched from an Iranian base in Iran close to the border with Iraq. The Abqaiq oil plant was struck by more than a dozen projectiles.
Maritime Alert
On Monday, the U.S. Maritime Administration issued an alert to commercial vessels operating in the Middle East, citing multiple maritime threats and stating “there remains the possibility of Iranian action against U.S. maritime interests in the region.”
According to the alert, “The U.S. government is continually assessing the maritime security situation in the region to safeguard freedom of navigation, ensure the free flow of commerce, and protect U.S. vessels, personnel, and interests.
“U.S. Fifth Fleet Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS) has the latest information on the dynamic maritime security threats and operational environment in this region. U.S. commercial vessels are advised to exercise caution and coordinate vessel voyage planning for transits of the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, North Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea with NCAGS and follow NCAGS’s recommendations and guidance whenever possible.”
Sixty-two of the first iteration of mounted anti-jam GPS devices were equipped into light armored vehicles in Germany over the past month, with thousands more scheduled to be installed into U.S. European Command vehicles by 2028, said Army leaders in charge of location data on future battlefields.
The Mounted Assured Precision Navigation & Timing System — known as MAPS — was developed to provide trusted positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) to a platform, such as Stryker vehicles, by pairing a GPS receiver with an anti-jam antenna, said Col. Nickolas Kioutas, PNT project manager.
Read more about MAPS, along with other anti-jam systems, here. Also look for our anti-jam feature coming in the December issue of GPS World magazine.
The electronic technology comes amid the Army’s vision for 2028, to best prepare soldiers for possible warfare with near-peer competitors, who have used electronic warfare to disrupt communications vital to Western forces in recent years.
This year, more than 300 Stryker vehicles, all from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, are expected to be fielded with MAPS technology, said Willie Nelson, the director of the Army’s Assured PNT Cross-Functional Team.
Upgraded first-generation and second-generation technology is also expected to be unveiled in the future.
The Army also plans to equip armored brigades with the technology, and put MAPS in vehicles such as the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, M1 Abrams tank, and the M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer. After those “priority vehicles,” the Army will evaluate the mounted device in second-tier priority vehicles, Nelson said.
Soldiers from 2-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team move out in their Stryker during their training rotation at the National Training Center on Fort Irwin, Calif., Sept. 2, 2019. (Photo: Sgt. Ryan Barwick/U.S. Army)
In the past, armored vehicles have used multiple Defense Advanced GPS receivers, known as DAGR devices.
MAPS replaces multiple DAGR devices with one “really good system,” said Kioutas. The new system uses a chip-scale atomic clock for timing, Selective Availability and Anti-Spoof Module, or SAASM, for GPS, and anti-jamming antenna to distribute PNT information.
In addition, future iterations of MAPS will include non-GPS sensors by fusing GPS with alternate navigation and timing technologies to ensure accurate PNT that soldiers can trust while operating in various threat or denied environments, according to a statement.
A single-point GPS also creates multiple practical benefits for soldiers, such as less maintenance and system key-failing, Kioutas said, adding many of his team’s decisions are based on Soldier feedback, because listening to them today helps prepare them for tomorrow.
Simply put, “MAPS continues to work whenever a GPS signal is weakened or compromised,” he said.
“This is the first technology equipping for the Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing Cross-Functional Team, and one of the first for Army Futures Command,” Kioutas said.
Nelson noted that they’re “working in parallel with both mounted vehicles and dismounted soldier’s PNT gear.”
A soldier checks part of a Mounted Assured Precision Navigation & Timing System — known as MAPS. Sixty-two of the first iteration of mounted anti-jam GPS devices were equipped into light armored vehicles in Germany over the past month, with thousands more scheduled to be installed into U.S. European Command vehicles by 2028. (Photo: John Higgins)
Earlier this year, a requirements document for the dismounted soldier’s PNT was signed. Now, currently in the prototyping phase, the latest iteration of a dismounted GPS receiver can send secure PNT data wired or wirelessly, Kioutas said.
“A lot is happening here, a lot of good success,” Nelson said, adding, the most important thing for his team is to get the best equipment to “warfighters on the front lines and getting their feedback rolled back into the next generation.”
Nelson will host a Warrior’s Corner presentation Oct. 15 focusing on the PNT CFT’s Tactical Space Line of Effort, at the Walter E. Washington Convention center in Washington, D.C.
Some ups and downs for unmanned aircraft this month — good news that there is further progress on the pseudo-satellite front, but we also have MIL-SPEC drones lost to shoot-downs and recent crash landings. Amazon continues to advance toward deliveries really soon after orders, and another police department takes up drone use for aerial observation.
High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite UAS
HAPSMobile (Softbank 95% and AeroVironment 5% JV) is funding further development and testing of the Hawk30 family of high-altitude pseudo-satellite (HAPS) solar-powered unmanned aircraft, with the expectation of long-duration flights above 65,000 feet — “a super cell-tower up in the stratosphere…providing connectivity for everybody that needs it,” according to AeroVironment President and CEO Wahid Nawabi.
HAPSMobile is collaborating with the Pan-Pacific UAS Test Range Complex (PPUTRC), which is managed by the University of Alaska (UA) Fairbanks, and with the University of Hawaii (UH) to conduct stratospheric test flights using the HAWK30 prototype HAPS vehicle. On behalf of this group, UA was recently granted a Certificate of Authorization by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly HAWK30 as a stratospheric telecommunications platform system over the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
The HAPSMobile team will prep test flights at Lanai during 2019, conducting safety verifications and working with island authorities to comply with local regulations. During the program, HAPSMobile will also explore contributions to environmental conservation and to agriculture. Hawaii — not a bad place to run test flights, you might say…
Predator UAV downed
Following the shooting down of a U.S. Global Hawk (really expensive) and one or two Iranian drones (not very expensive) in the Gulf of Hormuz, U.S. forces on Aug. 13 just crash-landed an MQ-1C Grey Eagle (Predator UAV family) southwest of Baghdad on farmland in the town of Radwaniyah. The following pictures were released by a local news group:
The aircraft doesn’t appear to be too badly damaged, and seems to have been deliberately brought to rest in soft undergrowth on the edge of a field. So crash-landing might be an overstatement — rather an unplanned landing, perhaps? Then again, the landing gear appears to be significantly bent out of shape, so the U.S. Army 52178 drone’s contact with the ground might have been heavier than normal.
The news source indicated that the drone might have been brought down by “electronic interference or have been intercepted by a cyber-attack.” perhaps references to potential jamming of some kind? Nevertheless, the aircraft landed safely and was then recovered by Iraqi Security Forces. There were no injuries or damage to property.
The U.S. Army MQ-1C Gray Eagle provides both combat and intelligence forces with a long-endurance, armed, unmanned aircraft system (UAS) with significant range, altitude and payload flexibility.
And another report hit the internet today that back in June, a £6 million U.K. Watchkeeper WK050 drone on a training flight met a somewhat messy end after overshooting its landing and coming to rest in a tree. But the report also mentions that there was some indication of possible operator error.
Amazon Drone Deliveries?
Fresh on the heels of Fed Ex deciding to dump Amazon as a customer because they would appear to be developing a competing delivery infrastructure, Amazon is proposing a semi-autonomous drone that could automate short-distance deliveries.
In a recent letter to the FAA, Amazon is proposing trials in “sparsely populated” regions of the U.S. using its latest 88lb MK-27 Prime Air delivery drone. The UAV apparently has well-developed sense-and-avoid for the flight phase and uses optical capability for the delivery phase.
If obstacles were to be detected in flight (other UAVs, low-flying manned aircraft, helicopters or birds) the MK-27 would avoid and fly round each obstacle. If an obstacle were detected during delivery (maybe the customer waving frantically to stay out of the cabbage patch) the delivery may be aborted and the drone would return to base. But would it automatically dispense one of those “We-called-while-you-were-out” postcards, fluttering down into the backyard so you could go pick up your package later?
Seriously, though… The initial trials would be managed by an operator who can command a return to base if the drone gets into any trouble, but Amazon claims that the fail-safe autonomy built into the MK-27 will make this unlikely. The hardware and software have gone through extensive simulated testing, and the drone has already completed more than 10,000 simulated delivery flights into representative backyards.
Amazon’s objective seems to be to eventually deliver packages within 30 minutes after the customer places an order — to Prime customers within ~8.5 miles from an Amazon fulfillment center.
Growing Police Use of Drones
The Oneida County, New York, Sheriff’s Office just announced that it is are now drone-trained and drone-equipped — with five certificated operators and a fleet of eight DJI Mavic drones for indoor and outdoor use.
The DJI drones will not be modified and will be used as is. The Mavic 2 drones will provide all manner of aerial surveillance including flood and disaster monitoring. In addition, active shooter investigations and the like could involve initial indoor surveillance using Mavic Air drone(s) to provide armed police with situational awareness before any take-down efforts. Accident investigations, location of missing persons, house fires, and rescue efforts are other applications for the drones.
The Sherriff’s department has been preparing for drone use for two years — five officers have already completed FAA-certified drone training, and others are expected to undertake training over time.
Summary
We have potential stratospheric “cell towers” being tested over Hawaii, landing accidents, preparations for potential rapid deliveries by Amazon drones, and another police department launching a drone unit. These are some of the expanding uses for drones, and the unfortunate reality that drones can sometimes get into operational difficulties.
News from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command
The secretary of the United States Army has designated the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command as the Army’s representative to identify and advocate for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) information as well as establish and formalize joint navigation warfare, or NAVWAR, requirements.
“Navigation warfare is really about taking a look at different position, navigation, and timing signals and figuring out how the signals flow; the potential for adversaries to disrupt our ability to use them in the future; and how can we not only protect ourselves from the enemy denying us with those abilities, but also how can we do the same to our enemies and affect them and disrupt them in a multi-domain operational environment,” said Col. Timothy G. Dalton, USASMDC/ARSTRAT U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, Capabilities Manager for Space and High Altitude, or TCM SHA.
Soldiers in the field learn how to operate in a NAVWAR environment. (Photo: U.S. Army)
What NAVWAR Does. NAVWAR allows the Army to take deliberate defensive and offensive actions to assure U.S. forces PNT information through coordinated employment of space, cyberspace and electronic warfare operations. PNT data enables the Army to precisely move, shoot and communicate; extend its operational reach; control the tempo of operations; and perform mission command, all without adversarial interruption.
NAVWAR capabilities include electronic protection which includes systems and capabilities required to defend platforms and systems against electronic acts in the GNSS electromagnetic spectrum.
The Army has more than 250,000 GPS-dependent systems.
Additionally NAVWAR provides electronic support to sensors and software used to search for, intercept, identify, locate or localize, and report sources of intentional and unintentional radiated GNSS electromagnetic interference for mitigation and planning future operations.
NAVWAR can also provide electronic attack with capabilities to seize and sustain the initiative by actively degrading or denying the GNSS electromagnetic spectrum to adversaries in multi-domain operations.
The Army is dependent on the use of this data with a typical brigade combat team depending on more than 28 different systems and 600 total systems that leverage PNT. The Army has more than 250,000 GPS-dependent systems.
“As the Army goes forward in multi-domain operations, what we see the battlefield becoming is a contested environment,” Dalton said. “What that means is there are adversaries that will look to challenge the United States across all operational phases and domains. These enemies will have the capability to disrupt signals, like GPS, that can impact a wide range of military and civilian activities.
New NAVWAR Concept. SMDC is developing a TRADOC-sponsored Army NAVWAR concept that will be used to establish a baseline for how the Army will execute the NAVWAR fight.
The Army is highly dependent on the use of GPS-delivered PNT data. NAVWAR prevents the use of GPS by hostile forces while ensuring unimpeded use for U.S. forces and allies.
“In the command’s advocacy role we work with the joint and Army communities to examine what the Army needs to be able to accomplish the mission through navigational warfare,” Dalton said. “We work with a community of interest to determine the requirements that will build capability and reduce shortfalls in this mission area.
“This includes activities like updating doctrine, our organizational structure, ability to train the force, and ultimately determine if we need additional equipment, or holistic solutions to protect capabilities and disrupt the enemy on the navigation warfare side,” he added.
Training and Research. SMDC, in conjunction with U.S. Forces Command and the Joint Navigation Warfare Center, supports training events under degraded GPS conditions. The goal is to enable tactical formations to develop and train tactics, techniques and procedures that enable Army formations to work.
“We help develop and focus the capability requirements for the Army,” Dalton said. “But we are integrating with a larger community, led by the Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing Cross-Functional Team that is focused on modernizing the Army in this mission area.”
SMDC is the Army lead for institutional unity of effort on NAVWAR with several research, development, test and evaluation and capability integration efforts working on the issue independent of one another.
“It is definitely an exciting time for NAVWAR,” Dalton said. “The Army, services and Department of Defense, as a whole, have started to embrace the importance of this mission area and understand the competitive advantage the U.S. and our partners can gain while denying the adversary the ability to conduct operations with respect to navigational warfare.”
The U.S. Army will send prototype anti-jamming systems to its 2nd Cavalry Regiment, stationed in Europe, in September to aid forces under GPS jamming or spoofing conditions. The first generation of Mounted Assured PNT Systems (MAPS) and anti-jam antennas are nearly ready for integration aboard armored Stryker vehicles, and the Army is already evaluating proposals for an upgraded version incorporating an inertial navigation system (INS) for further resilience.
The shipment comes in response to widespread Russian jamming of GPS signals from the sub-Arctic to the Middle East, and in tacit, likely tardy acknowledgment of Russian superiority in electronic warfare.
An Interim Armored Vehicle “Stryker” and AH-64 Apache helicopters with Battle Group Poland move to secure an area during a lethality demonstration as part of Saber Strike 18 in June 2018. (Photo: U.S. Army/Spc. Hubert D. Delany III, 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)
Col. Nickolas Kioutas, Army project manager for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), announced the move at the annual C4ISRnet conference in Arlington, Virginia. C4ISR stands for Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, or more broadly, electronic and other systems, procedures and techniques used to collect and disseminate information.
Three vendors are providing prototypes for the IMU-equipped second-generation MAPS, or MAPS-2, with testing to begin in September. A MAPS-3 capability, drawing on lessons learned in 1 and 2, may get underway soon. GPS Source, now a subsidiary of General Dynamics Mission Systems, made MAPS-1 and is now competing for MAPS-2.
The initiative reflects a new approach by the Army of “doing much smaller, iterative programs,” according to Col Kioutas. Traditionally, U.S. armed forces have taken years (and sometimes more years) to develop large, complex weaponry and supporting systems, and then even longer to deploy them. By the time they arrive in the operational theater, they are obsolete.
Rapid deployment of smaller, quickly designed and manufactured batches creates the opportunity for rapid feedback on what works and what doesn’t, with equally rapid return to the design board and re-manufacture. In other words, “shoot, aim, ready.”
Kioutas and crew are also flouting another U.S. military tenet, that in which previously “[we] asked for exactly what we wanted and industry built exactly to that. We don’t know exactly what we want. Tell us how we should do this the best, and then we’ll test that.” The PNT program has left requirements broad and open to change, knowing how quickly technology develops — and is shown to be vulnerable.
The Stryker is an eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicle, basically a lightly armored tank or heavily-armored troop carrier that is more road-friendly, that is, faster, than a tank. It has several variants of armament, armor and troop-carrying capacity. It saw extensive use in the Iraq counter-insurgency campaign.
