GRAHAM WARWICK /WASHINGTON DC
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman begin preliminary design for US Army/DARPA project requirement
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman face the challenge of advancing the state of the art in autonomous systems after being selected for Phase II of the US Army/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) programme.
Whereas the unmanned combat air vehicles under development for the US Air Force and Navy are operated independently, the UCAR is intended to be part of a collaborative manned/unmanned team operating in close proximity at low altitude. Demonstrating collaborative autonomy is the key objective of the programme.
"We are looking at the ability of autonomous systems to work collaboratively with each other and with manned platforms in a trusted fashion so that the manned system operators can begin to rely on the unmanned systems to do portions of the task," says Lockheed Martin UCAR director Dan Rice. "Trusted autonomy is important because we view this capability as something manned operators will want to have with them on every mission that manned aviation takes on."
The two teams have begun preliminary design of UCAR demonstration systems. Lockheed Martin's concept is based on a compound helicopter designed by Bell, and selected for its speed and agility, while Northrop Grumman is working with Kaman on an intermeshing-rotor helicopter. Both feature multi-spectral low observability and lack tailrotors. One team will be selected in September 2004 to build two demonstrators.
The UCAR will be controlled from existing platforms, such as the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche combat helicopter and Sikorsky UH-60-based Army Airborne Command and Control System (A2C2S). "UCAR will be controllable from both air and ground, with A2C2S capable of a higher level of control than Comanche," says Rice.
Sensors with two to three times the target identification range of today's systems are being developed, and UCAR will use both onboard and offboard sensors for situation awareness as well as targeting. The vehicle will be armed with Hellfire or the follow-on Common Modular Missile and be able to target offboard indirect-fire weapons.
Source: Flight International
