Follow InsideDefense.com on TwitterU.S. Special Operations Command could start making arrangements to deploy a new low-collateral damage weapon system as early as next spring, pending the success of a task order recently issued to Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation.
Naval Air Systems Command is working with Eglin Air Force Base, FL and Navmar to develop a system in which the 13-foot-long Tigershark unmanned aerial vehicle would release a video-guided micro-UAV to crash into its precise target.
"The UAV would have a small warhead on it so that once it's launched from Tigershark it would auto-navigate to the area where the target is and then be able to, using video, fly directly into the target," Chyau Shen, deputy director for special surveillance programs in NAVAIR's Rapid Response/Irregular Warfare Directorate, told Inside the Navy on Oct. 17. "And because of the small size of the warhead, it would have pinpoint precision for the target and would not cause harm to neutrals or civilians near the target."
The concept came out of a combat mission needs statement issued by SOCOM a few years ago, Shen said. Special Operations forces were struggling to attack their targets without any collateral damage, and when the military found there was no suitable solution already developed, the current collaboration was born. Researchers at Eglin were working on the micro-UAV as part of the Precision Acquisition and Weaponized System, and the Tigershark was already deployed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, so NAVAIR started working on the effort to integrate the two.
Shen said the program started in fiscal year 2009 and has involved modifying the Tigershark to accommodate the electric UAV, integrating a weapon-release system into the Tigershark, and adding communication links between the electric UAV, the Tigershark and the ground control station.
"The challenging part is the integration of all these components to make it work as a system," Shen said, adding that command and control of the UAV to more precisely hit its target was also an important challenge to overcome.
This most recent task order, worth $12 million, is for integration support through the demonstration phase, which is expected to take place in spring 2012. Shen said demonstrations would take place at Eglin and at the Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, highlighting the joint nature of the project, overseen by the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics.
If the demonstration is successful, SOCOM would need to certify the system for deployment and obtain the funding.
"Yes, I believe there is support for this requirement, to get it fielded," Shen said. "We're looking for, initially, probably a six-month combat assessment and then, depending on the results of the combat assessment in the field, we would either continue the deployment or complete the program."
Shen said he expected that SOCOM would deploy the technology to just one location for the combat assessment, though he couldn't say how much it might cost to field the system. -- Megan Eckstein
