As the RAN looks forward to trials with an embarked unmanned aerial system (UAS) under operational conditions in the middle of the year, further evaluation of both fixed and rotary wing platforms will continue to inform Project Sea 129 Phase 5, the service’s tactical maritime UAS program for both minor and major surface combatants.
One of the RAN’s Insitu Pacific Limited (IPL) ScanEagle systems will be deployed for operational evaluation aboard one of Navy’s Adelaide class FFGs during 2017 and in recent news, it has been announced that a Schiebel S-100 Camcopter Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) UAS system will be acquired for evaluation. The Camcopter system is due to be fully delivered to the Navy Unmanned Aerial Systems Unit (NUASU) at Nowra in the April timeframe.
In addition, the work undertaken with ScanEagle and Camcopter will contribute to Navy’s maritime tactical UAS plan and Navy is now nearing the final development of the Naval Aviation Capability 2040 strategic vision document.
ScanEagle
While ScanEagle is commonly thought to be the first UAS to be operated by Navy it is in fact the third system, behind the Jindivik and Kalkara unmanned target systems. Indeed, the RAN was one of the first UAS operators in the world, taking delivery of the first Jindivik in 1953, only five years after the formation of the Fleet Air Arm itself in 1948.
NUASU was formed towards the end of the last decade and began using ScanEagles leased from IPL in 2012. In 2015 the fixed-wing UAS capability was purchased outright and operations had ramped up to over 400 flight hours in the 2015/16 financial year, a figure around six times that achieved in 2014/15.
Insitu and Boeing contractors prepare a ScanEagle for a test flight. Credit: USN
In the second half of last year NUASU deployed ScanEagle to Christmas Island as part of a three-month program to evaluate the system under expeditionary operational conditions.
“We wanted to operate ScanEagle outside its direct command and logistics links,” explained Commodore Chris Smallhorn, Commander Fleet Air Arm to ADM. “And Christmas Island really is a very remote location and proved ideal for such an evaluation.”
A six member detachment operated Scan Eagle from the island’s airport on a series of flights over the ocean and of up to ten hours’ duration, using Sentient Vision Systems’ Visual Detection and Ranging (ViDAR) software.
ViDAR is a passive area search capability which uses a camera on the ScanEagle to scan and record a 180 degree view of the ocean, with a view to detecting anomalies such as a person or object in the water. Any such anomaly is highlighted to the payload operator in the Ground Control Station (GCS) back on the island in real time, who can then use the vehicle’s EO-IR sensor to further analyse the detected object.
By the third week of the deployment, the NUASU team had flown over 80 flight hours, including 12 hours of ViDAR operation.
CDRE Smallhorn said the trials have been considered a success and were also used to determine the logistics footprint and challenges when used from a land base, as well as to inform some of the logistics support requirements for a ship embarked environment, also remote when viewed through a logistics support lens.
The next step will be the aforementioned operational deployment, where the ScanEagle will be embarked aboard one of Navy’s FFGs, together with a Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky MH-60 Romeo Seahawk helicopter.
“We will use this deployment to develop Concepts of Operations (CONOPS), orders and procedures for manned/unmanned teaming in the maritime tactical environment, and look at how we integrate that into the ship’s combat management system,” CDRE Smallhorn said.
Camcopter
In February, Schiebel announced that it had been awarded a contract for the supply of its S-100 Camcopter UAS to Navy, together with three years of follow-on Contractor Logistics Support.
Schiebel claims the Camcopter offers day and night, all-weather surveillance capabilities which can operate beyond line of sight (BLOS) out to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the host vessel.
The contract award follows a Request for Tender (RFT) issued by the Commonwealth in February last year, during which Camcopter was evaluated against other VTOL UAS systems, including the UMS Skeldar from Saab. The contract for the supply of the S-100 system was signed in late December 2016, comprising two air vehicles and two Ground Control Stations.
“It just makes good common sense to look at both fixed and rotary wing UAS capabilities,” explained Commodore Rob Elliott, Director General Surface Combatants and Aviation to ADM. “We plan to begin first of class flight trials in the second half of this year and by the end of the year, we will have trained crews and have developed an at-sea envelope.”
Both Camcopter and ScanEagle have electro-optical/infra red (EO/IR) sensor payloads, but only the latter can use ViDAR, due to weight considerations. Instead, Camcopter will be fitted with the VHF Automatic Identification System (AIS) which, combined with a Wescam MX-10 EO-IR turret, will provide a complementary capability to the ScanEagle’s sensor suite.
“The MX-10/AIS combination is a really powerful tool to allow us to determine the required maritime picture,” CDRE Elliott continued. “And the ScanEagle/ViDAR combination provides a wide area passive search capability.”
Sea 129
The Sea 129 project was initially divided into two distinct components, known as Phases 5 and 6, but has more recently been organised into a single program, with two stages, under Sea 129 Phase 5.
Sea 129 Phase 5 combines funding from both the original programs and can allocate money as necessary.
Stage One will consider a maritime tactical UAS capability for Navy’s minor surface combatants, principally the Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) to be acquired under Project Sea 1180. Stage Two will seek to acquire a similar capability for the major surface combatants, including the Anzac class frigates, the Hobart class destroyers and the Future Frigates to be introduced under Sea 5000 Phase 1.
The two stages will consider a range of options and there are many synergies between the two requirements, particularly in terms of payload capabilities. Although it is possible that one UAS could fulfil the requirements of both stages, the smaller flight deck area and internal space of the OPV will obviously require a small footprint – both in terms of vehicle size and crew.
ADM understands that the tight naval shipbuilding program timeline for construction of the OPV as laid out by the Turnbull government will mean that the first vessels will not have an unmanned platform embarked from the outset, as the deliverables under Stage One of Sea 129 are still some way into the future, not due until the 2021/22 timeframe.
In the meantime the work currently being undertaken by NUASMU will inform Stage One and this will in turn inform Stage Two.
While Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8 Fire Scout system (both MQ-8B and the larger MQ-8C) are now entering service with the US Navy, CDRE Elliott said that Sea 129 will consider all options, including a careful analysis of the benefits of a manned/unmanned teaming.
“Technology is moving fast, both at the payload and at the air vehicle levels and it is too early to predict what might be available,” he explained. “We will need to think intellectually about how we design the system and biggest is not necessarily best.”
CDRE Elliott said that the Project Office is also working closely with Army and Air Force, because the Sea 129 capability will be required to support the Joint Force.
“At the end of the day it’s the data that counts and we are also working closely with Border Force on how we can jointly use that data,” he commented. “We are absolutely contemporary with the rest of the world in the way we are thinking and I think we are possibly ahead of the game in some respects.”