03 Jul 14. The U.S. Army has started equipping aviation brigades with drones as it retires aging reconnaissance helicopters and pushes to further integrate unmanned technology amid budget cuts. Combat aviation brigades at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Carson, Colorado, are expected to finish divesting OH-58 Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters and adding RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aerial systems later this year, according to Col. Thomas von Eschenbach. A total of 10 or so brigades are slated to make the transition over the next three to four years, he said. The move is part of the Army’s novel but controversial plan to cut costs while retaining newer technology by overhauling aviation units. The so-called Aviation Restructuring Initiative calls for retiring the Kiowas and TH-67 trainers, transferring the National Guard’s AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to the active component, moving some UH-60 Black Hawk utility choppers from active to Guard units, and buying new UH-72 Lakota light rotorcraft. “The Army has wanted to replace the aging Kiowa for over a decade,” Mark Gunzinger and Chris Dougherty, fellows at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a think tank in Washington, D.C., said in an e-mail. “Frankly, the Army may be on the cusp of breaking new ground in how it plans to fully integrate unmanned aircraft operations with ground units and manned systems operations.” Under a concept known as manned-unmanned teaming, the Apaches would be paired with drones, including the low-altitude Shadow and the high-altitude MQ-1 Gray Eagle, to perform both the armed reconnaissance and attack missions. The restructuring plan “has allowed us to essentially recapitalize and reinvest UAS assets that probably would have been divested in a smaller Army, and use those and put them into aviation formations,” said von Eschenbach, who assesses unmanned technology for Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Rucker, Alabama. The U.S. military has about 500 Shadows and about 240 Predators and Gray Eagles, according to a Pentagon report from December on unmanned systems. Over the past decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, infantry soldiers in brigade combat teams used drones such as the Shadow, which features an electro-optical/infrared camera, to monitor the battlefield in real-time and track insurgents planting roadside bombs. Now, the Army wants to formally incorporate the technology into reorganized combat aviation brigades. Each aviation brigade will include an attack reconnaissance squadron consisting of three Apache troops, for a total of 24 attack helicopters, and three Shadow platoons, for a total of 12 of the drones, von Eschenbach said. Each platoon will include four of the air vehicles and two ground control stations mounted in the back of Humvees to provide round-the-clock surveillance for a mission, he said. Combining both types of aircraft lets helicopter pilots see the battlefield and strike targets from a much greater distance by delivering video from a drone’s camera directly into the cockpit, von Eschenbach said. (Source: Open Source Information Report/Military.com)
02 Jul 14. Belarus completes UAS trials. Belarus has completed state testing on a new tactical unmanned aircraft system (UAS), the Belarusian State Military-Industrial Committee (Goskomvoenprom) announced on 2 July. Testing of the UAS, which has a range of 100 km, was conducted at the 927th Centre of UAS-applications. The UAS is planned to be used for reconnaissance purposes (for which it is fitted with electro-optical infrared (EOIR), laser and radiation sensors), and has been designed to feature a high level of autonomy, tactical mobility and the ability to operate in the absence of an airfield network and related infrastructure. Images of the UAS published by Goskomvoenprom show a small/medium UAS with a wingspan of approximately 15ft and a fuselage of approximately 8ft, operating from a paved runway. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
01 Jul 14. The RAF’s newest Reaper remot