Bird-size spy planes see, hear and even smell the enemy BY J. LYNN LUNSFORD The Wall Street Journal
At an air base near Kandahar, Afghanistan, an electrically powered airplane the size of a buzzard hovers near the runways. In its nose, a tiny camera beams a video stream back to a laptop computer being operated by a U.S. military team overseeing security.
They're keeping an eye out for potential assailants while testing the abilities of a small airplane, part of a flock of bird-size unmanned aerial vehicles known as mini-UAVs.
Although they resemble the model airplanes built and operated by hobbyists, these are anything but toys. Autopilot systems the size of cigarette lighters are connected to a tiny satellite navigation system that enables the planes to fly a preprogrammed route without someone on the ground constantly fiddling with handheld controls. Some of the mini-UAVs can carry microphones to listen for enemy vehicles or sniffers that could detect a chemical agent.
Other mini-UAVs are as simple as a camera that can be launched from a mortar, sending back a quick glimpse of the countryside as it climbs and then crashes back to earth.
PEERING OVER THE HILL
This miniaturization of surveillance will play a big role in the future of ground warfare. While most of the military's attention in recent years has been focused on larger UAVs that can fly for hundreds of miles and fire missiles, scientists and military planners are trying to build aircraft that can fit in a backpack. The idea is to give individual soldiers a better idea of what might be over the next hill or, in the case of urban combat, what's around the next corner.
''For all of the high-tech intelligence that was available at upper levels during Desert Storm, a company commander had no more situational awareness of his immediate surroundings than a commander working for Robert E. Lee had during the Civil War,'' says Col. Barry Ford, chief of staff for the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in Quantico, Va. ``We think these mini-UAVs will fill a critical capability gap.''
In the past three years, the warfighting lab has been among the military facilities testing a new generation of mini airplanes riding thermal air currents much like a bird of prey. As part of their Dragon Eye program, the Marines plan to run extended tests in the Middle East of two rival UAV prototypes, which they say may be used in the event of a war with Iraq. AeroVironment, in Monrovia, Calif., is competing against BAI Aerosystems, of Easton, Md., for the Dragon Eye contract. Lockheed Martin Corp.'s advanced technology unit in Palmdale, Calif., also is at work on a small aircraft, the Sentry Owl, under an Air Force program.
$1.5 BILLION IN 2004
The Defense Department is expected to spend about $1.5 billion for all UAVs for 2004. That includes larger craft like General Atomic Aeronautical System's Global Hawk, Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Predator, United Industrial Corp.'s Shadow and Boeing Co.'s Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle, and AeroVironment's Pointer, which has been in service with the Army and Marines since 1989. Pointer, a glider-like airplane with an 8-foot, 4-inch wingspan and a 300-watt electric motor, has proved the usefulness of a mini-UAV that can operate close to front lines.
Martyn Cowley, research-and-development marketing manager for AeroVironment, says the enthusiasm surrounding the Dragon Eye program ''has been a big boost'' to mini-UAVs. ``All of the services are beginning to think of ways to use them for specific missions.''
The new generation of mini-UAVs is designed to require less than a week of training for soldiers to be able to operate them. The aircraft themselves are made of lightweight Styrofoam-like material designed to be easily repaired or reassembled in the event of a crash. Each aircraft weighs about five pounds with a wingspan of about 45 inches. It can break into small enough pieces to fit into a backpack.
FIVE-MILE VIEW
One of the Dragon Eye prototypes is launched by a 30-foot bungee slingshot. Once it is airborne, a tiny onboard computer controls it by a series of preprogrammed map coordinates. The Dragon Eye can soar silently at about 40 mph from point to point as it sends video to the ground for as long as an hour. Its onboard black-and-white camera can capture images as far as five miles away. Sentry Owl uses a color camera with zoom capabilities of about five miles.
The Marines' Col. Ford says each Dragon Eye package includes two aircraft, four cameras, two noses and one ground-control station, costing about $70,000. Compared with a multimillion-dollar jet fighter, the units are ''so cheap that they are really disposable, or at least expendable,'' he says.
STURDY MACHINES
In testing the Dragon Eye models have been remarkably rugged. ''One of them has 50 crashes on it, and it is still flying,'' a Marine official says.
The ultimate goal in developing mini-UAVs is to someday create a micro-UAV the size of a bug. Any soldier could slip one out of its package and turn it loose to flit around corners or perch on windowsills as it beams back video to his special eyepiece.
Although more than 150 private companies and university research departments are chasing that dream, early tests of smaller vehicles have shown that they are so susceptible to tiny wind currents that their video data aren't usable. Also, developers are struggling with the same issues that have plagued every aircraft design: Each new feature adds more weight, which increases pressure to make the aircraft larger -- exactly the opposite of their goals.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/5289896.htm
