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US Army discovers new applications for manned / unmanned teaming
US Army field commanders are continuing to expand the potential applications for UAS in tactical operations, including actions now underway to establish a ‘Task Force ODIN-Alpha’ for near term deployment to Afghanistan.
Both platform contributions and new applications were highlighted during the ‘Operational Panel’ presented at the Association of the United States Army’s (AUSA’s) Army Aviation Symposium and Exhibition, held in Washington, DC, 7-9 January 2009.
“From our perspective it’s just a natural of scout attack tactics,” observed Colonel Daniel Ball, Chief, G-3 / Aviation, US Army Forces Command. “It’s just now that your scout is unmanned.”
“I’d like to discuss the different roles where we were able to use UAVs,” added Colonel Chandler Sherrell, brigade commander, Task Force 49. “At the corps level, we did not have the UAS company. Once we moved to MND-Center and took that CAB [Combat Aviation Brigade], we did. As the battlespace increased we were not able to put all that area under the UAS company – the battlespace was just so large that we could not do that.”
Highlighting a list of application considerations and capabilities, he continued, “We separated by altitude; that ‘persistent stare’ that we were able to put out there – both for counter-IED and counter-indirect fire around the FOBs – was a great tool; used even more so now along the border areas as we are looking more there and less into the cities; they have been a huge asset. But, of course, the key was having that manned platform [also] out there to either confirm or deny for that ground brigade commander to make a decision, especially in environments such as Sadr City.”
“For us they were able to provide simply continuous observation,” Sherrell said. “We did have the ‘legs’ with out [AH]-64s to get out there. But at least we could rest the crews and put them out there when we needed them, based on what we were seeing with the UAVs. So I would just tell you what an incredible asset [they were]; a great success story, certainly there in Iraq.”
“Ground BCTs, as they came in, [possessed] different levels of capability. But that was something I looked at, as the CAB commander, as my responsibility; to help train them on the proper way to use those [UAS], to maintain them, standardise them, make sure that we could ‘pool’ assets and be able to surge where we needed within a particular BCT [battlespace] by putting them under a UAS company,” he added.
Col Ball them asked for observations from Col James Richardson, brigade commander, 101st CAB, requesting his observations on manned / unmanned teaming in Afghanistan as well as ongoing actions surrounding the creation of Task Force ‘ODIN-Alpha.’
Noting that he had a UAS Warrior-Alpha detachment / company under the CAB, Richardson explained that the UAS platforms were primarily focused on counter-IED operations, border interdiction, and supporting troops in contact.
“One way we utilised them in Afghanistan – when you talk about what is one of the biggest threats, it’s the weather. And so we used our Warriors and [other] UAVs to go up routes and look at the weather, because we didn’t have weather sensors everywhere in those passes. So the UAV paid huge dividends when...we didn’t know what the weather was between where we were and where we were going,” he said.
Richardson added that UAS operations in Afghanistan also included daily briefings during which the Warrior-Alpha company commander participated and briefed battalion commanders on planned daily operations.
“So they would synchronise the assets and we were able to communicate between the Warrior company commander and that Air Battle Captain or AMC [Air Mission Commander] doing an air assault,” he said. “So that paid huge dividends. We had great success with manned – unmanned teaming, specifically with our Kiowa Warriors and Apaches, as well as with our Air Force counterparts – the F-15s. I can’t say enough about the situational awareness the warriors gave us with our air assaults, being there before we came in. Actually a lot of times we do ‘Cherry/Ice’ calls [final LZ update for air assault forces] based on what we had seen in our TOC, based off the Warrior feed.
“We are getting a ‘Task Force ODIN capability’ over there [into Afghanistan]. We have worked that very hard the last six months in theater,” he added.
“From my experiences, I think the manned – unmanned tactical ISR [teaming] is probably one of the great advances that’s been made lately,” echoed Lieutenant Colonel (Promotable) Van Voorhees, commander, 1st battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) (Airborne). “And what it comes down to, if you try to explain it to people, is a real-time SITREP situation report] for a commander or the operator or whoever is going out there.”
“The manned – unmanned teaming concept has paid big dividends in theater, as everybody has mentioned,” Col Ball observed. “But it’s not just the kinetic piece to it. There are a lot of other areas where the UAV is paying off for us in theatre, [including] comms relay, or a lot of different other areas where we can take this fight. Primarily it is being used for the counter-IED…where you have that ‘persistent stare.’ Once you’ve done that IPB [intelligence preparation of the battlefield] on where you think the enemy is placing those IEDs, then you can come in with your manned systems and either destroy the emplacers or wait, back-trail those guys, once they have emplaced the IED, to where their headquarters or location is at. And then you can bring in air or ground systems.”
“This is where the BAEs [Brigade Aviation Elements] pay big dividends for you. Because the Shadows [UAS] are in the division. Even though you have been given the responsibility, as the CAB commander, for their training, for their maintenance, and for their oversight, really belong to the BCTs [brigade combat teams]. And if your BAEs are quality, they can provide you that early warning, so if you don’t have a dedicated UAV working for you on that particular day, you can rapidly integrate what the UAVs in the other BCTs are seeing into a common operational picture in your TOC and divert or redirect assets in order to capitalize on what that BCT is seeing with its UAVs. So there are a lot of different ways you can use UAVs in theatre,” he said.
By Scott R. Gourley, Washington DC
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