SAIC Helps the Machines Rise
Summer 2003
In future conflicts, U.S. warfighters will team with robots to create a more capable, agile, and cost-effective force that lowers the risk of U.S. casualties. On the leading edge of robotic research and development, SAIC innovations are enabling a new generation of these airborne and ground robots.
During the recent war with Iraq, a fierce sandstorm pinned down U.S. troops as forces from the Iraqi Republican Guard approached. Soaring 12 miles above, the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used synthetic aperture radar and infrared cameras to look through the dust and clouds and relay enemy positions for an air strike. Instead of a tough defensive battle, U.S. troops routed the Republican Guard, according to a Reuters report.
U.S. commanders based their tactics on images, text, and other intelligence data sent to forward areas by the Global Hawk's Direct Dissemination Element, integrated by SAIC. The strike force received that intelligence within 15 to 20 minutes, according to a spokesperson for Northrop Grumman, prime contractor for the Global Hawk. Making that feat even more impressive, this jet-powered, 116-foot wingspan aircraft can capture and disseminate data on an area the size of Illinois in a single day.
According to the Air Force, Global Hawk accounted for 30% of the air-based intelligence images during Operation Iraqi Freedom, even though it flew only 5% of the high altitude reconnaissance sorties. In fact, Global Hawk produced more than 4,800 images, which led directly to the destruction of 300 Iraqi tanks - 38% of Iraq's pre-war inventory.
As Global Hawk produced these images, other UAVs - the Air Force Predators - kept lookout, and in at least one case, destroyed an enemy anti-aircraft artillery gun. In Predator's early stages, our key test and evaluation support helped demonstrate the feasibility of this UAV concept. Before the Iraqi conflict, SAIC staff supported training missions for the Predators, which are actually systems of four aircraft flown by pilots and sensor operators from inside ground control stations.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, a developmental mini-UAV also benefited from our test and evaluation support during the concept demonstration phase. Weighing just over 4 pounds with a 4-foot wingspan, the twin-propeller Dragon Eye gave Marines and Special Forces an "over-the-next-hill" reconnaissance capability in Iraq.
On the Horizon
Future UAVs will be even smaller than Dragon Eye if the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) has its way. DARPA used an innovative material from our Telcordia Technologies subsidiary to create one of the first micro-UAVs, called the Wasp. The plane's 13-inch "flying wing" is made of a plastic lithium-ion battery material that provides both electrical power and wing structure.
This innovative Telcordia material generates an average output of more than nine watts during flight, enough power to propel the six-ounce aircraft into a new micro air vehicle endurance record. Last year, the radio-controlled Wasp flew one hour 47 minutes, more than three times the previous record of 30 minutes set in 2000.
According to DARPA, Wasp is the first developmental micro-UAV to benefit from this kind of synthetic "multifunctional" material.
To expand its cutting-edge UAV research, SAIC recently opened a new facility in Sterling, Virginia, that will be the home of its newly formed Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Program office. The facility will house a system integration laboratory for developing UAV systems and technologies, including ground stations. Our efforts will support various customers, including DARPA, the FBI, the Army, and the Air Force.
On the Ground
In Colorado, SAIC's Center for Intelligent Robots and Unmanned Systems is helping develop ground robots in all sizes and shapes to locate the enemy - whether they are in caves or hiding in urban combat areas - as well as deliver payloads and dispose of unexploded ordnance.
A long-term objective of the ground robotics program is to support land force domination of the urban battlespace by employing teams of mobile robots in interior and exterior terrain.
A somewhat similar scene is underway at SAIC's Collaborative Planning and Intelligent Systems Center in McLean, Virginia. There, packs of puppy-sized robots explore and "map" the indoor environment of buildings.
A force charged with the task of clearing a structure will benefit from the map, which could show the number and layout of rooms on a given floor, and the number and layout of doorways and stairways. A force will also benefit from knowing whether there are people inside the building, their location, and, ideally, their state of being (awake, asleep, wounded, etc).
Related Information:
- Aviation/Unmanned Vehicles
- Homeland Security solutions
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