Page 79 - AA 2018_09

‘You can fly rom a relatively late start in
unmanned aerial systems (UAS),
the Australian Army now fields
right down Fa pair of state-of-the-art small
to look at a tactical drones – Wasp and Black
Hornet – and is now looking to replace
car number the proven but ageing Shadow 200.
And to make Army fully “drone
literate”, it’s embarking on an
plate.’ innovative trial whereby everyone,
not just those on the frontlines,
LTCOL KEIRIN JOYCE get to play with inexpensive
commercial UAS to see just how
they could be useful.
Further down the track, Army is
examining emerging UAS capabilities,
such as for field resupply and casualty
evacuation and pseudo-satellites, a
high altitude drone which provides
substitute GPS, communication and
data relay in event that the satellite
capability is lost.
Then there’s armed systems.
Under Project AIR 7003, the RAAF
will acquire either the General
Atomics Predator or Israel Aerospace
Industries Heron TP with troops on
the ground the primary beneficiaries
of the surveillance and strike
capabilities.
There are other emerging armed
UAS capabilities, such as the
Israeli Rotem L, a five-kilogram
quadcopter equipped with camera
and datalink for surveillance, and,
if the tactical situation requires, a
pair of fragmentation grenades. The
Australian Army is keeping an eye on
DRONE Lieutenant Colonel Keirin Joyce,
such capabilities.
The Army’s UAS authority,
staff officer for unmanned aerial
systems within Army headquarters
in Canberra, said the service was
now well into the rollout of two
outstanding tactical UAS.
LITERATE sized helicopter UAS able to peer
Black Hornet is a tiny sparrow-
over a compound wall, through a
window or into a treeline. This is now
halfway through delivery to the Army,
with Special Operations Command
(SOCOMD) and 7 Brigade fully-
equipped. 1 and 3 Brigades are next.
That will eventually involve 160
systems across the service, each
comprising three Black Hornets, a
Unmanned systems big and small are proving a ground control station, chargers and
game-changer for force protection and situational extra range antennas, all packed in
a Pelican trunk about the size of a
laptop computer. For field use, Black
awareness in Army operations Hornet travels in a small pouch.
“The soldiers love it,” LTCOL Joyce
said.
WRITER: MAX BLENKIN He said this provides two game-
changing aspects, force protection and
situational awareness.
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