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The Future Combat System (FCS)
Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) plan consists of a family of several
types of airborne vehicles, including the Organic Air Vehicle (OAV).
The OAV will be designed to operate from the battlefield, by the
field troops, and provide small combat teams and individual soldiers with the
capability to detect the enemy forces concealed in forests or hills,
around buildings in urban areas, or in places where the shooter
does not have a direct line-of-sight. OAVs can perch and stare,
and essentially become sentinels for maneuvering troops. Rather than
sending a soldier into harm's way to scout a particularly
potential high-risk area, the unit will be able to use the OAV instead.
Typical OAV missions include reconnaissance and surveillance, path
finding for friendly ground vehicles (both robotics and manned),
maneuver force protection, and targeting for non-line-of-sight
fire operations.
The OAV
is designed for the platoon level of
the Unit of Action (UA) of the FCS equipped combat formation. The
OAV is excepted to weigh +35 kg and have mission endurance of 25
minutes. It will dash at speeds of 80 km/h and higher, up to a
range of up to 2,000 m, The platform will carry payloads of 3 – 3.5kg comprising of EO, IR, SIGINT,
acoustic, mine detectors and communications relays. It will
operate from a vehicle platform, either a Hummer or autonomous
(robotic) transporter launcher. An example of the OAV is the
iSTAR system.
OAVs are currently under development in two groups - a larger,
Class II version and a backpackable Class I version. Three
teams were awarded development contracts for Class II OAVs: GoldenEye industry team,
led by Aurora Flight Sciences, also includes Northrop Grumman and
General Dynamics Robotic Systems. The Honeywell led team, with
team members AAI, AVID and Techsburg Inc. The third team is led by
BAE Systems. The program will develop a Class-II UAV prototype for the
Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS). Combined, the three phases of
the program have the potential to last 48 months and have a total
program value in excess of $30 million. During the initial phase,
the teams will develop a preliminary design for the OAV-II system and demonstrate the critical elements of the
collision avoidance subsystem. A Phase II award decision is
expected during the summer of 2005, shortly after the completion
of Phase I.
The OAV II will be fully integrated with manned and unmanned
ground combat vehicles as a net-centric battlefield assets. The
GoldenEye proposed system consists of the VTOL unmanned platform, that uses
thrust vectoring and torsionally disconnected wings that was
originally developed for an earlier DARPA program. GoldenEye will
maintain range and endurance to cover the entire forward edge of
battle area, and will feature advanced collision avoidance
capability that will allow it to operate in dense urban areas. The
aircraft will have the capability to detect targets with visual or
infrared sensors and laser designate the targets. In spite of
these robust capabilities, GoldenEye will not require runways or
helipads to operate. Its small logistical footprint will enable it
to move with the FCS small combat unit. The Honeywell version for
the OAV-II is based on the 29-inch-diameter iSTAR ducted fan
vehicle developed for DARPA. The UAV is controlled with
Honeywell’s micro-electric mechanical systems (MEMS) technology.
The vehicle is equipped with forward and downward looking video
cameras that relay information to a remote ground station video
terminal. Variants of these air vehicles also can be equipped with
a variety of sensors, including those for biological hazard and
mine detection. No details are available at present on the BAE
proposal.
 A
smaller
version of the OAV is the class-I
vehicle, considered to
be soldier
transportable system, able to take off and land vertically
or from a very short strip. Man portable OAV-I versions are under
development by the
GoldenEye and
Honeywell teams to provide "hover and stare" battlefield
surveillance and forward scout missions. These vehicles should weigh up to 10 Kg,
including 0.5 kg payload. Powered by a diesel fuel engine, it will
be required to perform relatively short missions, of up to 15
minutes with a range of 1,000 meters. Operational ceiling will be
2,400m' above sea level. The system should have a low acoustic
signature of less than 75 db from a distance of 7 m'.
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