MUM’s
the Word
Manned and Unmanned Rotorcraft
Functionality Expands
By David C. Walsh
Northrop Grumman/Bell Helicopter’s Fire-X, shown here
making its first flight in December 2010. Northrop Grumman
photo by Chad Slattery.
T
he military fields dozens of types of helicopters, with different, even overlapping capabilities and primary tasks: to convey
troops, vehicles and other heavy equipment; strike enemies;
evacuate battle and disaster casualties; conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; coordinate with artillery and other ground
units; join other vehicles for search and rescue; fast-line spec ops
people to extract bad guys; and more.
They’re indispensable. But their crews are always at risk of accidental
crashes or hostile fire. Here, as elsewhere, the transition to robotic
controls — in Manned/Unmanned (MUM) rotorcraft — is under
way. Some systems are optionally manned, others can interoperate
with manned aircraft, but the goal is the same, to keep the warfighter out of harm’s way.
Boeing, a team of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Kaman Aerospace
Corp., Sikorsky and a team of Northrop Grumman and Bell Helicopter are among the half-dozen or so manned/unmanned teaming
power hitters competing for Department of Defense contracts for
airframes, avionics, guidance modalities, video, communications,
electronic signals intelligence, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance suites or weapons systems. The current Armed Aerial
Scout drone helicopter program is a major inducement.
Consider Sikorsky’s Black Hawk. In service since 1980 with countless upgrades, the 20,000-pound UH-60 is ubiquitous and a proven
theater workhorse. Competencies range from airborne warning and
control system tasking to networking duties to hauling a 105-millimeter howitzer and its 10-man crew.
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27
Unmanned Helicopter… continued
The same-day MUM conversion, he says, enables the Black Hawk
to “carry a Humvee, fuel blivet, armament, etc., but we also keep the
[pilots’] cabin. So if you want to do internal cargo missions leveraging medevac or [ferrying combat troops], where it’s absolutely critical
for a pilot to be there, you have that utility.”
The system’s optionally piloted capability is intrinsic: “We do not
have to add or remove anything. You simply push the flight director mode and engage the optionally piloted portion of the mission.
… An aircraft is sitting on the ground for 16 hours a day. Why not
harvest those hours and provide an option … for additional missions
and sorties?”
An innovation, Lesperance says, is HALTT-A (Helicopter Alert and
Threat Termination). It lets an aircraft “identify when it’s being shot
at and the direction those ballistic rounds are coming from by understanding the turbulence wave that goes past the aircraft.
“The flight control system feeds that data into the aircraft so it can
recognize the environment, whether it be terrain, global or threat
data.” The aircraft then decides autonomously how to maneuver and
respond.
The militarized Black Hawk already boasts electronic countermeasures. ISR payload packages for the robot iteration, says Lesperance,
include thermal imagers, video infrared systems, electro-optics and
more. Other systems under test are a millimeter-wave radar sensor
and synthetic-vision system and a computerized comms modality to
simplify formation flying and reduce pilot fatigue.
A Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, which may soon come in both manned and unmanned varieties. In this
photo, a Black Hawk undergoes voice command tests with a dummy load for the Optionally Piloted Black
Hawk Program. Photo courtesy Sikorsky.
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Igor Cherepinsky, lead engineer for Sikorsky’s fly-by-wire programs,
and Jesse Lesperance, project lead for the Optionally Piloted Black
Hawk project, highlighted key aspects of the reported $1 billion
transformation program.
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Lesperance says, “We’re doing a [cargo resupply] development program with the AMRDEC [the Army’s Aviation and Missile Research,
Development and Engineering Center], the Advanced Science and
Technology Directorate and the UH-60 program office.”
A fieldable, initial operational capacity-compliant aircraft is expected
in 2014 or 2015. Cherepinsky says, “We’re developing the ‘grand
technology suite’ that can accommodate anything from small- to
medium-size vehicles that are completely unmanned to a large optionally manned vehicle.”
Working with an existing airframe means relatively simple integration of unmanned capabilities with existing operational conditions.
“The UH-60M has an external sling load capacity of 9,000 pounds,”
notes Lesperance, “and in a UM [unmanned] mode we can operate
with that.”
28
- Reduced Maintenance Costs
- Reduced Pilot Stress
- Precision Approaches
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Outfitting it as a MUM platform seemed obvious. Why not “flyby-wire” as jet pilots do, replacing mechanical linkages with digital
controls? Sikorsky hopes, in conjunction with the Army’s MannedUnmanned Resupply Aerial Lift (MURAL) program, to do just that
with an UH-60M this year. FBW is a vital feature of the productionready configuration of an optionally piloted aircraft.
Lesperance says, “We are doing a lot of work about [coordinating]
smart UAV systems,” or teaming — joining unmanned helicopters
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“The K-MAX has an on-board power take-off that generates an additional 50 HP. This can be converted to electrical energy to power
more mission-specific payloads as needed,” he says. “For all missions,
a payload can be used for a combination of cargo, sensors, fuel, weapons and the like. If you want a long-endurance mission, a majority of
that payload can be used for fuel. If an ISR mission, a portion may
be used for specific sensors. In a cargo mission, the majority could be
used for lifting supplies.”
Jim Naylor, Lockheed Martin’s director of business development for
K-MAX, adds, “The drag penalty of external gear would not be as
noticeable on the K-MAX since the cruise speeds are designed for
external cargo lift.”
“A fully unmanned platform offers weight savings over a conventional cockpit that has all the human-machine interfaces [HMIs]
installed: monitors, control sticks, seat and so on,” Brown says. But
with optionally manned systems, cockpits and HMIs are in place,
“so a pilot could enter the cockpit, flip a switch and fly the aircraft if
necessary for other missions.”
Lockheed/Kaman’s cargolugging K-MAX. Photo
courtesy Lockheed Martin.
with manned ones or other aircraft or UAS. (Unmanned aircraft today stream video to manned craft in theater, especially for Medevac
operations.)
Also fitting the cargo-plus MUM mold is the K-MAX, developed
by Lockheed Martin and Kaman Aerospace. This twin main-rotor,
no-tail rotor aircraft responds particularly to the Marines’ urgent resupply need. Development draws on NSRDEC, the Army’s Natick
Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center.
Although cargo transport is primary, K-MAX can be outfitted with
ancillaries. According to Jeff Brown, Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors spokesman, ECMs or standoff weapons, for instance,
are possible, though with a tradeoff: cargo lift versus sensors.
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K-MAX does without “hushers,” the usual noise-abatement solution for stealthy special operations. “In comparison with other rotary
wing assets, the K-MAX has a very low noise signature,” says Brown,
because it has no tail rotor.
He notes, “The battlefield demand for additional sensors is insatiable. Technologies such as VUIT [Video from Unmanned Aircraft
Systems for Interoperability Teaming] are already installed on the deployed, manned AH-64 Apache … allowing it to get video streams
from a forward UAV [that] can be relayed back to the remote pilot
or ground operator.” Such data is sharable among MUMs and with
Predator, Global Hawk and other UAS.
Fly-by-wire is a vital feature of the production-capable configuration
of an optionally piloted aircraft. Like Sikorsky’s model, K-MAX can
change MUM gears quickly: “It’s a simple as throwing a switch. The
true benefit of ‘optionally piloted’ is that no configuration changes
are needed to go from manned to unmanned,” says Brown.
Lockheed Martin/Kaman’s view of existing airframes versus new ones
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29
Unmanned Helicopter… continued
differs. “Many platforms may be available to ‘unman,’” says Brown.
“However, it comes down to the total life-cycle cost of the platform.
A complex one retaining many of its manned components could
have a very high cost per flight hour and maintenance interval. …
In K-MAX’s case, the platform is a rugged yet simple design. No
hydraulics, no tail rotor or associated gearboxes, no air conditioning,
no electrical.”
Boeing’s A160T Hummingbird, which
can be given fine-tuning signals
for delivering cargo, as seen here,
or can deliver loads autonomously.
Photo courtesy Boeing.
K-MAX went up against Boeing Phantom Works’ A160T Hummingbird, an unmanned-only helicopter, in a cargo delivery demonstration for the U.S. Marine Corps held last year. Late in 2010, Naval
Air Systems Command said it would fund both systems for now, and
both will go through a quick reaction assessment this summer to see
which one will ultimately be fielded.
Brown and Naylor are confident that K-MAX will be “ready to be
deployed under the NAVAIR/USMC contract later this summer,”
with beyond-cargo resupply tasking a distinct possibility. Boeing is
equally bullish on its prospects.
Another manned helo turning unmanned is the Fire-X, a joint venture of Northrop Grumman and Bell Helicopter. Fire-X transplants
the brains of Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout into the body of Bell’s
407 manned helicopter. It’s still under development and was too
late for the Marine Corps demonstration, but made a successful first
flight in late 2010 and the companies plan to conduct test flights
showing its cargo-carrying capability this year.
Plays Well with Others
As indicated by the NAVAIR contract, Boeing’s A160T Hummingbird shows serious promise as a robotic cargo resupplier and ISR platform. It even deployed once to theater: Belize.
Boeing’s website says the Hummingbird is “unlike other helicopters”
because it hovers at 20,000 feet and flies at 30,000 feet (pending
engine certification for that altitude) — several thousands higher
than some comparables. It’s also quieter and features “a unique OSR
[optimum speed rotor] technology letting the Hummingbird adjust
the … rotor blades’ rpm, maximizing efficiency and performance at
different altitudes and cruise speeds.”
Marc Sklar, Boeing Strike division communications lead, says teaming is “a key capability in Boeing’s new AH-64D Apache Block III
aircraft, which achieves Level IV interoperability” with the A160T
and other aerial systems.
Ernie Wattam, Boeing’s A160 Program Manager, agrees: “The philosophy of MUM teaming is very sound. … Boeing has worked
extensively on its own and with customers to develop options for
manned/unmanned teaming among platforms.”
He adds, “We try to utilize equipment already airborne … qualified
for the helicopter environment. … The inherent design of an optionally manned autonomous vehicle usually equates to a weight increase
of the same design — but for manned use only. That’s because a more
robust flight management system is required for an unmanned use,
while still carrying around the crash safety design aspects required to
protect the pilot.”
But “the A160T has an extremely aerodynamic design that has al-
30
lowed us to demonstrate speeds up to 163 miles per hour, and the
design is believed capable of achieving 185 miles per hour. Therefore,
the impact comes against an exceptional baseline.”
The A160T also holds a world-record for endurance in its class with
an 18.7-hour unrefueled flight — landing with an estimated 90 minutes of fuel still onboard.
“Boeing has adapted the A160T for various environments,” Wattam
says. “For instance, metal leading edges and other enhancements were
made for flying in the high rain/humidity environment in Belize. We
will incorporate appropriate environmental protections as needed for
future deployments.”
Regarding man portable air defense systems (MANPADS) or small
arms attacks: “Susceptibility … depends upon the platform’s proximity to the ground. … In situations where the CONOPS dictate
flying closer to the ground, utilizing ECM or other standoff weapons
is possible.”
Are unmanned/optionally manned helicopters better at collecting
and sending data than pure manned platforms? “Platform efficiency
depends on the original design concept. Using a platform originally
designed for a specific purpose [or requirement] beyond that means
introducing inefficiencies.
“However, if a platform such as the A160T is designed from the beginning to account for those types of missions, then efficiency can be
achieved,” Wattam says. “ISR is among the multi-mission capabilities for which the A160T was designed from the ground up.”
There was a recent dramatic illustration of robotic utility: Honeywell’s T-Hawk, a small vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft, has conducted several flights over Japan’s crippled nuclear reactors. Persuading human pilots to undertake such a mission might
have proven difficult, if not unthinkable.
David C. Walsh, proprieter of pixwords.com, is a Washington, D.C.based writer specializing in defense and security issues.
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