Introduced to the U.S. Airforce in 1998,
the RQ-4 Global Hawk has set the precedence of what unmanned aircraft systems
are capable of. The RQ-4 Global Hawk is a very capable remote sensing, high altitude,
and long endurance aircraft. In 2011, NASA acquired three RQ-4 A-model Block 10
Global Hawks, with the purpose of using these aircraft for Earth science
research (Naftel, 2011, p. 1). All variants of the RQ-4 Global Hawk
use line-of-sight (LOS) and beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) communication systems
for command and control (C2) and to transfer imagery data to the ground
station. To understand the full potential of the RQ-4 platform, with regards to
LOS and BLOS, three areas must be looked at. They are ground operations,
potential human factor issues, and commercial applications. The best way to
understand the RQ-4 Global Hawk is to comprehend how it conducts operations.
That begins at the ground facility.
Although designed
to be an autonomous aircraft, taking-off/landing/flying using a comprehensive
pre-loaded plan; the RQ-4 Global Hawk requires a sizeable ground facility and a
significantly sized crew to operate. NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center,
which is located on Edwards Air Force Base, has a ground facility that is
constructed similarly to how the U.S. Air Force operates its fleet of RQ-4
Global Hawks (Naftel, p. 1). NASA’s ground
facility is located inside a hangar consisting of two parts. The first part is the
aircraft side, which houses the RQ-4 platform for maintenance and storage. The
second part is the Global Hawk Operations Center (GHOC), which is subdivided
into three compartments. The first compartment is the flight operation room. It
is in this room that the mission director, pilot, copilot (see Figure 1: Flight Operations Room (Fahey, 2015,
p. 5)), GHOC operator and
range safety officer control and direct flight operations (Naftel, p. 1). The next room is the payload
operations room. This room is capable of supporting up to 14 imagery analysis
workstations (Naftel, p. 1). Essentially, this
room is where the mission imagery data is received and initially analyzed for
pertinent information before going off to a dedicated exploitation team (see Figure 2: Payload Operations Room (Fahey, 2015, p. 7)). The final room
is the support equipment room. In this room, large computer servers run the
workstations and equipment needed for aircraft C2 and communication (Naftel, p. 2). Additionally, the
servers in the support equipment room are directly connected to the large UHF
ground antennas directly outside the facility and two Iridium Satcom links (Naftel, p. 2). This allows the
pilots to switch from LOS operations to BLOS operations as necessary. However,
when C2 of the RQ-4 Global Hawk is switched from LOS to BLOS there are some
unique human factor issues that arise.
Similar to any
airborne platform with a long distance range and high altitude operation (Fahey, 2015), situational
awareness is going to be a major human factor concern. The difference between
the RQ-4 Global Hawk and other manned aircraft is the situational awareness
human factor issues presented when C2 is switched from LOS to BLOS. First and
foremost, RQ-4 pilots control the aircraft via four computer monitors, a
keyboard, and a mouse (Platoni, 2011). Due partly to these controls and being
physically removed from the aircraft, RQ-4 Global Hawk pilots are missing four
of the five senses. Relying only on sight means pilots must maintain hyper-vigilance
when executing procedures to ensure mishaps do not occur. The constant
management of limited data is a big challenge for the RQ-4 Global Hawk. In
fact, a similar issue occurred, in 2006 with the MQ-9 Predator (Elias,
2012, p. 10).
On April 25, 2006, the pilot of an MQ-9 Predator failed to follow appropriate
procedures when switching C2 and inadvertently shut off the aircraft’s fuel
supply (Elias, p. 10). The lack of
situational awareness and vestibular input from the aircraft prevented the
unmanned pilot from having another cue to react. Despite this issue, there is
hope for the human factor issues of the RQ-4 Global Hawk. NASA’s recent use of
their fleet of RQ-4’s has paved the way for commercial use of these very
capable aircraft.
When
NASA acquired four RQ-4 Global Hawks in 2011, they paved the way for the
private sector to pursue potential commercial applications for unmanned BLOS operations
(Naftel, 2011, p. 1). NASA is currently using their fleet of
RQ-4 Global Hawks to gather data on different weather systems across the globe.
This global approach to data acquisition is only possible due to BLOS
capabilities (see Figure 3: RQ-4 Global Hawk Communication (Fahey, 2015,
p. 4) (Fahey, 2015, p. 4)). From a private
company standpoint, the use of BLOS operations allows the private company to
save on overhead logistics costs while still projecting their brand over a
large area/population. One particular BLOS UAS operation is the proliferation
of internet service. According to
Forbes.com, Google has purchased Titan Aerospace, a solar UAS producer.
Google’s intent behind buying Titan Aerospace is simple; provide internet
access to remote parts of the Earth (Mack, 2014).
This ambitious endeavor of using drones as wireless hubs can only be
logistically possible through the use of BLOS.
The RQ-4 Global Hawk
has been the pioneer aircraft for military and government use. Each variation
of the RQ-4 Global Hawk uses LOS and BLOS communication systems for command and
control (C2) and data download. Additionally, the recent use of this platform
by NASA has opened the path for commercial applications by the private
sector. The next decade will be
interesting if the technology continues to be pushed to the limit.
References
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and Considerations for Congress Regarding Unmanned Aircraft Operations in the
National Airspace System. District of Columbia: Congressionsl Research
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Fahey, D. D. (2015, September 17). The Global Hawk
Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS): A new platform for Earth Science Research.
1-14. Montreal, Canada: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Handwerk, B. (2013, December 2). 5 Surprising
Drone Uses (Besides Amazon Delivery). Retrieved from National Geographic:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131202-drone-uav-uas-amazon-octocopter-bezos-science-aircraft-unmanned-robot/
Mack, E. (2014, April 14). Google Confirms
Purchase Of Titan Aerospace For Data Drone Effort. Retrieved from
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2014/04/14/google-reportedly-buying-solar-drone-maker-not-facebook/#53a5902c4523
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http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/thats-professor-global-hawk-433583/?no-ist=&page=2
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Test & Evaluation:
http://www.dote.osd.mil/pub/reports/FY2015/pdf/af/2015globalhawk.pdf
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association. (2016).
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