UAS Beyond Light of Sight Operations

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

Elias, B. (2012). Pilotless Drones: Background and Considerations for Congress Regarding Unmanned Aircraft Operations in the National Airspace System. District of Columbia: Congressionsl Research Service.

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 Forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2014/04/14/google-reportedly-buying-solar-drone-maker-not-facebook/#53a5902c4523

Naftel, J. C. (2011, August 08). NASA Global Hawk: Project Overview and Future Plans . 14. Edwards, California, United States of America: NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Retrieved from http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20110011985.pdf

Platoni, K. (2011, May). “That’s Professor Global Hawk” - A remote-piloted warrior starts flying for science. Retrieved from Air & Space Magazine: http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/thats-professor-global-hawk-433583/?no-ist=&page=2

U.S. Air Force. (2016, January 21). RQ-4B Global Hawk High-Altitude Long-Endurance . Retrieved from Director, Operational Test & Evaluation: http://www.dote.osd.mil/pub/reports/FY2015/pdf/af/2015globalhawk.pdf

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association. (2016). Civil and Commercial UAS Applications. Retrieved from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association: https://www.uavs.org/commercial