The U.S. Army is looking to transform some of its helicopters into unmanned aerial vehicles, as the military looks for realistic methods to have its helicopters “optionally manned.”

The option of transforming helicopters to UAVs would be cheaper for the government than purchasing new aircraft. Specifically, the Army things that the following helicopters would be the easiest to transform: CH-47F Chinook, AH-64D Apache Longbow, and the UH-60M helicopter.

As helicopters remain a vital tool in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military officials also have an interest in having the helicopters take off and land autonomously. However, it’s unlikely the weapons system on any Army helicopters will be able to fire without a soldier pulling the trigger.

If these semi-autonomous helicopters do not help save money, however, the idea could be scrapped immediately. The 140-page “strategic vision” document was supported by Col. Christopher Carlile, Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence director.

As mentioned by earlier military officials, the technology is designed to better aid pilots and crew members, not replace them. What is more, the helicopters that use autonomous aid will be chosen for select missions, and won’t randomly fly into combat situations.

The use of UAVs as reconnaissance or attack drones has increased dramatically in the Middle East, with missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The drone technology will be shared with Pakistan and other select nations, as more nations research unmanned technology.

“They’re shooting at us,” a soldier claimed. Laughing, giddy almost, they moved behind an armored vehicle that shielded them from the fields to the west. Somewhere out there, a sniper was trying to kill them. He was far enough away for the gunshot to be inaudible, or he may have been using a silencer.

The fight in southern Afghanistan between insurgents and NATO troops, along with Afghan forces still learning on the job, is not a conventional war. A lot of it is harassment, the deadly kind. The Taliban shoot, drop their weapons and walk off. They plant roadside bombs and disappear. They know that they will lose a head-on clash with Western firepower.

“We have all this great technology and everything,” stated U.S. Army Capt. Michael Kovalsky of Fords, New Jersey. “We overlook the little things like a piece of garbage in a tree,” which is sometimes used by insurgents to mark the location of a bomb.

As U.S. Marines press the Taliban in a five-day-old offensive against their stronghold of Marjah, insurgents are resorting to tactics that worked for them against the Soviet Army in the 1980s. Or much further back. Alexander the Great, the British Empire – Afghanistan has known many invaders throughout history.

The insurgents of today have radios and cell phones, but little more in the way of a sophisticated communications network.

When Kovalsky’s Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment of the 5th Stryker Brigade moved into the Badula Qulp area, northeast of Marjah, last week, they occupied an abandoned Taliban compound. On some walls, they found cell phone numbers, possibly of insurgents, and drawings of American Chinook helicopters and other military hardware, said 1st Sgt. Gene Hicks of Tacoma, Washington.

The pictures appeared to provide a crude “running log” of American military strength in the area that could be consulted by other fighters as they moved from compound to compound, Hicks said.

The Taliban are patient and crafty when they plant roadside bombs, one of the biggest threats to American forces. They often do it in stages to avoid detection, according to American forces.

One man will drop off the explosives; the next day, a man will put in the charge; a day later someone will link up the materiel for detonation, and finally an insurgent will leave a marker – sticks across a path, a bundle of hay or rocks on the track.

Sometimes, they plant bombs – IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices – under puddles in the road. Or they create their own puddle, pouring water on the road to soften the earth for digging.

An insurgent’s bomb marker “could be anything. That’s the difficulty of it,” Kovalsky said. A rag on a branch could be a locator.

“Then again, who knows?” Kovalsky said. “On a windy day, it could have been somebody’s garbage blowing around.”

Alpha Company suffered casualties when it arrived in Afghanistan last year; the losses of new units are often higher when they first deploy because of inexperience. Alpha became battle-hardened in Maywan province and the Arghandab river valley of Kandahar province, other nesting grounds for the insurgency. They have yet to suffer a casualty in their current mission in support of the Marine offensive in Marjah.

Alpha Company’s commanders say they have noticed that Taliban cells operate locally, without much coordination with other groups of fighters, and that their leaders are, for the most part, not in the area.

Meanwhile, American technology – much of it high in the sky – scores successes, and falters at times. An Associated Press reporter and photographer accompanying a recent patrol heard a large explosion, one of many in the area. Soldiers said a Reaper, a pilotless reconnaissance aircraft with a weapons system, had killed a man who was apparently planting a bomb in the road.

The Stryker infantry carriers, designed for urban and open areas, can clock 110 kph (70 mph) on a highway. But they have had some trouble operating along a narrow canal road in Badula Qulp. The earth has caved in under at least three vehicles, pitching them at sharp angles in the mud and requiring hours to winch them out.

Instincts and experience, wedded to technology, help the Americans. One night, a gunner studying the thermal imaging screen of a Stryker’s weapons system spotted a man crouching and acting suspiciously in a field beside a compound. He was sure the man was planting a bomb.

Hicks took a look at the screen. Then the man stood up and wiped his hand on a wall. The sergeant had seen the same when he was deployed in Iraq. The man was no bomber; he was just going to the toilet.

The news station gained access to underground bomb-manufacturing cells and saw “a stockpile of bombs, primed and ready for use, whilst peace talks with the Taliban-led insurgency remain in their infancy.”

Afghanistan

The new, advanced bombs are triggered by devices similar to those that scan radio frequencies, a change from the use of cell phones to activate the bombs, the station informed. An Afghan commander told the news station that this development makes the bombs more accurate and no longer susceptible to military jamming equipment, which is used to disable cell phones.

A commander who gave the name Kamran to the news station informed: “The bombs are very cheap. They only cost about $100, but they are very effective. And we can use the scanner again and again.”

Sky admitted it was difficult to verify the militants’ claims but reported the “mentality and attitude of the bomb-makers do not suggest an insurgency on the brink of collapse.”

These types of telecommunication products are mainly used by the companies that execute contracts in Asia, as well as by the soldiers that are stationed in Afghanistan. Purchased bands gives TS2 unlimited possibilities of configuration and setting any telecommunication connections from the Near East region and South-Western Asia.

The broadband service offer two-way high-speed Internet access with no phone lines, no cable, no dial-up modem. It’s always online, available virtually anywhere, and affordable. The offered satellite system is ideally suited for broadband requirements such as Internet and VPN access to enterprise networks, as well as real-time VoIP and video conferencing.

The Internet connection can be shared with other users via wireless or wired network. Most soldiers deploy with a laptop in hand and a hookup to the Internet in their barracks. This is especially important for the many who are married, and have young children. The Internet access has resulted in major morale improvements. Troops no longer feel cut off from home.

Not all the Internet connectivity is just for staying in touch with the folks back home. The troops in Afghanistan use the Internet a lot for professional tasks, and not all of them are official business. Some troops blog, and many other stay in touch with military friends and associates in other parts of the world. The Internet has made possible many online communities composed of military professionals.

Without the new satellite system, large numbers of Soldiers will be without regular communications for much or most of their time in Afghanistan. The infrastructure is Spartan to non-existent.

More information on http://www.ts2.pl/en/Internet-in-Iraq-and-Afghanistan

Eutelsat’s W6 (formerly W3) satellite is located at 21.5 degrees East featuring 28 simultaneously active transponders. This satellite is ideal for applications such as VSAT networks, broadband Internet and data broadcasting. It is most suitable for companies that require communications between Europe, North Africa, the Sahara, the Middle East and the Gulf region.

The EUROBIRD 4, also called as EB4, is Eutelsat’s one of the satellites that provides coverage from 4 degrees East of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia in Ku-band frequencies.

TS2 Satellite Technologies specializes in providing global satellite access services. Our core business is broadband access to the Internet in areas with poor telecommunications infrastructure and mobile satellite phones communication. The main medium of used transmission is a two-way satellite transfer system, which provides good access to the satellite network in even the least accessible areas. It not only provides a broadband connection but also a wide range of additional data and voice services.

Website: http://www.ts2.pl

“Hughes is proud to provide high-speed Internet service to our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, reinforcing the military’s Morale, Welfare & Recreation [MWR] efforts in the region,” said Rick Lober, vice president and general manager of Hughes Defense and Intelligence Systems Division, in the release.

Lober said staying connected with spouses, children, extended family, and friends is essential for the troops’ morale, especially as they often are deployed overseas for a year or more.

“Hughes has been providing broadband satellite terminals throughout the region since 2003, and the additional bandwidth and resources from our new Dubai-based hub now enables us to connect even more men and women of the military with their loved ones at home while they serve our country overseas,” said Payam Herischi, senior director of Hughes Global Services.

The high-speed satellite Internet service is available at U.S. military bases in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait, with local installation and logistics support provided by partner companies in the region.

The RQ-170 Sentinel, believed to be a tailless flying wing design with sensor pods faired into the upper surface of each wing, was developed by Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs (ADP), better known as Skunk Works.

An Air Force official revealed on December 4th that the service is “developing a stealthy unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to deliver reconnaissance and surveillance support to forward deployed combat forces.” The UAV had been discussed on the Ares technology blog, as well as elsewhere online, but the USAF statement to Aviation Week was the first to detail the aircraft.

The RQ-170 is flown by the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron at Tonopah Test Range, Nevada, home of the F-117 stealth fighter when the program’s existence was secret — and falls under Air Combat Command’s 432d Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada. At Kandahar, the Sentinel was seen operating out of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ hangar. The RQ-170 designation is similar to that of the F-117 — a correct prefix, but out of sequence to avoid obvious guesses of a program’s existence. Technically, the RQ designation denotes an unarmed aircraft rather than the MQ prefix applied to the armed Predator and Reaper UAVs. The USAF phrase, “Support to forward deployed combat forces,” when combined with observed details, suggest a moderate degree of stealth (including a blunt leading edge, simple nozzle and overwing sensor pods) and that the Sentinel is a tactical, operations-oriented platform and not a strategic intelligence-gathering design.

About Lockheed Martin.

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.

The U.S. Army currently operates more than 350 BLACK HAWK helicopters combined in these two Overseas Contingency Operations. BLACK HAWK helicopters have flown these missions since February 2003 and are maintaining an 84 percent mission capable readiness rate while operating in the extreme heat, wind, and sand conditions.

While the U.S. Army’s fleet of BLACK HAWK helicopters continues to log fleet hours in theater, BLACK HAWK aircraft operating in the Middle East region are also performing well for Sikorsky consumers. There are approximately 150 BLACK HAWK helicopters operating elsewhere in the Middle East.

“The BLACK HAWK helicopter has proven itself in the most extreme and rigorous environments, and each milestone is a testament to its durability and effectiveness,” informed Scott Starrett, President, Sikorsky Military Systems. “It is a proven, reliable combat aircraft.”
The U.S. Army’s total BLACK HAWK helicopter fleet exceeds 1,740 aircraft and has amassed nearly 6 million flight hours.

More than 3,000 BLACK HAWK helicopters are in use today, operating in 27 different countries. Designed to stringent U.S. Military standards, the BLACK HAWK helicopter has become the leader in multi-mission-type aircraft. Among the mission configurations it serves are troop transport, medical evacuation, electronic warfare, attack, assault support and special operations.

Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., based in Stratford, Conn., USA, is a world leader in helicopter design, produce and service. United Technologies Corp., based in Hartford, Conn., USA, provides a broad range of high technology products and support services to the aerospace and building systems industries.

The military has already spent roughly $2.7 billion on construction over the past three fiscal years. Now, if its request is approved as part of the fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill, it would spend another $1.3 billion on more than 100 projects at 40 sites across the country, according to a Senate report on the legislation.

At the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, Bagram, the military is planning to build a $30 million passenger terminal and adjacent cargo facility to handle the flow of troops, many of whom arrive at the base north of Kabul before moving onto other sites. Under the proposed schedule, those facilities will not be completed until late 2010 and go into operation early in 2011, according to military sources.

Officials say such projects are absolutely essential given the inadequate and dilapidated nature of the existing infrastructure.

Bagram is far from the only U.S. base being upgraded. The military is also spending hundreds of millions of dollars constructing facilities for the Afghan army and police. The U.S.-led coalition recently announced the opening of a $68 million, U.S.-financed forward operating base near Farah, in the western part of the country bordering on Iran. The base will house 2,000 Afghan soldiers and an American mentoring team.

Such bases can take a long time to build. The original solicitation for contractors on the Farah garrison project was dated Dec. 29, 2007. A proposal for an additional phase was offered in March 2008, and 18 months later, almost two years after it was first solicited, the garrison at Farah was opened.

Col. Thomas E. O’Donovan, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan Engineer District, told reporters last March that his multibillion-dollar construction program is providing “underpinnings” for efforts at establishing security and stability across Afghanistan.

AML has developed the assemblies exclusively for this specific UAV program and will be the sole source supplier of those components. “The UAV market represents a growth opportunity for AML. Pentagon reports indicate that unmanned aircraft such as Predators, Global Hawks, Shadows and Ravens fill important military needs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and are forecasted to be an important part of our nation’s military strategy for the foreseeable future,” said Jacob Inbar, AML’s President and CEO. “The fact that AML was selected as a sole source provider under this order demonstrates our reputation for high performance components and outstanding quality.”

IRAQ: Enemies attacked police patrols in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday, killing a police officer with a grenade and injuring 14 people in a car bomb blast, authorities informed. Separately, bombs in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, killed one civilian and injured 14, police said.

PAKISTAN: Pakistani fighter jets targeted suspected Taliban hideouts in a tribal region near Afghanistan on Sunday, killing as many as six people, intelligence officials informed. Elsewhere in the northwest, two bomb explosions killed two people and wounded 15 more in Upper Dir district at the edge of Swat Valley where Pakistan army informes it is wrapping up a two-month-old offensive against Taliban militants.