Documentary - The Latest Technology in Army Aviation

With. A good situation, awareness a, pilot, will not survive. There. Should be less room for surprise. Capabilities. We need in the future we're just not going to attain those with the current platform. You. Know what's on the ground before you get there it's a big advantage for that man baby the. Picture's worth a thousand words right. But, we can start using this cloud or this ops turret to our advantage. This. Is a way. To give a person, that shall, we say an extra edge and more awareness, of what's going on around them. You. Always save lives when you have information. This. Technology. Represents, the. Most novel. Intuitive. And easily. Integrated. Technologies. That I've ever seen. That's. Really a game changer for the for the army I mean it's a huge capabilities. That we, didn't have in the past. Creating. The army aviation fleet. Of the future is no, small task, although. We have incredibly, survivable, aircraft now the threat, continually, changes, the enemy continually, changes, the technology, and the tactics, that he uses against our fleet and we need to get ahead of that game so that we're survivable, we're, really focused, on three main areas that we've, evaluated is, what we really need for the future performance. Survivability, and economy. Our. Legacy platform, were designed for a certain firefighting, environment, and we found ourselves in, an environment, that's much more demanding, greater, distances, the need for more speed in, it would need to carry more payload. Engineers. Had speed, in mind when they developed, the Army's Apache, block, 3 helicopter. One of the major, enhancements. Of the aircraft from a performance, perspective it's, the fastest strongest Apache, we've had to date I, like, to label. As riding. A stallion, and a pollution stud horse, because. If, you've ever ridden one of those you know that it likes to go fast and it likes to go hard that's really what this aircraft does so at a payload, that's much greater than what the Apache has ever carried before it's, gonna be able to fly to spaces, in places in Afghanistan, as an example that our current patches cannot fly so that's a significant, enhancement.

To The aircraft because it's going to protect lives so, those ground troops that are up on the mountainside in Afghanistan, right now that don't, have air, coverage, because the Apaches can't get there the, block 3 will change that the. Apache block, 3 also has an upgraded electronics. Backbone. One, of the things that that backbone, allows us to do is networking, future. Capabilities, that really are breaking. The, new technology, barriers, capabilities. That the Army says will enable the highest, levels of in our ability, between. The pilot, and the Army's fleet of unmanned, aircraft also. Known as manned unmanned. Teaming. The. Interaction. Between unmanned. Aircraft, ground control, and pilots, is fast becoming one of the Army's most effective. Tools, unmanned. Unmanned team Ian we've defined four levels from you, just received the video off the unmanned, system, into the manned aircraft to. Both platforms, being, able to transfer, the sensor data from from. The man and the unmanned back and forth and down to the ground the. Next level up is the operators. The manned aircraft controlling. The payload or the sensor on the unmanned vehicle so they can make it look where they want it to look which, simplifies, operation, and the most advanced way to implement manned unmanned team Ian is that the, manned aircraft actually, controls, the, unmanned vehicle, not just the sensor but the whole vehicle basically. The control on the block three aircraft is, the first manned, platform. To be, able to do level, two through level four control, which means you, not only receive the video from the UAS but you can control the UAS sensor, you, can control the navigation or where the UAS, goes and so, really if you think about it from an operational, sense the the, block three crew, will no longer have to hear. Someone. Talk them onto a target because the pictures worth a thousand words. Pilots. Flying the Apache block three are actually, able to fly an unmanned, aircraft, like the Army's great eagle and the shadow right. From the cockpit of the Apache what's. Unique about the, army UAVs, is you don't really fly them you you tell that where he wants it to go and it flies, itself it's on an automatic control. If you will not o pilot, so different sort, of from the Air Force UAVs, where they actually fly them we, just tell them where we want them to go and the, UAV in the block three aircraft actually, share a database, of control, measures or waypoints. So, I can simply with a couple of button pushes tell the UAV that I want to go to a certain way point and the UAV flies there I can change its altitude I can change this airspeed and really, be a couple.

Of Button, pushes on the aircraft I can send it wherever I want it to go you don't actually fly, it you, just tell it where to go. That capability, can provide invaluable information for. Pilots, in the air and soldiers. On the ground so. The main unmanned teaming works in several ways the, way I like to describe it is is, the hunting dog out in front of the hunter when. You know it's on the ground before you get there when you know what your targets, look like when you know what the terrain looks like before, you get there that's a big advantage for that man Davey ater in addition, now with the incorporation, of the laser designation, our our UAVs. Can lays for. A target, and then they can shoot their Hellfire, missiles, from a great distance, some time without ever seeing the targets once, those targets, are engaged then they can do battle damage assessment all, without ever flying over it and putting themselves in harm's way so that's that's, a very big. Big, advantage, in, my opinion the. Manned unmanned, operating, system, is intended, to work seamlessly between, manned, aircraft, UAVs. And a, UAV, ground, station, so, why is interoperability. Important. It's, it, goes back to - now that we've grown in are at all echelons, of the army from, small, all, the way to the big grey eagle which is the Army's biggest UAV, to, be able to talk the same language to, be able to share the same videos, to, send the same messages, up to the airplane and back and to those those same messages, and photos as. Well as foe motion video to the tactical, edge or to our UAV. Recipients. It's. Very important, that we all have Universal. Or, interoperable. Products. And standards. The. Army recently had the chance to demonstrate this, cutting-edge technology at, music, the Army's manned, unmanned, systems, integration, capability. Exercise, at Dugway, proving grounds. In Utah all, of the music exercises. Are focused, on getting new, abilities, integrated, into the platforms, and out to the soldier in the, old days so to speak you know we would look at a map and we would do as much map reconnaissance.

As We possibly, could and we would try to understand, you know looking at pictures what it is that we're getting into but now literally. With an unmanned aircraft vehicle overhead. Looking at that landing. Zone in real time that, helicopter. Pilot is going to be able to know exactly what's, going on know exactly where he's going to land and there. Would there, should be less room for surprise. So. Obviously, the benefit for the soldier on the ground is now he's got a level of situational, awareness that, he didn't have before they're just you, know really enables him to truly, understand, the situation, that he's about to get get, into and and. That's just that's really a game-changer for the for the army I mean it's a huge capability that. That we didn't have in the past. But we can start using this cloud or this ops group to our advantage because, once we're hidden the enemy can no longer precisely, target, us. You. Another. Challenge facing military, pilots, today is the problem, of the graded visual, environment, or brownout. And a loss of situational. Awareness if. You look at the mishaps that have happened over the last several years there's. A large percentage, associated. With controlled, flight into terrain. Degraded. Visual environments. Meaning snow. Dust. Obscuration. And these. Certainly, amount to probably, at least 30%. Of the mishaps that we currently have now. Currently. When pilots are trying to land in a, brownout now they are trying to get the aircraft on the ground before. The dust cloud catches, up with them so to speak when. They're coming forward, and landing. The. Dust will be coming approaching. Them from the rear and a, crew member will usually be calling where that dust is and the pilot is hoping to get that on the aircraft, or, get the aircraft on the ground before the dust, cloud envelops. Them if, they are actually in the dust storm itself there's not a lot of ways to get information, as, to drift, cues, and they, may be moving and they're not aware of their movement and if they're moving slightly laterally, when they touch down they, can get what's called a dynamic, rollover, and the aircraft will, roll over the, army is working, to change that with a variety of, new technology. We've. Broken the solution set for to create a visual, environment into, three major areas, handling. Qualities, cueing, and sensors, special. Sensors, and radar, that allow pilots to see through, dust snow or any type of bad weather and helicopters. That can safely land, themselves are, quickly becoming, a reality, there are several technologies, a particular, one that we picked, to do, a quick reaction capability. Is a 94, gigahertz radar, called, the helicopter, autonomous. Landing system or hails and, we're under or, in the process right now of integrating. That onto a platform the. Army is also developing better ways to alert the pilot to potential, danger, Angus, Rupert believes that the answer, lies within our sense of touch this. Is the basic, way that we get information when. We first start out as infants. It's through the sense of touch before, our vision, and auditory, and other senses, really develop, very well touch, is our most basic sense. Touches. The sense that is the most real, sense when, you really, believe in something you can say I can feel, it because. It's that important. The. Concept of, tactile, or haptic, technology isn't. New to most of us there's the vibrate, mode on your phone and video games like Wii and Xbox, touch. Information. Is information that we. Have used. Somewhat. Reflexively, most of our life such as for example when, someone comes up and touches you on the shoulder and you reflexively. Look over but they're standing on the other side because they've tapped you on the other shoulder just to play a joke on you it's. So reliant. And so quick that you don't have to think about it so, what does our sense of touch have, to do with flying, pilots. Now all. The information that they get as to how they're oriented in space into what's going on in them around the environment is. Entirely. By vision. All. The displays, are visual, they have attitude, indicators, that tell them and roll and, pitch whether they're pitched up or down rolled left or rolled right they, have heading indicators, to tell them what direction they're going they have altima ters for altitude, vertical.

Velocity Indicators, that tell them how fast they're moving up and down the. Reason that we need tactile. Cueing for pilots, is the pilots will frequently get distracted, and if, they're attending to some other task any time, they're not looking at their attitude, orienting, instruments, they, will be receiving, information from. Their skin muscle and joint senses, and their, inner ear and we call those the seat-of-the-pants. Sensations. And those, sensations, do not tend to be correct, all the time while pilots, are flying and, the, reason for that is that as an, aircraft makes maneuvers, and accelerates. That. Information. That is presented to the person flying is is. Frequently, false that, loss of situational. Awareness improved. Deadly, for pilots. Our goal is that we. Prevent controlled, flight into terrain by giving them a warning through tactile, cues before, they get to the point of impacting, the the ground and that, we give them continuous, orientation. Information so they can never get disoriented, to, begin with, and. Hopefully that will, be able to reduce the number of mishaps, but pilots, and our Army, Navy and Air Force are currently experiencing. The. Army's tactile, situational. Awareness system. Consists. Of a belt and vest that vibrate. Sending, signals, to guide pilots, in the air. This. Is the dual. Tact or array of the, TAS belt this, is a prototype, of a, system, that we're going to employ. Later. In an aircraft integration. Role and what, I'm doing is putting it on at the lowest level so it's just over my flight suit as I start. To build, up wearing. My flight gear for the for, the flight now, in future versions of T SAS it could be integrated into the life support equipment but. That is, an endeavor that we're still investigating. And so in this prototype application we, have a couple of tacklers that we indicate. High. Altitude, alerts. Thanks. Bud, and. We just put them under here to. Make contact. With the skin that's the only requirement, and. They're. Actually a separate, portion this prototype. Version, is a separate, tack tur and what. We envision, later for aircraft, integration, will be this will be sewn in to. The webbing, of the shoulder. Harness or, could, be part of the, aviation life support equipment, so. From here it's just a matter of starting. Aircraft up and, conducting, our checks and we'll. Go flying. There's. Many, types of information that we can give to a pilot through the sense of touch a simple. Little belt around of the waist can, give them drift, cues, in what we call the XY or the horizontal plane so. Whatever direction they, are drifting, they will feel a tap so if they're drifting to the right they will feel it on the right side the. Faster. They're moving to the right the higher the frequency so. If, they feel a high frequency they, will make a big correction. And when they feel the frequency, going down they can ease, up in that correction, and when they feel nothing they're in a perfect hover if, they go too far then it'll recapping, on the other side so, it's very intuitive, now, pilots also want to control the altitude whether, they're too high or too low if. They're too high they feel the tap on the shoulder built, into the harness and if they're too low they feel these eight tackers that are built into the seat that. Too low stimulus, will help a great deal with controlled flight into terrain, since, when a pilot is approaching, the ground and they're, getting too low they will feel this large stimulus. In the seat that will say whoops you better be pulling up from now.

US. Army aeromedical, research pilots. Like John Remigio are testing, the latest prototype, of the PSAs, belt, and fest in, both simulators. And in the air this, technology. Is not only. Helpful in stabilization. In brownout, or whiteout, but. It will augment, our basic, hover skill tasks. So, if you can imagine a medevac pilot having, to do a hoist off the top of a building if you can recall some, of the video footage from the, Hurricane, Katrina, rescues, that that. Stabilization, during. A hover is extremely. Workload. Intensive, and so, with a system, like this you reduce. The amount of workload the, amount, of hand, movements, and scan that has to be done so, it augments just basic tasks hoists, sling, loads external. Loads things. That helicopters. Do by the very nature of. Their creation, so it's, a great tool. Frankly. In 21. Years that I've been flying Blackhawks, this technology. Represents. The. Most novel. Intuitive. And, easily. Integrated. Technologies. That I've ever seen that I really, frankly don't, know how we've been flying it so, many years you know flying different systems, both, fixed-wing, and helicopter, without this, type of display. This. Technology. Has applications. Whether we're on the air on the ground or underwater. Armie. Researchers, say that the potential, applications. For haptic and tactile, technology. Go, beyond hovering, helicopters. Integrated. Visual environments. Another one is targeting, and for you either helicopters. Or fixed-wing, where. Is their target around them in space so, if they feel something capping them on their left, shoulder they'll, know, that the target is up there they may not see it they may not be aware of quite how, far away it is but they'll know what's on their left side up over their left shoulder and they'll. Be able to track that target, it for example it now moves down across their back and is on their lower right side don't, know the target is down there below them on the right side now. Normally. They get that information from, an instrument that's on the panel and a PR 30 9 and there's. An auditory, warning, first that all three people in the cockpit here and. It's a very noisy, environment. While, two, or three people are all talking at the same time. However. When we use the tactile, display, there's. Only one call me and the, pilot will say I have it. This, technology. Has applications. Whether we're on the air on the ground or, underwater, on. The. Most obvious application in, terms of navigation on, the ground is simple left and right where targets, are whether other where other people are surrounding. You and it. Can be used for, the soldier, it can be used for people that have visual, incapacitation. And, it. Can provide an intuitive sense of how, and where I am on the ground in.

Fact This technology is currently being tested as a tool for ground, troops by, the Army Research Lab at Fort Rucker Alabama and, in, Fort Benning Georgia, this one works by punching, in waypoints, off of a tablet computer but. Eventually this technology. Could work through a smart phone or a small, screen on the sleeve though we did put the soldiers, out. In, rough, terrain during. The day at. Night. Having. Them answer, radio, communications. Look. For targets, we. Compared it with other systems, handheld. GPS. Head-up. Display and what, we found was that they were just as fast or faster, with, the tactile, belt. Then. With the other systems, and that it was particularly, effective, at. Night, especially, when your visual displays are fogging up. So. That one of my son was going. In the right direction. And. Give. Me another signal to the front so we're still gay. The. Soldiers loved it the, feedback. Was overwhelmingly. Positive and, this is a great thing because as you can see hands-free. When. We took the concept to the snipers, they really, liked the idea of using the belt to not, only navigate, but to send covert, signals, to each other because very often they. Need to communicate they don't want to use a radio they. Don't want to use, a visual display because, a lot that lights up their location, the Army is also working, with several companies in order to develop a haptic glove, as a way to relay information during. Covert, operations. Through common, hand signals, so. The soldier, wears. The glove does. His usual. Hand signals, in the way that he normally does it and, it translates, into. A. Tactile, pattern. I, think. The first community, that will have the opportunity, to use something like this will be special operations. Because. It takes a shorter period of time for, them to develop and to adopt. New technologies. The. Length of time it takes something to get into the cockpit whether, it's the army the Navy the Air Force, is a very long period of time and in, part that's because we have an acquisition, system that does not move very, quickly as. For the future it. Will be nice if we could operate, in the dust our goal would ultimately be, as. The nightstalker say, the Army's one sixtieth unit we own the night they, would like to also be able to say we, owned the, obscuration. Or the degraded, visual environments, being able to operate deliberately. In those environments, would, be a very good thing right now that pilot does all the work in his brain what, we want the aircraft to do is take a lot of that information and integrate it and provide the pilot with options, that, are relative to whatever mission set he's conducting, so over the next five years will actually develop some additional technologies, as an, example cognitive decision, aging system so it allows, workload. Reduction, on the pilot so the aircraft is going to start to do more of the work and the pilots going to be along for the ride. It. Seems, that time and technology stop, for no man army. Aviation officials, are already looking at replacing their fleet down the road all. Of our aircraft, today were basically designed, in the 60s, or the 70s and. We've, upgraded them, with major, and minor upgrades, over the years but, we've recognized, that the capabilities, we need in the future we're just not going to attain those with the current platforms that we need entirely, new platforms. Of technology, so, we're going under a deliberate. Process called, future vertical lift to, look, at and demonstrate, and then develop, the technologies, needed for the next generation, of vertical lift assets and. While the technology is constantly evolving one. Thing is for sure you. Always save lives when you have information. Information, before, you get to a tactical objective. Before, you go on a convoy, before, you run any kind of operation, if I know it's there I can. I can be better, prepared to meet the objectives, and, while the threat continually. Changes, army aviation is determined, to stay one step ahead pushing. The limits of technology, to provide greater performance, and survivability. Ultimately. Creating, a more lethal force, for the next generation. You.

2017-11-27 22:52

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