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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 96 - Hilton Head - October 2005
Agenda Location	4 GENERAL COMMITTEE TECHNICAL SESSION 4.1 Government Agencies Summary Reports 4.1.2 US Air Force 4.1.2.1 Air Force Research Lab
Title	Air Force Research Lab
Presenter	Siva Banda
Available Downloads*	presentation
	Downloads are available to members who are logged in and either Active* or attended this meeting.
Abstract	The Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Vehicles Directorate, manages a Capability Area called Cooperative Aerospace Operations. This area focuses on control technologies to improve the operations of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs). The area’s overarching goal is to achieve “same base; same time; same tempo” operations for UAVs as manned aircraft. The research areas include: mixed manned / unmanned teams; UAV in-situ decision making; transparent airspace operations; adaptive software V&V; and reliable unmanned operations. The FARs require aircraft have a “see and avoid” capability to operation in the National Air Space (NAS). This is the last line of defense to avoid collision between two air vehicles. For manned aircraft, the pilot easily achieves this through constant vigilance outside the cockpit. For UAVs, this is a tremendous challenge. To accomplish this capability, AFRL initiated a “Sense and Avoid” (SAA) Program. The goal is to develop and flight demonstrate safe multi-UAV air operations in the NAS and AOR. The greatest challenge is how to achieve an “equivalent level of safety”. The program approach is to use three electric-optical sensors and passive ranging technology to identify potential collision threats to the UAV and, if necessary, accomplish a collision avoidance maneuver. The desired initial transition is the Global Hawk and Predator. Present day air weapon systems are able to project/power around the world (deployment) quickly in part due aerial refueling. Additionally, long persistence in the AOR (employment) can be maintained again due in part to aerial refueling. AFRL has initiated the Automated Aerial Refueling (AAR) Program to develop this same capability for UCAVs. The AAR Program will provide the capability for UCAVs to precisely station-keep in the air refueling Contact Position; and to safely maneuver to / from the Contact Position. To date, two key flight tests have occurred. In Sep 04, the Open Loop Flight Test occurred evaluating the GPS satellite blockage due to being under the tanker (KC-135) in the contact position. In Sep 05, the TTNT Data Link evaluated DARPA’s new data link in a seven-aircraft operation attempting to maximize the data transfer on the link. The test was also the first look at the Precision GPS operation on the surrogate UCAV (Calspan Learjet). The desired initial transition is the J-UCAS Program. AFRL’s Autonomous Opportune Landing Capability Program is developing two unique capabilities: Opportune Landing System (OLS) and the Autonomous Approach and Landing Capability (AALC). The OLS will allow the warfighter to identify a safe Landing Zone using overhead assets (satellite or aircraft) utilizing hyper-spectral sensors identifying surface type and hardness. The AALC program will provide tactical aircraft the ability to operate in zero ceiling-zero visibility weather conditions without dependence on any ground navigation equipment. The desired initial transition is the C-17.