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2015-07-01

WRAPS COME OFF NATO AGS UAV

System will provide persistent global situational awareness

To combat threats of the 21st century, NATO forces will now have a system that provides them with a complete picture of the situation on ground with a wide area, all weather, 24-hour surveillance – the NATO-owned and operated Alliance Ground surveillance (NATO AGS) system.

Expanding NATO’s joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability, Northrop Grumman Corporation and its industry partners together with NATO leaders have unveiled the first NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) aircraft.

The unmanned aircraft, a wide area surveillance Global Hawk, is part of a broader system of systems solution that will advance the Alliance’s evolving ISR needs during a full range of NATO’s missions such as protection of ground troops and civilian populations, border control and maritime safety, the fight against terrorism, crisis management and humanitarian assistance in natural disasters.

“This marks a significant step forward in achieving NATO’s goal of acquiring NATO-owned and operated AGS Core Capability,” said Erling Wang, chairman of the NATO AGS Management Organization (NAGSMO).

“What you see is the result of one of the commitments made at the 2012 NATO Summit – to bring this advanced and critical persistent ISR capability to the Alliance to help ensure we can continue to address the range of challenges our members and other allied nations face.”

The program comprises five air vehicles and fixed, mobile and transportable ground stations. Northrop Grumman’s primary industrial team includes Airbus Defence and Space (Germany), Selex ES (Italy) and Kongsberg (Norway), as well as leading defense companies from all participating countries.

The industries of the 15 participating nations (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United States) are each contributing to the delivery of the AGS system. All 28 Alliance nations will take part in the long-term support of the program.

“We are establishing the necessary ground stations, command and control systems, and training and logistics support services at the NATO AGS main operating base at Sigonella Air Base in Italy,” said Jim Edge, general manager of the NATO AGS Management Agency.

Critical data

With the ability to fly for up to 30 hours at a time, the high-altitude long-endurance system will provide NATO leaders with persistent global situational awareness. The aircraft is equipped with leading-edge technology, including the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) sensor.

The MP-RTIP will provide critical data to commanders during operations in any weather, day or night. The NATO AGS system will also be able to fuse sensor data, continuously detect and track moving objects and provide detailed imagery.

“The level of collaboration required to bring together successfully so many international partners in the development of this tremendous system of systems capability for NATO speaks to the commitment and strength of the trans-Atlantic relationships we have built with our key partners, to deliver what is truly a European program,” said Janis Pamiljans, sector vice president and general manager, unmanned systems, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

Global Hawk carries a variety of ISR sensor payloads that allow military commanders to gather near real-time imagery and use radar to detect moving or stationary targets on the ground. The system also provides airborne communications and information sharing capabilities to military units in harsh environments.

The Global Hawk Comms Gateway was unveiled in 2006 and operates the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN), a communications system that receives, bridges, and distributes information among all participants in a battle.

The BACN combined with Global Hawk, provides warfighters essential information to pursue and defeat the enemy. BACN’s Airborne Executive Processor (AEP) enables a persistent gateway in the sky that receives, bridges, and distributes communication among all participants in a battle.

Bridging the gap

In theatre operations - mountainous terrain inhibited line-of-sight communications - diverse weapon systems were unable to communicate with each other; each operating unit could see only a limited set of the complete picture. BACN bridges the gaps between those systems, enabling essential situational awareness from small ground units in contact up to the highest command levels.

In response to a Joint Urgent Operational Need (JUON), Northrop Grumman accelerated integration of BACN onto manned aircraft and provided this indispensable capability to the warfighter in nine months. The BD700 aircraft integrated with BACN were delivered in theatre ahead of already aggressive schedules.

Now, integrating BACN onto Global Hawk optimizes BACN’s powerful communications capabilities by exploiting the operational flexibility and economical endurance of that platform. Global Hawk makes BACN available to support the warfighter 24/7.

Originally conceived as a technology demonstration, BACN rapidly proved at JEFX and other exercises that its capabilities were already mature enough to field.

The Global Hawk Multi-INT is important for situation awareness and intelligence across huge areas of land and carries the sensor systems EISS (Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite) and ASIP (Airborne Signals Intelligence Payload).

The Global Hawk Wide Area Surveillance carries the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP), which provides game-changing situational awareness and targeting information on both fixed and moving targets.

Powerful combination

The MP-RTIP radar uses active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology and commercial off-the-shelf hardware to deliver long range, very high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR), ground moving target indicator (GMTI) capabilities and air target tracking. Fundamental to the radar is its modular scalable design, which allows it to be applied to multiple airborne platforms.

MP-RTIP will provide war fighters improved combat identification, target tracking and time-critical targeting, while adding an impressive new air-to-air capability to support cruise missile defense. This powerful combination can aid commanders in developing predictive battlespace awareness and targeting solutions.

The Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar is redefining Air-to-Surface/Air-to-Air Surveillance. A Northrop Grumman - Raytheon team is developing the radar for the US Air Force Electronic Systems Center.

MP-RTIP, currently in the system development and demonstration phase, captures the radar systems expertise of both companies under the leadership of Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems Sector.

Missions

Global Hawk flew for the first time in 1998 and was used by the Air Force for surveillance missions over Afghanistan just three years later. Global Hawk has been used continuously by the Air Force since that time.

The system has also supported disaster response efforts, science studies conducted by NASA and is the foundation of new HALE Enterprise.

Combined with Global Hawk’s ability to fly for more than 30 hours, the aircraft can fly almost half the circumference of the world without refueling, making the system ideally suited to take on many different ISR missions.

Global Hawk has been used over many battlefields including Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. The UAS has also supported reconnaissance and disaster response efforts following the devastating earthquakes that struck Haiti and Japan. In 2007, Global Hawk was used to cue firefighters about hotspots during the rapidly moving wildfires in Southern California.

The system holds a number of long-endurance flight world records.

In 2001, Global Hawk set an official record for the longest flight by a UAS at 30 hours, 24 minutes, one second. That same year, Global Hawk became the only UAS to fly nonstop across the Pacific Ocean from Southern California to Australia. Since then, Global Hawks have routinely flown longer and farther. In 2008, a Global Hawk Block 20 flew for 33.1 hours, the longest mission logged to date.

NATO Global Hawk High-Altitude, Long-Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) brings proven performance incorporating lessons learned from current operations experience. Ground stations are available in mobile and transportable configurations for land or maritime use. Mission Operation Support (MOS) and Air Vehicle Missions Command and Control(AVMC2) capabilities available at the Main Operating Base (MOB).

Full training

NATO AGS boasts of Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP). In addition it uses leading edge technology providing concurrent terrestrial and maritime Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) information in all-weather, day or night operations. A system design is available to participating NATO nations interested in follow-on production capability to meet additional NATO and national requirements .Northrop Grumman provides full training and logistics support.

The airborne entity is based on a modified RQ-4 Block 40 HALE UAV, enhanced to support NATO specific interoperability and communications requirements.

The UAV is equipped with state of the-art, multi-mode, Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) ground surveillance radar sensor, enhanced with an extensive suite of network-centric enabled Line of Sight (LOS) and Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLOS)long-range, wide-band data links.

The AGS Core provides unprecedented real-time airborne ground surveillance and situational awareness information throughout the full range of operations for NATO and the nations. A system of systems, the AGS Core consists of air, ground, mission operations and support elements, performing all-weather, persistent wide-area terrestrial and maritime surveillance.

Using an advanced radar sensor, augmented with off-board Electronic Support Measures (ESM) and Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) sensors and Full Motion Video (FMV) information, the AGS Core fuses sensor data, continuously detects and tracks moving objects, and provides object emission profiles as well as imagery of stationary objects throughout the observed areas.

Each AGS Core ground entity and the AVMC2 exchanges NATO standard C2ISR data with the interoperable NATO and national systems, further expanding the situational awareness available to ground, maritime, and air commanders in support of NATO missions - anywhere in the world.

The AGS Core, supplemented by national systems, will provide unprecedented situational awareness to different levels of command in support of NATO forces engaged in the full range of missions•

Photo credit/Text: www.northropgrumman.com

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