Give the lieutenant colonel a bird's-eye view of the battlefield and next thing you know, the lieutenants and sergeants want the same view, too.
And why not? They're the ones getting shot at.
A sensor maker and a UAV builder have teamed to produce a micro UAV that can be rolled up and launched from the TOW missile tube on an armored vehicle. The intent is to provide "situational awareness at the sergeant and lieutenant level," said John Carson, head of California-based Irvine Sensors.
Although UAVs that provide an instant, overhead view of the combat zone are increasingly common, they're not yet available to everyone. Too often, they're tightly controlled at the brigade level, Carson said.
The TOWHawk is intended to make UAVs as common as one per combat vehicle, and to make it possible to launch a UAV for battlefield reconnaissance without going directly into harm's way.
"The idea is to be protected when you launch. You don't have to get out of the Bradley or Stryker" to get the TOWHawk into the air, Carson said.
Irvine makes the shock-hardened electro-optical and infrared cameras that fly on the little UAV that's being called a TOWHawk. Applied Research Associates of Albuquerque, N.M., builds the UAV itself.
It's a remarkable little aircraft.
The TOWHawk carries two cameras - either two electro-optical cameras that beam back forward-looking and side-view video during daylight hours, or an infrared camera to produce images at night.
It is powered by an almost silent electric motor, and it flies at 18 to 30 knots for an hour. Typically, it would fly at about 500 feet, but it can soar up to 11,000 feet, Carson said. It is guided by a soldier with a hand-held controller.
"You enter the GPS coordinates of where you want it to go, and it goes there," he said.
If the TOWHawk loses communications contact with the controller, the UAV loiters where it is until it senses that it is running low on battery power, then it goes home, Carson said.
All of this in a UAV that weighs 1.6 pounds. The camera weighs only a quarter pound, Carson said.
And the 26-inch carbon fiber wings are flexible enough to be rolled up around the fuselage so that the UAV can be slipped into a 6-inch tube.
In a demonstration at Fort Benning, Ga., the TOWHawk shot out of a TOW tube and flew for more than an hour, providing live video images of enemy positions on a simulated battlefield.
The UAV offers a potential answer to a long-standing Army problem.
"A fundamental weakness in the Army today is when you're under armor, you can't operate a UAV. TOWHawk provides a solution to that," said Lt. Col. Matthew England, chief of the Electronics and Special Developments Directorate at the U.S. Army Infantry Center at Fort Benning.
But it's not yet a perfect solution, he said.
There are two drawbacks:
■ Using a TOW tube to launch a UAV means the tube can't be used to launch a lethal round, England said. Tank and Bradley fighting vehicle crews may be reluctant to give up lethality, even for a bird's-eye view of the battlefield.
■ And when the UAV has to be retrieved, someone's got to exit the tank or armored vehicle to get it, potentially exposing himself to enemy fire. That drawback might be overcome by developing a UAV retrieval net, England said.
The TOWHawk is a descendant of the NightHawk, a UAV designed to be rolled up and stored in a 6-inch tube that a soldier can attach to a backpack. Pull the UAV out of the tube, the wings spring open and it's ready to fly.
The NightHawk - which was also called BatCam Tacmav - was an improvement over other small UAVs, whose wings were separate from the fuselage and had to be attached before flying, Carson said.
And the fact that it fit into a tube inspired Irvine Sensors and Applied Research Associates to see if it could be launched from TOW missile tubes.
They built a launch system that uses compressed air to push the TOWHawk out of the missile tube. Once outside, the wings snap open, the electric motor starts and the UAV begins to climb. As it does so, it taps into GPS signals and flies along a predetermined flight path until soldiers in the armored vehicle instruct it to do otherwise.
The cameras begin sending back video images of what's on the ground, along with GPS coordinates that can be used for targeting purposes.
"It's a rugged little plane" that is undamaged by the jolt of being ejected from the missile tube, Carson said. The cameras, too, are built to more than withstand the launch.
"Our cameras are weapon-qualified," he said. "They're designed to be used on a sniper weapon or an M4 [carbine]. They're gun-hardened, so they are able to take a whole lot of vibration. What they experience in launch is minor compared to being on a sniper rifle."
After close to an hour in the air, the UAV senses that it is running low on electricity and heads back to the launch site - all without intervention from the ground.
And in at least a partial response to the Army's UAV retrieval concerns, Carson said that if the landing site is not safe, the UAV can be directed to another landing area.
TOWHawk's batteries take about 10 minutes to recharge, Carson said. The UAV can also be flown on commercial, non-rechargeable batteries.
During tests at Fort Knox, Ky., in November, the Army launched two TOWHawks. One flew at low altitude for target acquisition, the other flew higher for a broader view of the battlefield, according to Irvine Sensors.
The UAVs identified enemy targets, provided targeting data to a mortar crew, beamed back battle damage assessments and then returned without pilot help to the Bradley fighting vehicle that had launched them, Irvine Sensors reported.
Now the company waits to see if the Army will buy. "Paths exist for rapid transition to fielded systems" if the Army's decision is yes, the company says.
But Carson also is looking for customers besides the Army.
"This would be perfect for the [U.S.] Marines on amphibious vehicles," who need to see what's on the beach they're assaulting and what's beyond the beach, he said.
He's also considering adding millimeter-wave radar as an optional TOWHawk payload.
"It's low resolution, but it works under really adverse conditions," peering through smoke, clouds, dust and fog, Carson said.
And an updated TOWHawk may have an encrypted communications link, he said. ■
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