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Straight from the forces' MOUT: UAVs enter urban environments
08 June 2007
With military operations in urban terrain (MOUT) being fought with increased frequency by coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being called upon to build on their traditional surveillance and reconnaissance role to combat insurgents seeking refuge in and around buildings.
Traditional fixed-wing UAVs are able to track targets along main supply routes and open country, but reports from the front line suggest that insurgents are countering such tactics by 'disappearing' under and behind hard cover.
Short of providing troops with x-ray vision, the defence industry and world militaries have been deploying both fixed-wing and rotary-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) systems for such urban operations. However, questions remain as to whether they can work in tandem and, more importantly, whether there is enough room in already busy airspace for both systems to operate at a tactical level.
According to Russell Glenn, senior defence analyst with the RAND Corporation think-tank, VTOL UAVs are useful, but their efficiency, fuel consumption, time on station, payload carriage, endurance and speed are issues when compared to fixed-wing UAVs.
"Our forces need systems to get down tight corners, especially to conduct sensor-planting operations and drop off UGVs [unmanned ground vehicles]," he says.
Having worked in co-operation with UAV specialist AeroVironment and the US Army, US Marine Corps and Australian Defence Force, Glenn views UAVs as part of a larger system in the urban environment.
"They are less beneficial in urban areas than other environments because of their inability to see through cover, concealment and dead space [known as urban canyons]. This is still true to some extent. We cannot expect the same kind of success as in other environments but reports from the field say they are very valuable."
Glenn says UAVs should be used as the primary system to key other assets, whether they be artillery, close air support, UGVs or larger UAVs, although he expects them to remain the primary intelligence source for forces on the ground and in the air during an urban campaign.
"They are very popular among ground forces but the limitations of UAVs are greater in the urban environment compared to other areas," he says, recalling the extensive operational use of UAVs over the past few years, including missions in Fallujah during 2004.
For MOUT roles, the modern-day UAV must be able to perform a number of tasks. These include traditional intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR), offensive action, communications relay and directing other unmanned systems.
Following feedback from troops, Glenn tells Jane's that numerous individuals have expressed frustration at their inability to engage a target immediately after identifying it.
The threat of losing a target in built-up areas, according to Glenn, is very large when he or she takes refuge in a structure, unless supporting troops have overwatch of the specific building complex. However, with multiple access into buildings, forces cannot assume that the target's entry point will be the same as his or her exit point.
In addition, Glenn reports that soldiers have been frustrated by the amount of time needed to positively identify a target and engage it due to a prolonged decision-making process.
"The gap between the identification of a target and the ability to engage a threat in Iraq has led to high levels of frustrations for individuals interviewed. They need UAVs to reduce that gap and they need the right kind of engagement system or multiple systems," Glenn says.
A hunter-killer UAV, Glenn continues, can detect, identify and engage a target, thereby closing that gap to the minimum possible time. But he warns that specific offensive action tasks require a UAV with the correct attack profile to deal with threats, whether they involve insurgents, civilians, chemicals or arms.
"If a hunter-killer does not have a suitable weapon system, then operators need to look at something else like artillery or other airframes [such as close air support]," he says.
In response to this trend, Glenn is confident that co-operation with other unmanned systems will also prove important in the future, with UAVs being capable of delivering UGVs and ground sensors into inaccessible urban environments.