UAS Conference Briefing

March 2010
Association of Naval Aviation
Unmanned Aircraft Systems Conference
San Diego, CA on March 2-3, 2010
Briefing by Jack Byers, CEO, Vanguard Marketing International, Inc.

Conference Summary
This conference brought together key officials and representatives from both government and industry
to examine the recent developments, most critical capability gaps, and likely future direction for
unmanned aircraft systems.
Panelist and speaker topics
• Services’ short and long-term UAS roadmaps
• Most prominent emerging roles for Unmanned Aircraft
• Latest developments within all classes of unmanned aircraft including HALE, MALE/Tactical, and
Small UAS
• Getting UAS into the National Airspace System
• Cross-service need for cargo carrying UAS
• Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (PED) of UAS data

Service/Agency speakers (Section I)

• Jim Forest, STRATCOM
• MajGen Thomas Conant, USMC
• Capt. Jim Sommer, USCG
• Capt. Gregory Kniff, SOCOM
• Lt. Col. Ricky Thomas, AF UAS Task Force
• LCol. Guy Armstrong, Canadian Forces UAS
• Richard Matlock, Advanced Technology Missile Defense Agency

Industry Speakers (Section II)

• Carl Johnson, Vice President Advanced Concepts Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems
• Jim Havard, Boeing ScanEagle MEF PM
• Stirling Hunter, Boeing Hummingbird
• Don Hazelwood, QinetiQ
• Doug Baldwin, BTC Cargo Tiltrotor
• Pat Moneymaker, Proxy
• Dr. Ben Ochoa, 2d3
• Chuck Fredrichs, Raytheon
• Ed Herlik, MIG
• Kristi Moe, AAI

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Section I
Observations: General Operational View
• Comms/data link overload – need more bandwidth
• Fee for service model gaining some success – love the ScanEagle and what it can do but still
having difficulty with not owning the capability
• Auto Take-off & Landing critical – losing too many aircraft due to human error
• Environment issues Arctic and Maritime becoming more important and apparent
• Tier I mission in question – as Tier II capabilities and numbers increase, some believe the current
day Tier I UAS mission will ultimately be assigned at the Tier II level
• Long endurance shipboard VTOL Fire Scout not enough would like to double Fire Scout’s
endurance
• Backtracking ability the “holy grail”

Observations: Marine Corps. View

• Rotor - Cargo – get the guys off the road
• Battlespace awareness – inside enemy OODA loop
• Target Development – number 1 application by Marine Corps.
• Dedicated and consistent force application
• Weaponize current platforms – “to provide precise and timely fires against fleeting targets of
opportunity”…. LtGen G.J. Trautman III Deputy Commandant of Aviation

Key Core Functions/Capabilities:

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Highlighted Areas of importance by AF speakers:
Funded completely or partially
• Sense and Avoid
• Auto take-off and landing
• VADER QRC vehicle and dismount exploitation radar
• MQX AoA and MS A development planning

Unfunded
• Improved Multi-Aircraft-Control (MAC)
• High fidelity simulator
• Interoperable C2 UAS – Easier payload integration

Note:
• USSOCOM believes Global Observer is “about to find a life”, also very vocal in the need for
STUAS/Tier II
• The need for on-board processing, sending “the right stuff” down the pipe, supported by a
larger pipe very obvious but the ability to backtrack unfolding as a future standard will have
extreme value not just in UAS but in any and all sorts of security applications

MDA Perspective (applications)

• Shoot-Look-Shoot capability
• Boost Phase intercept support
• Looking to conduct Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) to examine sensor and platform concepts

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Note:

This has to be a Northrop Grumman area of interest with the Global Hawk as well as with Lockheed
Martin and the DARPA blimp project. Didn’t go so far as to show potential applicability to the far left of
the kill chain but was inferred.

This also implies control of near space and this is a really important developing area of opportunity.

FEMA/Security/Law Enforcement (applications)

• Disaster Areas
• Ports and Borders
• Bases
• Critical Infrastructure
• Migration/Human Trafficking
• Drug Interdiction

Note:
• Drug interdiction is not a ports-and-borders’ only problem; the real issue is discovery and
interdiction way before it approaches borders and before it arrives in Mexico.

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Ardy Williams, - FAA, Air Line Pilots Association, and other interests
• National Air Space – File and Fly – this is a really hard problem and there is no solution in sight

Note:
• Integration will happen due to external forces

Section II
Industry Speakers
• Carl Johnson, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems
• Jim Havard, Boeing ScanEagle MEF PM
• Stirling Hunter, Boeing Hummingbird
• Don Hazelwood, QinetiQ
• Doug Baldwin, BTC Cargo Tiltrotor
• Pat Moneymaker, Proxy
• Dr. Ben Ochoa, 2d3
• Chuck Fredrichs, Raytheon
• Ed Herlik, MIG
• Kristi Moe, AAI

Carl Johnson
• Autonomous air refueling will be a key factor in the ultimate success of UAS and especially
UCAVs
• It’s all about platforms and people per target (the cost benefit analysis)
• ISR and comms relay will continue to be the backbone missions
• Missile Defense Boost phase tracking, clearly in line with MDA thinking
• The China – access denial problem/solution
o Increased Offensive Firepower
o Electronic attack to suppress EW radar
o Allow F-35s to eventually get to the mainland to attack and destroy SAM sites
• Strategic and tactical airlift
• Integration of Directed Energy
• Underwater collaboration – network of autonomous vehicles
• Monitor surface and subsurface vessels for illegal cargo 300+ nm sensor BAMS

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Note: Northrop Grumman’s approach is obviously at the larger platform level and they see UAS as their
way of disrupting Lockheed Martin and the F-35. The potential for new lethal and non-lethal effectors
for UAS and UCAS, in our opinion, is extraordinary. This could offer the opportunity for true disruption
in effectors.

Northrop Grumman is very non-threatening to the F-35 in their China standoff solution as portrayed for
public consumption but there can be no doubt that they support and promote the Robert Work, Under
Secretary of the Navy position that it will be UCAS platforms (X-47B) that will provide both electronic
attack to suppress EW radar while attacking advanced integrated air defenses, thereby enabling the
eventual arrival of the carriers and their manned air wing.

Interestingly Mr. Johnson made no mention of business models and the notion of ISR by the hour.

Jim Havard

Note:
• Based on the fee for service model Boeing, in our opinion, has learned more about UAS from the
ScanEagle in past six years than a normal vendor could learn in 20, if ever. To be in the Tier II
business companies really need to have a fee for service element of their business, otherwise
they will never be able to keep up.

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Others
• EO/IR now challenging SAR computational requirements
• Embedded processing, graphics processors, workstation boards
• Advanced on-board processing leading to more selective communications/streaming video
• Lots of Rotorcraft discussion for all types of applications well beyond cargo but cargo being the
foundational element. This is clearly a next generation opportunity for the Boeing fee for service
model and the A160
• Personnel screening, training, curriculum design and fitness evaluation are very important and
very specialized, probably a great place for outsourcing

Note: The industry sees on-board processing based on breakthroughs in semiconductors, storage
devices, video and software as a key to the “information overload and comms bottle neck” problem.

Forensic analytics and the ability to backtrack and analyze are major areas of opportunity – possibly an
adjacent market for ground station providers?

Vanguard Marketing International has been following and reporting on the UAS market since 2003.
Questions or comments, please contact Jack Byers, CEO, at 480-488-5707 or Jack@e-vmi.com

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