USAF SAB says MQ-9, RQ-4 can be upgraded to survive in contested airspace

A Smarter, Deadlier UAV: USAF Looks at Upgrades
WASHINGTON — For the current generation of unmanned systems to survive in contested environments, they need upgrades to situational awareness, automation and weapons, a major US Air Force research project has found.
The conclusions come from the latest round of studies by the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), an independent federal advisory committee made up of 50 scientists and researchers who every year drill down on a series of topics the service has asked them to consider.
This most recent trio of studies, which launched in January, looked at how — or if — the Air Force should invest its research funding into upgrading unmanned systems, developing quantum computing technologies and how to build in cybersecurity for internal processors on existing and current platforms.
Of the three studies, the one with the most near-term impact focused on UAVs like the MQ-9 Reaper and RQ-4 Global Hawk, said Werner Dahm, a former chief scientist of the Air Force who serves as SAB chairman.
Radar warning systems, new munitions and communications gear to allow operations in GPS-denied situations would give the two backbones of the unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) fleets new life in contested environments, Dahm explained to reporters this week.

USAF science panel recommends MQ-9, RQ-4 improvement plan - 8/4/2015 - Flight Global
A panel of military scientists is briefing senior US Air Force leaders on ways to make the defenceless General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper and Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk more useful in a war against a sophisticated enemy that has the ability to hunt and kill aircraft.
Air Force's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) says adding readily-available sensors, weapons, and threat detection and countermeasures systems to the MQ-9 and RQ-4 for better situational awareness and defence could see the aircraft deployed on riskier operations in the future.
“The SAB found that both the MQ-9 and RQ-4 could be modified in specific ways to provide utility in contested environments” says Werner Dahm, SAB chair and air force chief scientist from 2008 to 2010.
“There’s about 3,000lbs [1,360kg] of payload capacity on most of those platforms. You could put quite a few additional systems on to them; they have the size, weight and power to be able to run these systems.”

Related/Background:

• Exploiting Unmanned Aircraft Systems - Dahm_Infotech_2010.pdf
• USAF RPA Vector: Vision and Enabling Concepts 2013-2038 - ForPublicRelease.pdf
• spendergast: MQ-9 Reaper Block 5 - Upgrade Weapon Racks, Sensors, Controls and Crypto Data Links to UCAV level  
• Rise of Air Force Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) | Cengiz Karaagac | LinkedIn
• Scientific Advisory Board begins 2015 studies > U.S. Air Force > Article Display
• Air Force Scientific Advisory Board - Library
• Air Force Scientific Advisory Board - Fact Sheet (Printable) : FY15 STUDY TORS

USAF Scientific Advisory Board
2015 Study, Beginning January 2015

Enhanced Utility of Unmanned Air Vehicles
In Contested and Denied Environments
Terms of Reference

Background

Air Force use of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) such as the MQ-9 Reaper and RQ-4 Global Hawk for ISR and strike missions increased significantly over the past decade, but has primarily been limited to highly permissive environments. Future operations may require employing UAVs in contested environments or anti-access/area-denial environments having highly capable integrated air defenses, where survivability of typical UAVs greatly limits their utility. While signature reduction is one potential means for achieving increased survivability, there are other approaches that could potentially offer various levels of enhanced utility, either by increasing survivability or by other means. Potential approaches include electronic support from other assets to enhance UAV survivability, on-board electronic countermeasures, cooperative interaction among several UAVs, disaggregating UAV functions across multiple platforms, reducing UAV cost so low that survival is not an issue, or even deploying UAVs in numbers that substantially complicate an adversary's defensive capabilities. The relative levels of survivability and utility enhancement enabled by such approaches depend on characteristics of the operating environment and must be weighed against their cost. Ensuring the future utility of Air Force UAVs requires an understanding of how these factors interrelate and which combinations of such approaches enable effective operation in various levels of contested or denied operating environments.

Charter
The study will:

• Identify potential future missions for UAVs in contested or denied environments, including ISR, strike, and other roles in integrated operations.
• Assess anticipated defensive characteristics across a range of potential future operating environments, from weakly contested airspace to anti-access/area-denial environments.
• Characterize expected survivability of current UAVs across these environments and compare to the performance of alternative approaches employing manned aircraft.
• Identify approaches other than signature reduction that may enhance the survivability of current and future UAVs across these environments and assess their relative efficacy.
• Assess the technologies needed to enable these approaches, identify current technology gaps, and assess the magnitude of the effort needed to fill those gaps.
• Make recommendations regarding the most valuable approaches for achieving enhanced utility of UAVs in contested and denied environments and across the range of potential future operating environments.

Study Products
Briefing to SAF/OS & AF/CC in July 2015. Publish report in December 2015.