Andy Walbridge is the former Head of Engineering at Callen-Lenz, with almost 50 years’ experience in the aerospace industry. Recently retired, Andy reflects on the exciting Crewed-Uncrewed work being undertaken at Callen-Lenz and how he sees the technology developing.
The CUC-T (formerly MUM-T) concept has been discussed for many years, with the prime objective of enabling a manned platform to interface with an uncrewed asset, exploiting its low cost and low signature.
The principal barrier to take up has been the provision of a C2/Datalink, which is both robust and has the bandwidth for real time data and mesh capability for the Unmanned Air System (UAS). This has now been largely removed with the development and production of small low SWAP MESH transceivers, principally from the dismounted soldier land domain. This development has also been complemented with intelligent tracking antennae which can provide good communications and high-quality imagery exceeding 150 km LOS range.
UAS have also been provided with modern miniature sensors and autopilots providing near ‘automatic’ operation, requiring little or no input to ‘fly’ the UAS, with search facilities provided by emerging AI imaging recognition capabilities.
Military developments have focussed on the control of a UAS asset by the pilot of a crewed aircraft (fixed or rotary wing), using advanced human machine interfaces and controls to achieve a capability either for ISR or effects delivery. This implementation can be simplified by providing a dedicated controller in a civil domain, where an operator station is provided, such as a Search and Rescue helicopter.
Civil applications have had less traction, with only small developments taking place in border patrol, SAR, and fire spotting. This has tended to be constrained by the regulatory environment and the use of UAS in nationally governed airspace.
At Callen-Lenz, we believe that a concerted effort by both industry and government bodies can unlock the potential of CUC-T, enabling capability extension with a low-risk asset deployment. Low hanging fruit include extended, low cost ‘on-station’ intelligence gathering and search capabilities with low footprint ground support.
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