RPAS 2013 Brussels June 24-27 – Conference Preview Part 5

One of the several interesting topics at UVS International’s RPAS 2013 Conference in Brussels next week is the consideration of Mutualised RPAS Operations whereby military RPAS are operated in civil airspace primarily for non-military purposes.

In the second morning session on Tuesday, Major Daniel Böhm of the Swiss Air Force, will describe “The Swiss Experience”.

The Swiss Air Force has operated the RPAS System Ranger since several years in the civil air space for civil border protection and various military and civil organizations. In an exercise INTER13 we supported the staff of the civil and military rescue organization of the region of Geneva (combined exercise with Swiss and French forces). All these activities are based on the access to the civil airspace and on the ability to distribute the picture information. The Swiss Air Force has established the technical environment based on video conferencing equipment to integrate civil or military users to the video stream and to the payload operator. The Swiss Air Force has a partnership with the Spanish Air Force in the area of RPAS training. All the Spanish Air Force RPAS instructors complete their basic training in Switzerland and return every year for a two week recurrent training to Switzerland. During this training they fly as members of the 7th UA squadron in various missions.

Major Daniel Böhm is currently serving as Chief Pilot UAS 95, 84th Training Command and was until 2012 the commander of the 7th UA squadron. Major Böhm began his military career as a photo interpreter in a Mirage III reconnaissance squadron, staying in this field as a militia officer for 10 years. In 2004 he changed to the RPAS career field by joining the 7th UA squadron. He has been serving professionally in the Swiss Air Force as part of the UAS 95, 84th Training Command since 2007. Major Böhm accumulated several hundred missions and flight hours on the tactical RPAS Ranger as pilot, payload operator and flight instructor.

Then, in an afternoon session on Wednesday, Michel van Strythem, from the Ministry of Defence, Belgium will dscribe The Belgian Experience of Mutualised RPAS Operations

In the scope of the Bonn Agreement, Belgium has put in place a system of surveillance and anti-pollution intervention on the North Sea. Since the April 2008 signed Protocol between the Minister of Defence and the Federal Minister of Environment, Belgian Air Force 80th UAV Squadron contributes to this program and executes on a regular basis surveillance missions with real time transmission of full motion video to the Maritime Information Centre (Maritiem Informatie Kruispunt – MIK) located on the naval base of Zeebrugge.

There, on a permanent basis, representatives of the Belgian Navy, Federal Maritime Police, Customs, Federal Administration of Environment and other federal and regional public services perform the monitoring of the assigned North Sea area. From the situation room, the authorities can follow, based on a coastal radar system, the position of all ships and coordinate inspections or interventions of different nature. For Belgian Defense, and 80th UAV Squadron in particular, this recurrent mission constitutes a very good example of a win-win.

It would, of course, cost a lot of precious resources to enable, for a relative long time, complex scenario training of tasking and real time execution of UAV missions with networked enabled capabilities and plug-in integration in a command headquarter, which is the core business of this unit. Moreover, the specific areas to monitor are located under a very complex airspace structure including major airways, a military airbase and an international airport.

Lieutenant Colonel Michel Van Strythem, has a Master of Science in Engineering from the Royal Military Academy, Brussels. After his studies, he joined the Belgian Forces in Germany where he served in a HAWK missile unit of the NATO Air Defense system.In 1997, he was appointed as project officer for the acquisition of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to support Land Forces in operations. This acquisition process resulted in the introduction of the B-HUNTER UAV in Belgian Armed Forces and in Belgian airspace in particular as from 2001. After a staff course, he joined the 80th UAV Squadron as Operations & Training Officer, where he realized, in very close cooperation with the Belgian Air Force and Belgocontrol the introduction of the B-HUNTER in Belgian airspace. During the same period, he was qualified as a RPA Pilot and Mission Commander.

In 2008, he was appointed as the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 80th UAV Squadron, of the Belgian Air Force. This unit is stationed at the Florennes Air Base, where UAV flights are combined on a daily basis with those of F-16 fighter jets. Since the end of 2011, Lieutenant Colonel Van Strythem is working at the Particular Office of the Chief of Belgian Defense in the area of Governance, Internal Control and Information Management.

For the full programme with abstracts and speakers bio data, click here.

An online registration form is available here.