The U.S. Army simultaneously tested drones that are catapulted in midair or flung from the ground during its most recent Project Convergence networking experiment, blurring the line between what have been distinct domains.
At Project Convergence 22, spanning October and November, small uncrewed systems were “launched from wherever we wanted,” Major Gen. Walter Rugen, the director of the Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team, said at a Feb. 8 event hosted by MITRE, which manages federally funded research and development centers.
“And if it was ground- or air-launched, hooah,” Rugen said. “They became a launched effect.”
So-called ALEs hurtle outward from larger aircraft, either crewed or uncrewed. They are meant to detect, disrupt, deceive or destroy and are considered a critical piece of the Army’s overhaul of its helicopter fleet. GLEs, simply put, are their ground-based counterpart, relying on vehicles or soldiers on foot.
Both efforts are still in their infancy. The key to success, though, Rugen told C4ISRNET, has been the right launcher technology, which he acknowledged
“doesn’t sound very exciting.” But having “a modular effects launcher, we call it a MEL, that is very transportable across different combat vehicles, with a government-defined interface and standard that you build to, that has really been the secret sauce.”
The Army is pursuing options for both large and small launched-effects to support a variety of battlefield tasks, such as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting. In 2020, the service awarded 10 small contracts worth a total of $29.75 million to mature technologies in the ALE realm.
The systems are relatively cheap — by military standards — and can be floated into places too costly or dangerous to otherwise explore.
“It does what Army aviation’s always wanted to do. It does it from a position of standoff,” Rugen said. “We always want an unfair fight.”
Photo: An Anduril Altius system is launched from a UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter, as testing commences at the U.S. Army’s Project Convergence (Spc. Javion Siders/U.S. Army)
Source: C4ISRNET