A Soldier’s Eye in the Sky

[Eugen Leitl]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/business/12combat.html?pagewanted=print

August 12, 2009

A Soldierbs Eye in the Sky

By CHRISTOPHER DREW

FORT BLISS, Tex. b The soldiers crouched beneath the blazing desert sun,
waiting to burst into the villages in conditions similar to those they have
encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But this time, they got some high-tech help in an exercise intended to prove
that new devices operated by the soldiers themselves can make those harrowing
missions less dangerous in the future.

As the mock attack began on the sprawling military base here, tiny drones
hovered overhead, peering through the windows to see insurgents gathered
inside the houses. Small robots b like R2-D2 in bStar Warsb b crawled through
some of the doors, flashing back live video of the startled enemybs
positions. Electronic sensors placed nearby watched escape routes. And a
battery of six-foot-high missiles stood at the ready farther out in the
desert to destroy vehicles that tried to rush in to help the insurgents.

bWhen I was in Iraq, we couldnbt see what we were busting into,b said
Specialist Randall Thompson, who operates the robots. bBut with this
equipment, we can at least get a peek.b

Army officials are trying to distance the relatively small-scale effort,
which still faces some technical hurdles, from the shadow of a much broader
program recently canceled that was to have created a truly modern military,
with a new generation of combat vehicles and a vast wireless network.

As they go back to the drawing board for the big equipment, Army officials
say these smaller technologies could make a difference sooner for the
soldiers who take on some of the most dangerous missions hunting out
insurgents.

The new equipment, being developed by Boeing and other contractors, is
expected to cost about $2 billion for the first seven brigades. Each has at
least 3,000 soldiers, and the equipment is about two years away from use in
the field. By 2025, the Army plans to create similar gear and other
improvements for all 73 of its active and reserve brigades.

The changes also illustrate a shift in Pentagon contracting toward more
incremental upgrades and a greater use of commercial technologies. For
instance, iRobot, a Massachusetts company that has developed robots for home
vacuum-cleaning and industrial uses, is building the Armybs robots.

Officials say the new devices will help transform basic infantry brigades,
which have shouldered the bulk of the fighting in both wars even though they
have far less protection and firepower than armored units.

The drones resemble flying lawnmower engines about the size of a beer keg
that land on four curved wire feet. With the cameras on the drones acting
like spotters, the ground-launched six-foot missiles, called brockets in a
box,b will eventually enable soldiers to destroy hostile forces more than 20
miles away without having to call in help from artillery units or other
aircraft, Army officials say.

The robots could also search caves and cars at hazardous checkpoints. And the
sensors could guard outposts and monitor areas cleared of insurgents, freeing
more soldiers to fight.

bI think the difference is going to be huge,b Lt. Gen. Stephen M. Speakes, a
deputy Army chief of staff, said in an interview.

Col. Lee Fetterman, who is helping to oversee the testing here, said the new
technologies were bmethods of transferring risk from soldiers to machines,
which webre all for.b

The defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, broke up the broader effort to
modernize the Army, called Future Combat Systems, in June. He was concerned
about potential cost increases b it was headed for at least $160 billion b
and he questioned whether the new combat vehicles would provide enough
protection against roadside bombs.

Compared with that broader vision, bit seems like an awful lot of
expectations have come down to a pretty small litter,b said Representative
Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat of Hawaii, who heads a House subcommittee that
oversees the Army.

Mr. Gates, who ordered the Army to go back to the drawing board on the combat
vehicles, and Congressional leaders like Mr. Abercrombie have urged the
military to supply the enhancements for the infantry as quickly as it can.

So 1,150 soldiers, most with experience in Iraq or Afghanistan, have been
testing the gear here at Fort Bliss, which straddles Texas and New Mexico,
and the adjacent White Sands Missile Range, where the mix of desert,
mountains and 100-degree temperatures echo recent combat conditions.

Most of the soldiers are enthusiastic about the new capabilities. Some Army
units already have tiny hand-held drones and robots that can disarm roadside
bombs while the operator is a safe distance away. But the new drones, made by
Honeywell, are designed to hover over a crucial spot on a battlefield like
helicopters, instead of flying in a wide circle. And if an assault squad
needed, for example, to toss the 35-pound robot though a window, where it
happened to land on its back, it would flip itself over and start shooting
video.

The sensors, designed by Textron, send alerts and pictures from the field or
from the inside of buildings. One device, which can be buried near a road,
can even discern from seismic readings whether people, trucks or tanks are
passing by or approaching.

The precision-guided missiles could represent a major advance. Fifteen of
them can fit into a refrigerator-size launcher. They are being designed, by
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, to go over or swerve around hills and mountains
and update their course in midflight. The warheads are supposed to be
powerful enough to destroy a moving tank, making infantry brigades more
potent than ever.

But some of the systems have obvious flaws. Even from several hundred feet
high, the drone sounds like a lawn mower, and Honeywell is looking to muffle
the noise. The soldiers here have also suggested changes, like redesigning
the field sensors to make them less detectable.

And Army officials say it will be the ability, which is still being
developed, to link all these systems wirelessly that could provide the
biggest enhancement.

In the tests, the soldiers controlling the drones, robots and sensors could
receive streaming video on laptops or other devices. But the network does not
have enough bandwidth or range to send more than photographs to platoon
leaders in Humvees and from there on to headquarters.

Even the photos are a big improvement over the mostly voice and data
communications now in use. But the Army expects a sophisticated new radio,
which has run into costly delays, to be available to extend the networkbs
video capabilities by the time the new equipment goes into full production in
2011.

The Government Accountability Office, a Congressional watchdog agency, has
warned that the Army is taking a risk in testing the rest of the gear before
that radio transmitter is ready. But Army officials say they will take that
chance to push out the new devices as quickly as possible.

bItbs like the saying goes: A picture is worth 1,000 words,b said Lt. Col.
Kevin D. Hendricks, a battalion commander involved in the recent exercise.

bIf I can get early warning that an armored vehicle is coming down the road,
and I can hit that vehicle with a precision-guided munition before any of my
soldiers come into contact with it, thatbs the way Ibd like to fight every
war,b he added.