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Air Force test data used to help warfighter

Dec 9, 2009

By Drew Hamilton

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., Dec. 3, 2009 - Unmanned aircraft performance data collected at White Sands Missile Range has gone straight to the warfighter to help fight the war in Afghanistan.

Members of the 46th Test Group at WSMR made use of the Aeroacoustic Research Complex to collect acoustic data on the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones. The data collection missions, run in late October, collected and built audio profiles of the sound that the vehicles make while in flight. "By knowing the signature of the aircraft (mission planners) can better plan the aircraft's mission so that the bad guys won't know something is coming," said 2nd Lt. Kyle Spain, a project engineer with the 46th Test Group. Concealing and reducing the sound made by their aircraft is an important mission for the Air Force, as many of the missions that Air Force aircraft conduct benefit greatly from the element of surprise.

According to official Air Force fact sheets, the Predator is a medium altitude long endurance unmanned aircraft system capable of performing reconnaissance missions and carrying a pair of missiles for use against ground targets. The Reaper, a larger unmanned aircraft system, can perform similar missions in the medium to high altitude range and its larger size allow it to carry a larger weapons payload of missiles and precision guided bombs. Both aircraft commonly operate in rotating teams, allowing at least on drone to always be observing a target or area of interest for an extended period of time. By increasing the effectiveness of these aircraft the Air Force plans to conduct better missions and to help out other branches of the military by providing them with valuable and accurate information on the current state of the battlefield. "It's important to get eyes on both our guys and any potential threats that might be out there," Spain said.

To help benefit the warfighter, both in the air and on the ground, the data collected was forwarded to mission planners very quickly, with mission planners already using the data to help plan missions at the time this article was published. "This was a super-quick turn around in testing. They planned on taking the data and turning it around and immediately putting it to use in supporting the warfighter," Spain said.

Data collection missions conducted with the drones are just the first in a series. "This is just the start of a series of tests that will collect data on a wide variety of aircraft currently in use in theater," Spain said.