Pictures from the Front Lines

Puma Launch

U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Dylan Ferguson launches a Puma unmanned aerial vehicle in Afghanistan'a Ghazni province, June 25, 2012. Fergunson, a brigade aviation element officer assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, uses the Puma for reconnaissance for ground troops.

Machine Gun Training

U.S. Army Sgt. James Misch shows Afghan soldiers how to load an M2 .50-caliber machine gun during basic marksmanship training in Paktika province, Afghanistan, June 18, 2012. U.S. soldiers and Afghan forces routinely train together to strengthen their partnership and increase the Afghan force's ability to disrupt enemy activity. The U.S. solders are assinged to the 1st Infantry Divisions Charlie Troop, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

Six Soldiers return home from joint UAV operations in Afghanistan

By Tech. Sgt. Jon LaDue

Wisconsin National Guard

Wisconsin National Guard leaders, family and friends welcomed home six Red Arrow Soldiers Wednesday (June 6) at the Dane County Regional Airport from their deployment to Afghanistan where they operated the RQ-7 Shadow 200 unmanned aerial vehicle.

The Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (TAUS) Soldiers returned from demobilization training at Camp Shelby, Miss., where they concluded their approximate year-long mobilization in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

"Congratulations and welcome home," said Brig. Gen. Mark Anderson, commander of the Wisconsin Army National Guard.

The six Soldiers, members of Company B, Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, worked as a joint team in Afghanistan - providing a bird's eye view to their brothers in arms.

"It was a big change, supporting the Marines," said Sgt. Robert Haack, who was welcomed home by his parents, four sisters and extended family, "but as far as the aviation side of the house, it was all pretty much the same and we knew what to expect."

Lt. Col. David Sands, who became the battalion's new commander while the Soldiers were deployed, was kept up to date on their progress and is glad to have them home.

"We're very proud of the job you did over there," Sands said, noting that all of Company B will benefit from their deployment.

"I believe it actually expands the experience of the entire unit," he said. "That experience they gained will be shared with the rest of the Soldiers in our unit."

Annemarie, mother of Sgt. Zachary Michalak, said communication with her son was pretty good while he was deployed. The entire family would drop what they were doing whenever he'd call, she said, adding that she appreciated hearing from her son's unit as well.

"I do have to say that [Staff Sgt. Lucas] Gordon always called and said the guys were doing a good job - I liked that feedback," Annemarie said. "I'm very proud of all these boys, especially Robert, that they answered the call. I appreciate men and women who step to answer the call."

Maj. Gen. Don Dunbar, adjutant general of Wisconsin, spoke to the Soldiers.

"I just want to welcome you home ... tremendous job, I couldn't be prouder of what you've just done," Dunbar said.

As each of the Wisconsin Guard leaders stated at the airport, the Soldiers' next job is to take some time to reintegrate back into their lives. The leaders took the opportunity to stress the benefits and importance of the three-phase reintegration program the Soldiers will go through over the next 12 months.

"It's a great way to understand the resources and benefits available to you ... that you've earned," Anderson said. "The important thing here is you take this time, decompress and spend some time with your family.

Dunbar stressed that deploying in support of a contingency operation is no small, inconsequential feat.

"It's a big deal to put your uniform on, it's a big deal to serve your country, and it's a big deal to go overseas and serve in a combat zone ... so thank you," Dunbar said.

Face of Defense: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operator Guides Peers

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By Marine Corps Cpl. Justin M. Boling

2nd Marine Aircraft Wing

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan, Sept. 21, 2011 – Marine Corps Sgt. Chad John spends 12 hours a day with an aerial view of Afghanistan, but he rarely leaves the ground.

John, a native of Shiprock, N.M., is an unmanned aerial vehicle operator with Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3.

The Marine Corps uses small, lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the RQ-7B Shadow, to provide aerial surveillance and reconnaissance for Marines and their coalition partners in Afghanistan.

“We understand the importance of providing the best view to those who are planning to go into an area so they can avoid being in a bad situation,” he said. “I always know that if I do not get the best view, I could be putting lives at risk.”

While airborne, the RQ-7B Shadow UAV is an extension of two Marines working on the ground. A vehicle operator controls the speed, direction and elevation of the aircraft, while a payload operator controls a camera that looks out for the safety of ground troops.

The evolution and use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the Marine Corps has been ongoing for the last two decades. John said he has seen the force of operators more than triple in size during his time in the service.

“Nearly seven years and seven deployments later, I take pride in seeing how far we have come,” John said.

In Afghanistan, the Marine Corps unmanned aerial vehicles support 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, the air combat element of the southwestern regional command of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

The work of the Marine unmanned aerial vehicle operators leaves little room for error. Providing an accurate aerial view of the battlefield helps keep service members alive, so the UAV operators must stay alert.

“Working so closely with a small group of guys allows you to learn everyone’s weaknesses and strengths,” John said. “This allows you not only to become like brothers, but also to help each other to become the best operators we can.”

John said he hopes to become an instructor in Arizona after this deployment so he can teach a new generation of Marine Corps UAV operators.

“I want to stay close to this job field and the great group people that I have met,” he said. “I have a lot of deployment experience that I could bring to new operators as they come into this cutting-edge field.”

Face of Defense: Marine Brings Experience to Unit

By Marine Corps Cpl. Samantha H. Arrington

2nd Marine Aircraft Wing

CAMP DWYER, Afghanistan, June 20, 2011 – Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3, established in 2008, is one of the youngest squadrons in the Marine Corps, but its Marines are not without experience.

A gunnery sergeant deployed here with the squadron has served the UAV community throughout her entire enlistment of nearly 17 years.

Lilia A. Garcia oversees all RQ-7B Shadow UAV mechanical and launching operations for the squadron. The Mission, Texas, native joined the Marine Corps in 1995 as a UAV technician.

“I’ve known Garcia since 1997,” said Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Charles D. Carter, the squadron’s maintenance control chief and a native of Newport News, Va. “She is the kind of Marine who is focused like a laser beam on getting the mission accomplished.”

Even though many Marines physically tower over the short-statured Texan, there is firmness in Garcia’s soft words. She rarely raises her voice when addressing her troops, likely attributable to the knowledge she carries after nearly two decades in the UAV community.

“She works longer hours than everyone else in the maintenance department does just so she is available to all of her Marines,” Carter said. “I have developed an incredible respect for her abilities.”

“Working with the junior Marines is one of my favorite parts of my job,” Garcia said. “When the Marines are out doing their jobs, whether it’s launching or controlling the aircraft, I know I’ve done my part. My junior Marines have a lot of potential, and they work very hard.”

When Garcia entered the Marine Corps UAV community, she said unmanned aerial vehicles had recently formed into self-sustaining aviation squadrons. Previously, UAVs were directly attached to the ground units they now support.

“We became a very valuable asset because we were able to use our aircraft to watch over ground troops,” Garcia said. “For the squadron, it is just important that we do our part.”

Deployed Marine Corps UAV squadrons use small, lightweight vehicles that are able to stay in the air for several hours to supply Marines and their coalition partners with aerial information throughout combat missions.

Garcia has deployed seven times to locations all over the world. In 2003, when the United States and its coalition partners began Operation Iraqi Freedom, Garcia said Marine Corps UAV squadrons adopted a heavy deployment schedule.

“We would deploy for seven months and come back for five months and then deploy again,” Garcia said. “Because of that deployment tempo the Marine Corps created [Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3] to try and slow down the deployment rate. It took several years but it has helped.”

Garcia and the other Marines of VMU-3 currently call Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., home. The squadron arrived in Afghanistan in May for its second deployment to support NATO International Security Assistance Force missions.

“When I joined the Marine Corps 16 years ago I didn’t think I was going to stay in,” Garcia said. “I love what I do, though, and that’s what has kept me in.”

Warfighters to Get Improved ‘Eyes in the Sky’

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2010 – Warfighters in Afghanistan will get an unprecedented capability to track and monitor activity on the ground in the coming months with the initial deployment of a new ultra-high-resolution camera able to scan a wide field of view and download images in real time.

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, the Defense Department’s high-tech research and development arm, is working with the Army to deploy its new Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance-Imaging System program during the first half of 2011, program manager Brian Leininger told American Forces Press Service.

The ARGUS-IS system, with an acronym that recalls the 100-eyed Greek mythological figure, will give ground troops a persistent “eyes in the sky” capability that improves their ability to identify and track targets of interest and enemy operatives.

The heart of the system is a 1.8-gigapixel color camera, the largest video sensor ever used to conduct tactical missions.

To provide a sense of just how high-resolution this sensor is, Leininger compared it to a standard cell phone camera. A cell phone image typically runs between 1 million and 2 million pixels. With ARGUS-IS, it’s 900 to 1,800 times that number –- enough to track people and vehicles from altitudes above 20,000 feet.

But ARGUS-IS offers more than just high-resolution imagery. To be deployed on an A-160 “Hummingbird” unmanned aerial platform, it will be able to scan almost 25 square miles.

This represents a big technological leap over current airborne surveillance systems, Leininger said. Those that deliver high-resolution images are limited to very small fields of view, he explained, and those covering broader areas provide low-resolution imagery.

In addition, ARGUS-IS operators on the ground can designate “windows” around up to 65 specific sites or targets they want to monitor. They can choose buildings, road intersections or other fixed locations the system will “stare” at, or people or vehicles to trail –- even if they’re moving in different directions.

“And if you have a bunch of people leaving a place at the same time, they no longer have to say, ‘Do I follow vehicle one, two, three or four?’” Leininger said. “They can say, ‘I will follow all of them, simultaneously and automatically.’”

ARGUS-IS’s processing system compresses the massive amount of data collected to what’s most valuable to warfighters, such as movement or changes on the ground. Then it transmits this data to operations centers and troops operating in the area in multiple, real-time video streams at the rate of 10 frames per second.

DARPA, working in partnership with the Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, Air Force, Air Force Research Laboratory and National Geospatial Agency, conducted its first test flights using the ARGUS system last year. For those tests, the system’s sensor and airborne processing unit were slung in a pod under a special UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and a fixed-wing DC-8 aircraft.

Now scientists are integrating the system into the Hummingbird platform, which can fly at up to 20,000 feet for 12 hours or more, for deployment to Afghanistan.

Even before ARGUS-IS reaches the field, DARPA already is looking ahead to the next step in its evolution. A contract awarded this past summer is funding a program to integrate an infrared capability that will enable the system to operate at night.

Leininger, who started the ARGUS-IS program just over three years ago, said the increased intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance capability the system will provide will help ground troops carry out their missions and save lives in the process.

“This is a very useable system that will provide an enormous [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] multiplier for the troops,” he said. “It gives them a new and better way to see what is around them with a big eye in the sky.”

Law Enforcement Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), also known as UAVs, is a rapidly emerging technology that has exceptional appeal to law enforcement. A UAS consists of an unmanned aircraft, an aircraft control station, and command and control links. UAS are considered as aircraft. These aircraft can often be flown autonomously and at great distances from the command station. In addition, these aircraft can be very small, under 25 lbs and still carry enough equipment to provide video downlink capabilities. The operation of a UAS by a public agency, whether it is Federal, State or Local Law Enforcement, is enforced by FAA regulations and Federal statutes.

With the increase in use of UAS by the military in overseas operations, there has been a significant increase in the number of vendors both producing and marketing these same units to law enforcement. Prior to purchasing or leasing a UAS please consider the following: For a public aircraft operation, the FAA holds the position that a Certificate of Authorization (COA) is required to operate UAS in the National Airspace.

READ ON
http://www.police-writers.com/law_enforcement_unmanned_aircraft_systems.html

Historic Launch Held at Camp Taji

By Cpl. Nathan Hoskins, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

Oct. 22, 2007 - The residents of this camp are exposed to an incessant buzzing -- a sound of safety for the troops on the ground in Multinational Division Baghdad area of operations. The source of all this racket is the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division's unmanned aerial vehicle launch site.

The soldiers of Company E, 615th Aviation Support "Cold Steel" Battalion, have been working day and night pushing the limits of their equipment to ensure troops on the ground in Baghdad have an extra set of eyes overhead and setting records in the process, said 1st Sgt. Joseph Bell, the senior noncommissioned officer for Company E.

"We have recently passed 30,000 flight hours, which is almost double what (the previous unit) flew," said Bell, who hails from Jacksonville, Fla. "Our goal was to actually reach 25,000 (flight hours), but then we passed that. We just keep pushing the envelope."

Pushing the envelope is now the standard for Company E, which assists several brigades within the Multinational Division Baghdad area of operations, along with whomever else happens to be rolling through the area, Bell said. Exceeding their goal has had a positive effect on morale throughout the ranks.

"I'm excited because I feel I'm a part of a team. I feel like I helped contribute to make those numbers where they are," said Galveston, Texas, native Sgt. Christopher Willis, a UAV crew chief and technical inspector for Company E.

"That number is outstanding; everyone is going to try to duplicate that," Willis said.

Along with being a part of a team that has set the standard for UAV operations, Willis also got to be a part of history when he let Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abud Qanbar, commanding general of Baghdad Operational Command, launch his aircraft Oct. 14. He was not only the first Iraqi general to launch a UAV, but also the first Iraqi to do so, Bell said.

"We would like to see more of our Iraqi counterparts come and actually see what we're doing to help them out," Bell said.

After giving a quick briefing about the procedures, Willis handed over the controls to Abud.

"I was excited that he got the opportunity to launch an aircraft. I just made history; I'm a part of history," Willis said with a big smile.

Letting Abud launch his aircraft was a big deal for Willis. Not only because he made history, but because that aircraft is his "baby." He said he doesn't let just anyone touch it. He is with it from launch to recovery, he said.

"When it's on the launcher, we go around it two or three times just in case because you can forget something the first time around," Willis said. "So we take this job very seriously and make sure that we get that airplane up."

With all numbers and accolades aside, Company E soldiers work hard for a singular reason, Willis said. "I honestly like what I do; ... I like the positive feedback from launching every aircraft, because I know that we're getting eyes in the sky for those guys on the ground," he said.