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1 1 (November 26, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goverkh0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Con res&onoI Resear h inki ningttLgvlati edebaL Updated November 26, 2024 The U.S. Army's Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems The U.S. Army is acquiring a family of small uncrewed aircraft systems (sUAS) for ground maneuver elements at the battalion level and below to provide real-time reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) capabilities. For the past two decades, this role was largely filled by the AeroVironment RQ-1 1 Raven (Figure 1). On February 8, 2024, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth and General Randy George, Army Chief of Staff, announced Army plans to phase the RQ-11 Raven out of service as part of a broader rebalance of the Army's aviation investments. This product covers the Group 1 and 2 UAS-those that weigh less than 55 pounds and fly at or below 3,500 feet above ground level-intended to serve as successors to the Army's legacy RSTA sUAS. ackground In 1988, the Department of Defense (DOD) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Joint Program Office (UAV JPO) published its first Master Plan for uncrewed aircraft, which established the requirements and acquisition strategy for UAV systems. The Master Plan recommended a close range UAS for lower-level tactical units, one that could be acquired in large numbers and at low cost. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Military Operations in Urban Terrain Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (MOUT ACTD), an Army-led experimentation program, showed how a man-portable sUAS could provide ground units with enhanced situational awareness and force protection. The MOUT ACTD led the Army and Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to work with AeroVironment to develop in 2002 the fixed-wing, 4-pound RQ-11 Raven, a smaller, more advanced version of the Gulf War-era AeroVironment FQM-151 Pointer. The Army introduced the RQ-1 1 in 2003 and, by 2010, fielded close to 4,000 Raven aircraft. The Marine Corps, SOCOM, and the Air Force also adopted the Raven. Beginning in the early 2010s, Army officials devised plans for expanding the service's small UAS capabilities to include a family of short-, medium-, and long-range sUAS platforms. Under the Rucksack Portable UAS Increment II Capability Production Document (RPUAS CPD), approved in 2013, the Army provided a modified Raven and limited quantities of the AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma to companies and battalions, respectively, for medium- and long-range RSTA capabilities on an interim basis pending the development of new platforms for these roles. Platoons, meanwhile, would be equipped with a short-range drone, the development of which the Army planned to begin later in the decade. Separately, in 2017, the Army approved the Soldier Borne Sensor (SBS) program to acquire miniature drones for infantry squads. The Army selected the FLIR Systems Black Hornet as the SBS and awarded FLIR a contract for the first batch of SBS systems in May 2018. The DOD Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) issued a request for information (RFI) in November 2018 for a quadcopter drone to serve as a short-range sUAS; DIU partnered with the Army on the platoon-level drone program the following April. For medium- and long-range sUAS, the Army did not begin to seek successors to the Raven and Puma until the early 2020s. Figure I. AeroVironment RQ-I I Raven Source: Kevin C. Mcdevitt, Fort Dix Training Support Center. In June 2023, the Army transitioned the RPUAS CPD requirements to the Joint Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Capability Development Document (J-sUAS CDD), guidance that specifies key system and performance attributes and an acquisition timeline for the Army's planned family of RSTA sUAS. Similar to the Army's 2013 RPUAS CPD, the J-sUAS CDD describes Army plans to field what the service now refers to as short-range reconnaissance (SRR), medium-range reconnaissance (MRR), and long-range reconnaissance (LRR) UAS at the levels of platoon, company, and battalion, respectively. Additionally, the J-sUAS CDD contains three new initiatives-first-person view (FPV) drones for squads and platoons, tethered UAS for platoons, and a drone swarm capability for companies-the requirements for all of which remain in various stages of development. Including the SBS, the J-sUAS architecture encompasses seven programs. The requirements for the aircraft in the J-sUAS CDD differentiate them from the Raven and Puma in several ways. The Raven and Puma sUAS feature a conventional fixed-wing configuration, which potentially hampers their usefulness in restrictive terrain, such as urban or forested areas. With SRR, MRR, and LRR UAS, the Army appears to be prioritizing a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capability in the form of either multirotor or hybrid-VTOL configurations. The Army's RFIs for future sUAS indicate that the service plans to acquire aircraft that can deliver

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