The US Army plans to certify a ground-based sense-and-avoid (GBSAA) system for General Atomics (booth 2854) Gray Eagle UAS at five training locations in the US by 2016, opening up the option to practice operations and training outside of restricted airspace and during night.
"The current certificates of authorisations (COAs) require visual observers on the ground or in chase planes," says Mary Ottman, the service's deputy product manager for sense-and-avoid. "In most cases we cannot operate at night. If we could open up the night hours, we could open up readiness level. GBSAA is one way to get that."
Ottman says the first certified fielding of the GBSAA, which takes in the 3d position of traffic in the training area and displays it to an operator for sense and avoid situational awareness, will be fielded at Fort Hood in 2014 and at four other Gray Eagle UAS operational centres by 2016.
The systems will be fielded initially with "Block 0" software, which displays traffic information but does not compute a resolution for the radar operator. Block 1 software, to be integrated at a later date, will provide resolution advisories.
From a broader perspective, the work is part of the army's role as the lead in a government-wide effort to develop a common set of standards for GBSAA, which will include a "sensor agnostic" approach to the surveillance.
Source: Flight Daily News
