operator.
“This experiment is an example of how linking NATO AWACS to new data sources, such as chat rooms and unmanned vehicles, can support evolving Air Battle Management tasks,” said Col. Greg Clark of NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force Command. “Operators are recognizing the significant advantages that unmanned vehicles provide to access new information-sharing methods to rapidly improve the use of all operational assets.”
“ScanEagle will enhance the AWACS advantage of seeing from long distances at high altitude by allowing the manned aircraft to also observe what’s happening closer to the ground,” said Jake Howitt, director of AWACS Programs for Boeing. "AWACS will use the information from ScanEagle and data from its own sensors to produce faster, more accurate and actionable intelligence in response to the threat.”
Boeing has been experimenting with UAS control from C2 platforms since 2006, including a 2009 demonstration using an AEW&C aircraft to control multiple ScanEagles via satellite communications and other similar communications channels.
The Empire Challenge 2010 experiment will pave the way to enable any airborne C2 platform to control unmanned vehicles – such as ScanEagle and the larger ScanEagle Compressed Carriage – as remote sensors without a major modification to the controlling aircraft.