Lockheed Martin’s DRAGON ISR
DRAGON ISR: Helping Lift the “Fog of War”
Picture a mission: covert and high risk. A team parachutes to the ground, operating far beyond friendly forces and assets. However, the small special operations team is by no means operating in the dark and unaware. They are drawing on the sensors and analytical assets provided by airborne intelligence assets.
Hundreds of miles away, an intelligence aircraft is monitoring the entire electromagnetic communications spectrum in the team’s vicinity. The aircraft’s intelligence collection system isolates a suspicious signal amidst the routine communications in the area. Automatically, the system identifies the signal’s position and tasks a sensor to collect imagery of the area. The resulting image shows three potential insurgent vehicles. Airborne and ground-based analysts collaborate and estimate the vehicles will reach the team’s position in 22 minutes.
Within the aircraft’s collection management software, a high priority monitoring task is created and the system nominates a nearby UAV with streaming video capability to monitor the vehicles. The UAV tracks and monitors the moving insurgent vehicles, providing both the analysts and the special operations team with real-time data of any potential threats.
Concurrently, analysts onboard the intelligence aircraft and also at an in-country joint operations center examine the situation. Despite being hundreds of miles apart, these two entities operate as a finely honed team, with simultaneous access to the same multi-sensor/multi-platform intelligence collected. It is this multi-intelligence correlation capability that enables the team to make decisions based on knowledge, not speculation or assumptions. After analyzing the correlated situation assessment, the commander directs the special operations team to relocate immediately to avoid detection.
Combined assets track the threat vehicles and their activities over the next few hours. Concurrently, a net-enabled virtual analyst team completes the process of generating enough actionable intelligence to conduct simultaneous raids that eliminate a newly discovered insurgent network.
The mission is covert and the night is black, but on this night, there is no “fog of war.” Disparate coalition assets and analysts work together form a seamless intelligence team to deliver near real-time knowledge to remote soldiers who were previously unreachable through normal communications methods. Developing the technologies to deliver that intelligence is Lockheed Martin.
An Ongoing Need for Continuous Awareness
Safety concerns across our global landscape reinforce the need for systems that provide accurate and continuous awareness of one’s environment. It is a fact that systems with open, service oriented architectures enable cross collaboration, facilitate intelligence flow and allow many analysts to simultaneously work missions anywhere in the world. These flexible architectures deliver higher quality intelligence, building on the synergistic “power of many” to develop stronger, more rapid, collaboration-based products. By facilitating the information flow across networks to applications and processors, analysts can ‘discover’ data from air, ground & space intelligence producers.
An open, horizontally integrated collection and processing architecture combined with array of modern sensor capabilities can work together as a synergistic combination to provide real-time awareness of what is happening in one’s environment. Put those capabilities on an aircraft, and you have a sophisticated, flying intelligence gathering asset that can ensure information dominance on land, air and maritime dominance in combat operations to help anticipate and defeat today’s daunting challenges. This asset is Lockheed Martin’s Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory, or AML.
The Airborne Multi-INT Laboratory: Innovation in the Air
Recognizing the efficiencies and benefits that open, service-oriented architecture solutions provide is one of the reasons Lockheed Martin transformed a used business jet into a flying intelligence test bed.
“We designed the AML so that we can easily test a myriad of sensors to advance the science and art of correlating diverse types of intelligence – with the goal of rapidly providing high-quality data,” said Jim Quinn, vice president for C4ISR Systems with Lockheed Martin. “By making the AML’s architecture platform agonistic, we’ve been able to test a myriad of intelligence sensor combinations on different aircraft platforms to show how ISR capabilities can be rapidly integrated - with minimal development time - to support customer’s operational scenarios and mission systems.”
The AML, also known as Dragon Star, is a Gulfstream business jet that has been modified into a test bed for testing and fielding C4ISR capabilities. The Gulfstream jet was chosen as the AML platform due to its ability to support a multitude of sensors, broad flight regime and long range.
“The AML is truly unique,” added Mr. Quinn. “Some airborne test beds exist that are used for similar purposes, but they don’t have the aggregate capabilities of the AML. That is what makes it distinctive.”
Equipped with a full suite of intelligence of reconfigurable array of systems, sensors, and tactical data links, the AML has been used to evaluate how sensors operate - alone and in combination - in real-world exercises and scenarios. An open architecture and the aircraft’s configurable exterior physical structure allow C4ISR components (software and hardware) to be integrated and switched in a matter of hours, rather than days. The aircraft’s open architecture design also makes it simple to integrate the AML with existing sovereign ground architectures while maintaining interoperability during coalition engagements.
Since its introduction in 2009, the AML has been used to evaluate how sensors operate - alone and in combination - in real-world exercises and scenarios. It has participated in customer demonstrations and experiments in Europe, the Pacific Rim and the United States. Lockheed Martin continues to work with industry partners interested in fielding their systems on the AML to improve operational functionality.
Enter the Dragon
In today’s ever changing environment, platform costs and mission requirements challenge the ability for a single platform to meet all a customer’s intelligence gathering requirements, such as border surveillance, maritime patrol, or disaster relief, is rare. Leveraging the open architecture design concept of the AML, Lockheed Martin used it as a model to determine how to cost effectively meet the ISR needs for a multitude of customers and missions. From the AML evolved Lockheed Martin’s Dragon Family of ISR configurations. These six innovative, cost-efficient airborne and ground system configurations can be customized to support a diverse range of homeland Defence, border protection and humanitarian assistance mission needs.
“The Dragon family evolved from years of program success, augmented with extensive technical trade studies and real-world experimentation using our airborne multi-INT laboratory”, said Mr. Quinn.
Capturing Lockheed Martin’s extensive ISR expertise in a catalogue of single and multi-purpose integrated air and ground intelligence packages, Dragon configurations can range from podded synthetic radar for a fighter jet – to a cargo aircraft modified into a collection platform - to a large business jet transformed into a reconnaissance aircraft with a complete suite of intelligence systems. All Dragon configurations incorporate an open, modular “plug and play” architecture that enables new sensors and systems to be integrated rapidly and cost-effectively. Most Dragon options have wide and narrow band communication suites as well as dedicated ground processing systems that incorporate multi-level information sharing security options.
The Dragon Family of ISR Defined
The Dragon family has six options: Dragon ScoutTM, Dragon SentinelTM, Dragon ShieldTM, Dragon StarTM, Dragon StareTM, and Dragon DenTM, all of which offer sensors, communications and ground stations tailored to meet a customer’s specific mission needs and available budget. Lockheed Martin also offers any configuration as a contracted service under the Dragon Net configurations.
“The Dragon family brand was introduced to characterize the wide range of configurations that Lockheed Martin offers”, said Charles Gulledge, director of airborne reconnaissance business development with Lockheed Martin.
For those who need a high altitude system with a complete suite of ISR sensors and communications, there is Dragon Scout. Fashioned for larger, longer range aircraft platforms, Dragon Scout provides a complete multi-Intelligence configured platform that can cover large areas of interest and be completely interoperable with national, joint and coalition forces.
The AML falls within the Dragon Star category, which addresses requirements for mid-range, multi-intelligence platforms such as the Gulfstream III, Havilland D-8 or Beech Craft B 350. Depending on the mission, these aircraft can be equipped with a variety of sensor combinations, multiple communications systems.
Dragon Sentinel allows Lockheed Martin to offer customers a persistent surveillance capability via high towers or tethered aerostats. Sensors can be integrated in either, and then connected to a ground station for the collection, processing and distribution of any garnered intelligence.
Dragon Shield sensor systems are built into trailer-like containers integrated onto standard cargo pallets that can be rolled on and off aircraft. The Dragon Shield configuration is a cost efficient option for customers who need an aircraft that can perform multiple missions, such as airlift and ISR. The team leveraged expertise configuring C-130 and CASA-295 aircraft into dual-role ISR aircraft, which Lockheed Martin provides to both U.S. and international forces.
“The Dragon Shield configuration is a cost efficient option for customers who need an aircraft that can perform multiple missions, such as airlift and ISR,” added Gulledge.
The Dragon Stare configuration is focused on providing sensor systems, integrated into the aircraft or into a pod attachable to the exterior structure, for manned and unmanned aircraft. Sensor configurations are based on user needs and are net-centric capable for coalition interoperability.
For customers who already own aircraft for ISR missions, Dragon Den ground processing stations offers a way to process and exploit collected intelligence faster and with greater accuracy. Available in sizes from a transit case to a complete ground station, Dragon Den ground systems can also be fully integrated with customer aircraft. Dragon Den builds upon Lockheed Martin’s decades of expertise processing and distributing ISR.
Finally for those who need ISR - aircraft or ground stations - for only a short period of time, Lockheed Martin offers any Dragon option as a contracted service under the Dragon Net configuration. This concept allows a customer to benefit from advanced ISR products without the delay and cost of a new system procurement. It also offers customers the ability to bring surveillance capabilities to any region immediately. Lockheed Martin also offers a transition from a service that is completely contractor owned and operated to a standard procurement when the customers are ready to assume operations.
Lockheed Martin’s Dragon ISR configurations offer a unique approach for customers to match mission requirements and budget to sensor, communications and airframe needs. Dragon sensor configurations are customized according to a customer’s mission requirements and are net-centric capable to enable joint and coalition interoperability. Cost and capability vary depending on the chosen configuration.
“Depending on the aircraft and the modifications selected, Lockheed Martin can provide any option with the Dragon family can be provided in as little as three months,” said Gulledge. “Assembling our immense catalog of C4ISR capabilities into The Dragon family allows us to provide customers the system they need, in the airframe they select, when they need it.”
