Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Cyber Warfare Integration

Multi-mission Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, (MUAV), Project AIR 7000 Phase 1B, Australian Defence Department 2006:

Phase 1B is intended to acquire High Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Systems for maritime patrol and other surveillance. Phase 2B is intended to provide the manned component of the ADF maritime patrol capability that may involve upgrade or replacement of the AP-3C Orion aircraft. ...

The life-of-type for the AP-3C is being driven by the increasing cost of addressing airframe fatigue and corrosion, aircraft system supportability and mission system obsolescence. ... AIR 7000 will consider the future of the AP-3C in the context of future ADF requirements for maritime patrol and response. This will include the exploration of a broad range of options including aircraft refurbishment/re-manufacture or replacement, and the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) as an adjunct to manned platforms....

Estimated Phase Expenditure $1000m to $1500m Scheduled Year of Decision FY 2007/08 Scheduled In Service Date 2009 to 2011

North West Shelf UAS Trial Further Information, DSTO, 2006:

Mariner Demonstrator UAV The purpose of the North West Shelf Trial is to:

assess the maritime surveillance potential of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to operate with Armidale Class Patrol Boats in providing an enhanced layer of security in Australia; and

enable Defence to make a practical assessment of the utility of UAVs as one component of an integrated national surveillance network. The trial will also assess the procedures and practices for sharing surveillance information among government agencies to develop a whole-of-government response to Australia's national security needs.

Unmanned Aircraft Trial Successfully Completed, DSTO, 3 November, 2006:

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Senator Sandy Macdonald, today announced the successful completion of the recent Defence trial which assessed the capability of unmanned aerial systems performing maritime surveillance over Australia's North West Shelf. ...

The first phase of the trial involved American aerospace company General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) and its Mariner Demonstrator unmanned aerial vehicle, which flew a series of real-world missions from RAAF Learmonth in northern Western Australia during September.

This phase of the trial aimed to assess the ability of the Mariner Demonstrator to operate with the Royal Australian Navy's Armidale Class Patrol Boats as well as the Border Protection Command and other force elements such as the Pilbara Regiment, to conduct surveillance and response missions.

Between 28 August and 25 September the aircraft flew a total of 75.5 hours, with each sortie ranging from two hours to more than 20 hours. ...

The second phase of the trial was conducted by Northrop Grumman in San Diego.

"Northrop Grumman used its Cyber Warfare Integration Network to simulate and model the Global Hawk UAS, flying similar mission profiles as the Mariner Demonstrator had done over the North West Shelf," Dr Sare said.

"The CWIN exercise allowed us to fill in gaps in areas where it was not practical to use the UAS during the real-world trial phase. The San Diego end of the trial has also helped to demonstrate the ability of unmanned systems to provide enhanced surveillance of the northern maritime approaches to Australia," he said.

Dr Sare said Defence was currently preparing a full report on the trial to be presented to the Government by the end of the year.

Data from the North West Shelf UAS trial will help Defence in developing requirements for Project Air 7000 Phase 1, under which it plans to acquire a long endurance, multi-mission unmanned aerial vehicle. ...

Cyber Warfare Integration Network, Northrop Grumman, 2006:

Northrop Grumman has transformed its modeling, simulation and analysis capabilities into a distributed system-of-systems environment called the Cyber Warfare Integration Network (CWIN). A synthetic engineering environment, CWIN supports full spectrum battlefield operations and system-of-systems design and development. CWIN is geographically distributed among multiple sites, and allows collaboration among platforms, sensors, weapons and battle management/command and control (BM/C2) planning and decision tools. ...

CWIN also provides capability to explore and evaluate Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) management and exploitation, space operations, information operations, manned/unmanned concepts of operations and "Effects Based Operations." CWIN is capable of sophisticated experimentation with emerging machine-to-machine collaboration concepts, such as unmanned air vehicles, intelligent agents, and data warehousing and mining. ...