FORT RUCKER, Ala. (March 27, 2015) -- When Army Aviation first assumed proponency for the Army's Unmanned Aircraft Systems, the systems were viewed as a disposable materiel solution.
"We didn't train our UAS operators the same way that we train our Aviators, with the rigor we have in place -- with the safety, standardization, how much training we put in it because we know how precious our resources are for people and machinery. Now we're bringing unmanned systems more into that fold, that mentality," said Col. Tom von Eschenbach, director, TRADOC Capability Manager for UAS at Fort Rucker.
With organizational structure changes already under way, the Aviation Restructure Initiative served as a forcing function not only to bring UAS to Aviation units, but also to bring the branch to the realization it needs to better embrace UAS, he said. Now, a greater emphasis is on building capability, whereas before it was about capacity.
"In the OIF/OEF surge, we were rapidly buying and procuring whatever was available at the time to build capacity. Now that we've peaked, we have to build capability, and that is through our human dimension part of it--our operator," von Eschenbach said.
The way ahead for UAS involves a greater emphasis on UAS platforms and reliability, and bringing unmanned aeroscout (operator) training more in line with Aviator training.
"We have our materiel solutions that we're going to get. Let's make our humans better. Let's train them better. Let's integrate them better," he said.
The Army's initial rapid fielding of Shadows happened without the luxury of time for training or product development, according to CW3 Adam Morton, battalion standardization officer for Aviation's UAS training battalion, the 2nd Battalion, 13th Aviation Regiment, based at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
"We were burning [the systems] up at a high rate, especially on the tactical UAS side. If you're pushing a product out there before you have time to really do reliability testing on it, trying to satisfy your wartime commanders and just push it to them as fast as you can, there are going to be some things that are missed," said Morton, who deployed multiple times to Iraq as a UAS operator.
Unmanned aeroscouts felt their share of the growing pains as unmanned and manned Aviation learned what each other could bring to the fight.
"We didn't talk the same way, we didn't look the same way, we didn't fly the same way," said Morton.
Mentoring by Aviators helped grow the UAS operators, according to CW2 Steven L. Ball, UAS operations technician with C Co., 2-13thAviation Regt.
"From the get-go, as a PV2 (private 2), corporal, specialist, I was getting talked to by CW4s and 5s that were Aviators in our own battalion, teaching us on maintenance programs, safety programs, flying hour programs, how to aviate better. That helped us. We were treated kind of like Aviators but expected to walk that standard, as well," said Ball, who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a UAS operator.
According to Morton, Aviation raised the bar for UAS.
"Aviation increased the standard on what we were looking for as an Army, the materiel standards we wanted to see in our UAS, and it was also the reporting mechanisms. Instead of just accepting that we lost a UAS during the deployment, we started to get into the investigation piece, and learning what we can do better to prevent this in the future," Morton said.
According to Morton, the key to future growth is creating a common picture for unmanned and manned training, and making Aviation look as uniform as possible across the formation.
"I think we're really getting after that. By incorporating UAS into these combat Aviation brigades, and really letting ARI be the forcing function, we're going to discover that there's a value added by having these guys grow up together, train together, deploy together. I think when we look at it 10 years from now, we're going to discover that was the key ingredient that was missing," Morton said.
Efforts at 2-13th Avn. Regt. include qualifying UAS operators on gunnery. In the past an operator's first experience with gunnery was often in combat, according to Morton.
"We're changing that now. When these guys get to their units and they deploy, it's not the first time they've thought about pulling a trigger or actually employing armament," Morton said.
Changes on the horizon for UAS include updates to doctrine and training support products for MUM-T. The future also calls for a greater emphasis on training at home station, Aviation oversight of UAS maintenance -- including the goal of having a consolidated UAS facility for Shadow UAS in brigade combat teams and working through issues regarding Shadow platoon training.
"In some cases, facilities may not be in place to support that," von Eschenbach said. "We have to work our airspace a little better to make it easier for them to go out and fly. We've got to integrate UAS into CTCs …. We are working through some of that."
A key to future air-ground training opportunities may simply be more communication with ground elements for inclusion in scheduled training events, he said.
As a proven, integral part of the asymmetric advantage Army Aviation provides to the warfight in support of ground commander, UAS provides flexibility in decision making and greater lethality.
"It allows us to do more," he said. "The same person can do more than they could before because you have remote and autonomous systems."
While UAS has come a long way in the past few years alone, he believes there is still a long way to go.
Morton said he personally looks forward to the day when the word "unmanned" disappears from the vernacular.
"I really think it's going to boil down to when we, as an Army, completely adopt UAS as just another Aviation platform and it's just Army Aviation," Morton said.
"Because, in the end, there's really nothing unmanned about it," Ball added.
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