Army fusing UAS sensors

The U.S. Army is testing prototypes of a new high-tech synchronization engine at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., which can combine video feeds and sensor data from multiple Unmanned Aircraft Systems on a single Ground Control Station, service officials said.

"We are opening a gateway to information that we have never done before. Today, you can't switch between one stovepipe intelligence source to another that easily," said Tim Owings, deputy program manager, Army UAS.

The new system, called the Federated Universal Synchronization Engine, or FUSE, uses software and hardware to fuse a host of different intelligence sources on one viewing screen, including Ground Moving Target Indicator, Electro-Optical, Infrared and Synthetic Aperture Radar capabilities, Owings said.

"FUSE is about operator cueing - to get the operator better intelligence feeds so that he can find targets more rapidly. If you are a Shadow you don't have a moving target indicator. All you have is video. With FUSE - if you have a Gray Eagle in the same area with an SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) - you will now be able to see the GMTI (Ground Moving Target Indicator) on the Shadow GCS (Ground Control Station)," Owings said.

Night vision sensor delivered to the Army

The first of its kind was delivered to the Army at the 2005 Army Aviation Association of America national convention.

Just shy of six years later, the 1,000th Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor, or MTADS/PNVS, was delivered to the Army and recognized in a celebration Feb. 16, at the Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control production facility in Orlando, Fla.

"The only reason I made this trip was to thank you for what you're doing," Maj. Gen. Tim Crosby, program executive officer for aviation, told the work force. "I don't care what you do for this company, you are part of the team that supports our Soldiers."

Also known as the "eyes of the Apache," the MTADS/PNVS vastly improves the capabilities of the Legacy system, which was first fielded in 1983. Its most important improvement is the Forward Looking Infrared's ability to simply see better with visual acuity, measured in resolution, increasing 10-fold. MTADS/PNVS is designed to fly more and require less maintenance and has significantly more diagnostics capability.

"I wish I could talk to your families," Crosby said, "because they don't know how influential you have been to the Army."