Bluezoo
05-09-2005, 01:45 PM
Troops on Ground A Click Away from 'Server in The Sky'
By BRUCE ROLFSEN
May 06, 2005
Troops on the ground can now directly download images from an unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance jet.
Just two years ago, photographs and ground-scanning radar images from the Global Hawk were only available to headquarters units. It could take about an hour to relay Global Hawk pictures to units in the field.
Now troops on the ground need just a laptop computer or personal digital assistant that is plugged into a tactical radio and equipped with a software upgrade.
In April, the Air Force's top general for Iraq and Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Walter Buchanan, praised the service's effort to find new ways to support troops on the ground.
Buchanan described the upgraded Global Hawk as an "Internet server in the sky."
The Air Force and Marine Corps, along with Global Hawk contractor Northrop Grumman tested the prototype system earlier this winter in Iraq.
Buchanan cautioned that a decision hadn't been made on whether the capability will become standard equipment on the Global Hawk.
Ed Walby, a former U-2 squadron commander now working for Northrop Grumman on the Global Hawk, said the quick availability of reconnaissance pictures will change how field units get their intelligence.
For instance, instead of sending helicopters to scout a town 20 miles away, commanders could download Global Hawk pictures, Walby said.
Northrop Grumman developed the new system called Advanced Information Architecture in response to the Air Force's drive to cut the time it takes to drop bombs and to get more information to aircrews and ground forces.
On the Global Hawk, the heart of the system is a computer server that has 1,500 gigabytes of storage capacity, the rough equivalent of 50 desktop computers.
As a Global Hawk flies over Iraq, all the photos and radar images are stored on the server. The onboard computer also remembers the ground coordinates of the locations it shot and when the images were taken.
When troops on the ground need to find out what is over the next hill or behind a row of buildings, they can contact the Global Hawk by using a portable computer or PDA plugged into a tactical radio.
Once troops have sent the coordinates they are interested in, the Global Hawk transmits a picture of that area in a burst of data that takes about 16 seconds to receive.
The troops on the ground can then zoom in on any part of the image by moving a pen over the area that interests them and telling the Global Hawk to send a more detailed image....
For the full text, please go to:
http://www.isrjournal.com/story.php?F=831734
By BRUCE ROLFSEN
May 06, 2005
Troops on the ground can now directly download images from an unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance jet.
Just two years ago, photographs and ground-scanning radar images from the Global Hawk were only available to headquarters units. It could take about an hour to relay Global Hawk pictures to units in the field.
Now troops on the ground need just a laptop computer or personal digital assistant that is plugged into a tactical radio and equipped with a software upgrade.
In April, the Air Force's top general for Iraq and Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Walter Buchanan, praised the service's effort to find new ways to support troops on the ground.
Buchanan described the upgraded Global Hawk as an "Internet server in the sky."
The Air Force and Marine Corps, along with Global Hawk contractor Northrop Grumman tested the prototype system earlier this winter in Iraq.
Buchanan cautioned that a decision hadn't been made on whether the capability will become standard equipment on the Global Hawk.
Ed Walby, a former U-2 squadron commander now working for Northrop Grumman on the Global Hawk, said the quick availability of reconnaissance pictures will change how field units get their intelligence.
For instance, instead of sending helicopters to scout a town 20 miles away, commanders could download Global Hawk pictures, Walby said.
Northrop Grumman developed the new system called Advanced Information Architecture in response to the Air Force's drive to cut the time it takes to drop bombs and to get more information to aircrews and ground forces.
On the Global Hawk, the heart of the system is a computer server that has 1,500 gigabytes of storage capacity, the rough equivalent of 50 desktop computers.
As a Global Hawk flies over Iraq, all the photos and radar images are stored on the server. The onboard computer also remembers the ground coordinates of the locations it shot and when the images were taken.
When troops on the ground need to find out what is over the next hill or behind a row of buildings, they can contact the Global Hawk by using a portable computer or PDA plugged into a tactical radio.
Once troops have sent the coordinates they are interested in, the Global Hawk transmits a picture of that area in a burst of data that takes about 16 seconds to receive.
The troops on the ground can then zoom in on any part of the image by moving a pen over the area that interests them and telling the Global Hawk to send a more detailed image....
For the full text, please go to:
http://www.isrjournal.com/story.php?F=831734