Joint Airspace Command and Control: A Net-Centric Approach to Safely Integrating UAS
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are on the rise in the skies over today's battlefield. Their use, once isolated to surveillance and reconnaissance, has expanded to air interdiction, targeting, communications relay, base and convoy security, and even close air support. Unfortunately, the services have not planned well for this expansion of roles and numbers of platforms in the congested airspace over the battlefield. Traditional means of separating traffic, using airspace control measures, do not optimize use of the limited airspace, and are not sufficient to preclude mid-air collisions. The services are proposing several technology-driven initiatives to increase situation awareness for battlefield commanders, UAS operators, and TAGS airspace management personnel. This paper looks at three: the Army's Battle Command Network/Air Defense and Airspace Management initiatives in its Future Combat Systems BCT (FBCT); the Tactical UAV Coordinator Workstation (a UAV Battlelab / Army Space and Missile Command joint effort); and the AFRL Joint Airspace Management and Deconfliction (JASMAD) program. All three of these efforts use new technologies to allow better interoperability between A2C2 and TAGS, enabling quicker airspace deconfliction for more responsive UAS taskings and safer interoperability with manned assets and ground fires. This paper proposes ways to use and improve upon these three efforts. Their use in the present command and control structure can be optimized to promote centralized control and decentralized execution. This paper satisfies research requests proposed by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force on UAS deconfliction, as well as the Institute for National Security Studies in two areas: UAS proliferation in the battlespace, and the growing number of service-specific UAS.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Customer Reviews
ThriftBooks® and the ThriftBooks® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
