TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif., July 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Marine Corps has completed live-fire exercises using Northrop Grumman's On-Demand Intelligence System for the first time.
The Heterogeneous Airborne Reconnaissance Team system simultaneously and autonomously managed two unmanned aircraft to track a moving target and enabled a live-fire strike and destruction.
"Just on the heels of our recent success at the Spiral 7 DARPA field exercise, this live-fire targeting demonstration gives us great insight into how to perfect this quick reaction capability for warfighters," said Scott Winship, vice president of advanced concepts-air and land systems at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.
"We are committed to providing warfighters with the most relevant capabilities packaged in a way for easy operation and use.
"The on-demand, real-time video, surveillance and reconnaissance information provided by HART put 'eyes' on threats to the mission."
Lockheed said that, during the exercise, control of two Raven unmanned aircraft was passed from a traditional operator to the HART system operated by a warfighter in the field. The warfighter submitted a service request for a Raven to locate the target for a potential strike.
The Raven orbited the target while the warfighter pulled geo-registered coordinates of the target and passed those through HART to the mortar battery, which launched a strike on the target.
Mission completion was verified through video delivered by the Raven under HART control.
The HART system automates the acquisition and delivery of real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information from airborne ISR assets directly to the tactical warfighter, who submits service requests from a handheld computer. HART gathers service requests, prioritizes them in accordance with guidance from the combat commander and determines the best approach to acquiring and delivering the requested information.
Since its initial demonstration in 2005, HART has been integrated with the Raven, Wasp, Pointer, BatMav, C-12 ARMS/MARS, ScanEagle, Shadow, Bat and Hunter unmanned air systems.
