Cooperative Engagements and Levels of Interoperability (CELI) between Unmanned Aircraft Systems and the AH-64D Longbow

摘要

This study outlines efforts to look into some of the considerations for integrating UAS video into the Apache cockpit in order to support cooperative engagements between UAS and attack helicopters. In these cooperative engagements, the UAS initially detects the target. A tactical operations center then does coordination with pre-planned or dynamically re- tasked aviation assets to move to the target area and engage the target. As the UAS hands off the target, the ability to view the UAS video inside the Apache cockpit supports a faster and more reliable target acquisition with greater situation awareness of the target area. This study addresses concerns about the cognitive workload this additional video places on the pilots. It also addresses some of the factors associated with overall success of cooperative engagements. This second portion of the study included a deployment into Iraq and Afghanistan to do detailed stakeholder analysis and functional analysis in order to better understand cooperative engagements and the potential challenges they pose for all elements of this systems of systems integration.