High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Platforms for Tactical Wireless Communications and Sensor Use in Military Operations

摘要

U,S military forces are transitioning to network centric operations, as described in Joint Vision 2010 and Joint Vision 2020. Warfighting elements will function as individual nodes in a global information grid with an end-to- end infrastructure that provides information on demand to warfighters, policy makers, and support personnel. This transition will place additional demands on wireless communications and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems. However, current and planned space-based communications solutions are costly and have significant shortfalls. Likewise, ISR systems will have difficulty fulfilling near real-time requirements and sensor-to-shooter roles.