Scientists with the Air Force Research Laboratory and researchers with Northrop Grumman have demonstrated technology that will allow warfighters to request and receive surveillance information via a handheld device while engaged in urban conflict. AFRL demonstrated the Heterogeneous Urban RSTA Team (HURT) system, which comprises a command and control center (HC3) that automatically determines what RSTA (reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition) unmanned aerial vehicles can provide real-time information tailored to a specific field request. “The HURT system was able to simultaneously control four small UAVs and provide streaming video through the HC3 back to a hand-held warfighter interface,” said AFRL’s William Koenig.
To counter Chinese ambitions, the U.S. Space Force must start work now to put Guardians in orbit and on the moon in the decades to come, according to a new paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.