Big Guns Find Targets Thanks to Little Drones

When the U.S. battleship Wisconsin began pounding a marina on the Kuwaiti coast, its first 1,900-pound shells landed wide of the target. But infrared pictures from a small aircraft circling the beach allowed the battleship’s gunners to adjust their aim.

The correction proved devastating. When the 30-round barrage from the Wisconsin’s thundering 16-inch guns ended, the water was littered with the remains of 15 boats that Iraq could have used for raids against the Saudi coastline.

The episode last Thursday night was a graphic demonstration of the tactical effectiveness of remote piloted vehicles, or RPVs, in the Persian Gulf War. These small, unmanned aircraft--they resemble oversize model planes--broadcast live video pictures back to shipboard fire-control officers, who can then pinpoint targets and adjust aim almost instantly.

“To be able to hit a target, you have to be able to know within reason where the target is,” said Capt. David S. Bill, the Wisconsin’s commanding officer. “With our RPVs and our dominance in the air, we pretty much know exactly where our targets are, and we can spot our rounds precisely.”

RPVs also are being used by Marines for aerial patrols along the Saudi-Kuwaiti border. They search for troop and vehicle movements and relay the information to land-based artillery gunners or their counterparts aboard the Wisconsin and the other U.S. battleship in the gulf, the Missouri.

For instance, last Friday morning the Wisconsin fired 36 rounds directed by RPV to pin down and confuse Iraqi troops in Kuwait during a Marine attack.

The computer-enhanced cameras aboard these electronic eyes in the sky are so precise that clear images of individual troops 2,000 feet below can be transmitted 100 miles. An RPV technician on the Wisconsin describes watching a couple holding hands on the deck of the hospital ship Mercy.

At night, the camera’s infrared capacity relies on heat given off by gun barrels, engines and even a soldier’s body. The infrared camera can also detect camouflaged positions through patterns of heat from hidden vehicles and the camouflage itself.

And basically anything that falls within the cross-hairs of the RPV’s camera can be blown up by the Wisconsin’s 16-inch guns, the biggest in the U.S. arsenal, or by Marine artillery.

In many ways, the RPVs are superior to the manned reconnaissance planes that they are gradually replacing. Because it is so small, the RPV is rarely noticed by anyone on the ground. And although sophisticated radar can pick it up, many radar systems are programmed to treat something so small and slow as a bird or another object.

RPVs also can fly over targets deemed too dangerous or heavily defended for piloted aircraft.

“We can take greater risks because there is not a human life in there,” said Lt. Cmdr. Randal S. McDonald of Harlingen, Tex., the officer in charge of RPVs aboard the Wisconsin.

It’s the Navy and Marines who use RPVs, not the Air Force.

“They (the Air Force) are against unmanned aircraft,” said Donald J. Aiton, a field engineer with AIA, the Baltimore company that manufactures the Navy’s RPVs. “They have to keep those pilots employed.”

The Navy and Air Force, however, are cooperating on a joint project to develop a new generation of unpiloted aircraft.

Since before World War I, naval operations have relied on reconnaissance aircraft. But the RPV did not gain widespread public and military recognition until June, 1982, when Israel employed them against Syrian forces.

Israel, which has some of the most advanced reconnaissance capabilities in the world, had developed its own system of remote piloted vehicles. As a prelude to its invasion of Lebanon that June, Israel sent RPVs flying over Syrian missile positions. The aircraft provoked Syrian fire and confused its radar, allowing Israel to locate and knock out Syria’s entire anti-aircraft system before launching its air attack with piloted fighters.

The value of such reconnaissance craft was underlined again in 1983, that time by their absence. The U.S. battleship New Jersey fired its 16-inch guns repeatedly at targets on the far side of Lebanon’s coastal mountains. The shells landed where they were aimed, but they were often aimed at the wrong place. Heavy antiaircraft fire had kept manned spotter aircraft grounded and the ship had no RPVs.

Partly as a result of that experience, the Navy has since equipped its battleships with RPVs--at a cost of about $1 million each. But they are far cheaper than a $30-million jet fighter and, as the Wisconsin’s McDonald pointed out, no RPV has ever been taken prisoner.

The five RPVs aboard the Wisconsin look something like model airplanes on steroids. The battleship-gray bodies are about the size of snowmobiles, and they use two-stroke engines similar to those of snowmobiles. But these “snowmobiles” have wingspans of 17 feet and twin-rudder tails.

It also is the smallest Stealth aircraft. The RPVs are made of composite materials to improve their ability to evade enemy radar. The only element that reflects radar beams is the small engine, which is why RPVs are often ignored as too small to bother with.

Beneath the gray composite skin is the electronic heart of the aircraft, a $400,000 video camera that transmits images back to the ship and a multichannel telemetry system.

The Navy’s satellite-based navigation system means both the ship and the RPV know their exact positions on the Earth’s surface. In a simple trigonometry exercise, the altitude, heading and viewing angle of the RPV camera are combined by shipboard computers to produce the exact grid location of anything the camera sees. That location is then correlated with the ship’s position.

If shots are off track, as they were initially in the Wisconsin’s attack on the marina last Thursday, the shipboard camera operator touches the proper location on the black-and-white monitor screen with a light pencil. The computer responds by calculating the distance and direction the guns must shift to hit the target.

Although unmanned, the RPV has two “pilots.” An external pilot launches the aircraft from the fantail at the rear of the Wisconsin, and an interior pilot sits at a console inside the battleship directing its flight through dials and joy sticks similar to those used in video games.

To launch an RPV from its trailer, Aviation Technician Douglas Paratore of Laurel, Md., stands on the deck of the Wisconsin holding a joy stick. Powered by a bottle of liquid fuel that will fall off at a higher altitude, the aircraft attains a speed of 65 m.p.h. in about 1 1/2 seconds. Paratore uses the stick to stabilize the rocketing RPV and then hands off control to the interior pilot.

At the interior console, Aviation Technician 2nd Class Daniel Nichols of Rochester, N.Y., has most of the instruments that are available on a full-size aircraft: altimeter, artificial horizon, airspeed indicator, compass and a range of computer-displayed information about the plane’s engine, batteries and electronics.

He moves his joy stick and turns his dials to direct the RPV over potential targets, loitering above certain sites or patrolling pre-assigned areas.

Along with targeting, the Wisconsin’s RPVs monitor shipping in the gulf as part of the naval blockade.

One day last month, Nichols sent his RPV in a slow pass 2,500 feet above a ship about 40 miles from the Wisconsin. The ship’s name stood out in white letters on the screen, the Yorge, registered in Panama. As the RPV’s camera swept across the deck, it verified that there was no trace of guns or mine-laying equipment.

Landing the RPVs is tricky business. Paratore climbs a 16-inch gun turret with a large net erected in front of him. He must guide the plane’s nose into the net’s “sweet spot,” which is about 36 inches square.

“It’s a controlled crash and it’s hard” to accomplish, he said, “because you’re trying to land something flying 70 m.p.h., flying straight at yourself.”

When the plane hits the net, its propeller snaps off automatically. Sometimes other parts are damaged, and the RPV bodies become battered. But Paratore has never lost an airplane, even in heavy crosswinds at night.

This story was partially compiled from pool reports reviewed by military censors.

EYES IN THE SKY

Remote piloted vehicles--small unmanned aircraft carrying video cameras--are helping artillery crews hit targets with pinpoint accuracy. Here’s a look at the Pioneer, which is seeing duty aboard the Wisconsin: * SIZE: Wingspan of 17 feet, made of composite material. Size and construction make it nearly impossible to detect on radar.

* PAYLOAD: Carries a $400,000 video camera that can take highly detailed pictures from 2,000 feet and transmit them 100 miles away.

* NAVIGATION: The RPV’s position is sent to the shipboard computer. Based on that information, the shipboard artillery can aim exactly at whatever the RPV “sees.”

* NIGHT VISION: The camera’s infrared capacity can pick up troops on the ground and vehicles hidden behind camouflage.

* LAUNCHING AND CONTROL: The drone is catapulted into the air. While airborne, it runs on liquid fuel and is piloted by a shipboard technician with a joystick.

* LANDING: Guided into a net at 70 m.p.h.

* COST: $1 million each.

Source: Jane’s Battlefield Surveillance Systems Los Angeles Times