“Cold and wet” is given in the meteorological data for March 27, 2000 in Kosovo. Quite an unpleasant day, but not for the soldiers of Drone Battery 13 from Stadtallendorf, whose pleasure it is to carry out the maiden flight of a UAV system in mission territory. 100 more will follow in the next two months – the beginning of an unusual and extraordinarily successful armament project: LUNA X-2000. Today, seven years and 3,772 flights later, this UAV system is classed as the major element in airborne reconnaissance in all mission areas far beyond national borders.

LUNA A Success Story

ll forces involved in intelligence and reconnaissance gather and record information and news worldwide, assess this and pass it

on depending on the situation, task relevance and requirements to the intelligence and reconnaissance agency. This includes among other things the early warning of troops in service about imminent threats. In doing so, the reconnaissance and intelligence agency contributes to military safety and fulfils a protective function for the Bundeswehr. Part of this agency is the LUNA system: Airborne, unmanned, short-range reconnaissance equipment. LUNA originates

from an initiative of the tank reconnaissance team of 1990. The international call for proposals carried out in November 1995 led to the presentation of eight suggested solutions by well-known systems companies. By the end of 1997, a contract was awarded to EMT, a small firm from Penzberg and a complete newcomer to the drone business. The catalogue of requirements included the following important objectives:

Lt.-Col. Frank Wasgindt is consultant in the executive staff of the German Army in the BMVg (German Ministry Of Defense).

Swift implementation In May of 1998, LUNA X-2000 flew for the first time publicly at the ILA in Berlin. Parallel to that the CL-298 had already been in use by the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Kosovo since 1998. The results achieved indicated the high degree of significance of detailed reconnaissance findings for peace support operations. The importance of airborne unmanned reconnaissance increased substantially. LUNA X-2000 was to be implemented as reconnaissance support in Kosovo as quickly as possible. Just four and a half years after proposal, the experimental X-2000 model was deployed in the target country. A unique feat of pioneering for such a complex system! During the NATO winter exercise "Strong Resolve" in Trondheim, Norway, in March 2002, gathering experience in the combined application of UAV with other

ground force units, helicopters and strike aircraft was one of the many aims. LUNA X-2000 was the only UAV system present, and was directly integrated into the reconnaissance network with a mobile point-to-point radio system, which provided an important contribution to the location of camps in difficult terrain and under tough wintry conditions. The performance of the newly developed drive unit carburetor heating and the wing-mounted camera for observing wing icing was convincing.

The Norwegian officer in charge described the LUNA mission as impressive and extremely successful.

The System In the final functional specification for the system, the requirements were specified in more detail. The result is basically today's LUNA system.

Landing damage can be reduced by the net landing procedure

• Discovery, recognition, identification and location of individual wheeled and track vehicles both during the day or night as well as in adverse weather conditions

• Acquisition of real-time video images, application of conventional commercially available components, as far as possible

• Take-off weight of approx. 20 kg,

• Mission range of at least 10km,

• Easy operation - fully automatic flight guidance,

• Operation by two persons without flying knowledge/training and

• Integration/transport in a hatch box or an armoured scout car.

The UAV has a wingspan of 4.17 m, a length of 2.36 m and a take-off weight of less than 40 kg. It is propelled by a double-cylinder two-stroke engine which can reach speeds between 35 and 140 km/h. It is also approved for flying at heights of up to 4 000 m NN and can stay in the air for more than three hours. It is equipped with a color video CCD camera (charge coupled device) for the pilot's vision as well as four downward

viewing color video cameras. An option to install a thermographic camera is also available. The flight path is generally pre-programmed, but the pilot can intervene in the flight course at any time and change it. The system has a type II aircraft certificate for flights above sparsely populated areas, is launched by means of a bungee catapult and can be landed via parachute.

New landing procedure Experience in landing the LUNA device during use in difficult terrain produced new challenges for the system at an early stage:

• Increased occurrence of landing damages to the device due to the condition of the ground,

• Difficult and time-consuming recovery of the device caused by the landing location being difficult to access and at the same time by not knowing whether the area is mined or not.

These factors led to the development of a netting technique, whereby the device could be flown into a stretched out 20 x 12.5 net and caught. Landing damages were clearly reduced in this way, but the construction of the netting system (which was made possible by the use of Bundeswehr telecommunication systems) is very time-consuming and requires a large workforce. At the same time it was also difficult to react to changing wind directions quickly with such a static and inflexible construction. The necessary flexibility was the decisive factor for a mobile net-landing system on a protected carrier vehicle being developed. The principle is a crane jib at the end of which the net is spread out using a cross member. Assembly only takes around 10 minutes now – less than a quarter of the time that it used to take. At the same time it is possible to flexibly adjust the net within an angle range of around 200° according to the wind direction. The implementation of the first net-landing system is still planned for 2007.

Real-time reconnaissance essential The army's need for drone reconnaissance is stronger than that of the other military divisions; not only for identifying static elements, but also especially for recognizing movements on the battlefield. This is what makes real-time reconnaissance so essential.

In turn, this has mainly meant video reconnaissance characterized by image resolution to television standards (approx. 0.4 million pixels) up to now. These video image streams with object resolutions of approx. 15 cm are very well adapted to the taking and processing ability of image evaluators, given that the device is at a height of 300 m above ground and is not flying faster than 70 km/h. In this case, objects remain in the evaluator's field of vision for at least five seconds. This is the minimum amount of time required by a human observer for identification. With this knowledge, and with a background of new technical possibilities in the field of sensors, experiments are presently underway to determine how to create patchwork images using mosaic image methods (geographically coordinated merging of high-resolution individual images) allowing the evaluator enough time for viewing and analysis and also enabling automated evaluation processes.

LUNA take-off preparation

Here too, LUNA is being deployed as the prototype for realization, which should be completed by 2009 at the latest.

Alternating load sensor MiSAR An additional shortcoming, namely that of visual reconnaissance through clouds and in poor visibility conditions can be rectified in future with the alternating load sensor MiSAR. MiSAR is a miniaturized SAR sensor (synthetic aperture radar: image producing radar) with extremely low weight and volume, especially developed for application in smaller tactical UAVs. MiSAR delivers high-resolution radar images day or night. For the first time, fog, rain and snow can be penetrated by its millimeter-wave radar, thus creating full all-weather reconnaissance ability. Furthermore, MiSAR also offers an MTI mode (moving target indication) for detecting and tracking moving objects, for example, vehicles on the ground. Creation of a lot of the LUNA system with 7 sensors is planned for the end of 2009.

Limits of the system Despite all success, the geographical application conditions in Kosovo, but even more so in rugged and intersected Afghanistan, certainly present great challenges to airborne reconnaissance measures like LUNA and define its limits, since in these mountainous and foothill

regions the essential optical view required for making a data connection are often interrupted by elevations. Shaded areas are frequently the result. Necessary data links to the control unit of the device and the data transmission of the reconnaissance results to the ground-based station can therefore only be guaranteed in limited reconnaissance areas. The result is that absolutely necessary reconnaissance in valleys and on hillsides cannot be guaranteed. A quick long-range change of the LUNA reconnaissance areas is no longer possible. The ground-based monitoring station must often take up an exposed and dangerous position for optimization purposes, and at the same time the overflight altitude must

be increased to reliably ensure the virtual optical data connection. Again this leads to a reduction in reconnaissance performance due to the limits of the sensors. To solve this problem, the relay capability of the LUNA system was initiated at the end of 2006. The technical feasibility was basically already able to be proven in 2000. By the end of 2007, this will enable reconnaissance forces to control a reconnaissance drone operating in deep valleys via a LUNA relay drone in the air.

LUNA relay drone

Flying in controlled airspace In the scope of a study intended to enable the future participation of UAVs in public air traffic, the integration of a Sense-&-Avoid sensor based on existing laser technology was successfully tested for the first time in the LUNA drone system. A demonstration flight was able to prove that after the independent detection of an airborne obstacle (captive balloon), this obstacle was automatically tracked by the sensor, and that after reaching a critical evasion time, the control units of the drone independently initiates an evasive maneuver. Ultimately it is to be proved that a UAV system can behave in the same way in civil airspace as a manned aircraft. In the next step, possibilities and procedures shall be developed to fulfill the prerequisites for participating in flights in controlled airspace (air traffic management). In collaboration with EMT, German flight security and BWB, the necessary simulations and practical test flights will be carried out in the coming months.

Improvement potential In addition to that, the following development-related challenges on UAVs are also internationally assessed as being technologically feasible for the near future:

• Integration of the variety of unmanned systems in a robust network,

• Increase of survival capability via signature reduction,

• Improvement of data route with regard to range,

• Use of SatCom for guidance of UAVs,

• Airborne fueling,

• Mixed deployment of manned and unmanned aircraft.

The improvement to the range of the LUNA system stated above was already proved to be technically feasible by the company EMT in 2004 and 2005. The company will deliver three LUNA systems to Pakistan in 2007, the technical construction standard is already clearly different to that of the German LUNA version. These improvements include:

• The increase of the telemetric range basically enables (i.e. always with the prerequisite of an existing line of sight) a range increase of approx. 80 km. In conjunction with an optimization of engine power, consumption and a larger tank volume, the maximum flight time is increased to up to five hours and hence also the operating time in the mission area

• Improvement to the resolution by means of exchanging the infrared sensor, as well as an additional zoom camera, enable a clearly higher flight altitude with the same imaging performance. The result of this is a lower probability that the UAV itself will be detected and a reduction of the danger of bombardment by small firearms. At the same overflight altitude, considerably increased detail fidelity is achieved, so that the aerial image evaluator can identify even smaller objects.

If the current capacity of the LUNA system is compared to the initial requirements of the tank reconnaissance force of 1990, it becomes clear that the existing system has achieved much more than the original requirements and that furthermore the potential of further development has not yet been exploited by far. The reasons which have led to the successful history of the LUNA X-2000 armament project are numerous:

• The miniaturization of electronics in the last 10 years has led to an enormous increase in performance per weight and volume unit. The LUNA weight class is currently in a position to provide sensor performance within the optical range for which an additional payload of 30-40 kg was once required.

• A consistent modular hardware and software concept enables fast and flexible usage of further developments without complex modification.

• The consistent use of highly-qualified COTS products enables a system efficiency and reliability which is without equal.

• Since March 2000, the LUNA system has been in service without interruption and has carried out over 2300 mission flights. This large number of mission flights produced valuable findings for constant system improvement. At the same time, the necessity of mission use enables the maintenance of the financial means to continually develop and adjust the project.

• The close and very constructive cooperation between the user (Army office and troops in service) and the supplier (BWB and manufacturers) enabled the reduction of development times.

• High innovative performance as well as reliability and flexibility of the manufacturer EMT.

The LUNA example illustrates how successful the further development of an armament project can be within a single decade. Therefore, even in the face of the constantly arising new challenges and tasks, it can be asserted that the Bundeswehr is excellently equipped with the LUNA system at present.

Principle of data transmission with a relay drone

Relay drone (A)

Recon. drone (B)