- Reaction score
- 63
- Points
- 530
This is a going to save lives and an indication that the situation in Iraq is winding down.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/web_defense_121508_army_ODIN/
Army sends ODIN to Afghanistan
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 15, 2008 14:14:17 EST
An Army task force that used unmanned aerial vehicles and unconventional aircraft to find and kill thousands of roadside-bomb emplacers in Iraq is being set up in Afghanistan, service officers said.
“We are in the process of adapting the task force to Afghanistan because the terrain and combat environment there is very different from Iraq,” said an Army officer familiar with the task force.
Created at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2006 and sent to Iraq later that year, Task Force ODIN — short for observe-detect-identify-neutralize — worked under the 1st Infantry Division in Tikrit. Its roughly 100 soldiers used UAVs, 10 modified C-12 surveillance planes and ground communication stations to kill more than 3,000 bomb-planters and capture several hundred more, Army officials said.
Updated versions are called Task Force ODIN II.
Last year, Gen. Richard Cody, then the Army’s vice chief of staff, called ODIN a “one-of-a-kind, proof-of-principle outfit. We are moving UAVs to Afghanistan to the aviation brigade to replicate the same capabilities that we have learned from ODIN.”
Task Force ODIN hits bombers with their Apache helicopters’ 30mm chain gun and Hellfire missiles, including a new P variant that can adjust course more than previous models.
“We had 10 Hellfires to work with, and out of the 10, we had 10 successful engagements. We did one with [a missile that turned 80 degrees after launch to hit its target], the first time that has happened,” said Capt. Eric McKinney, who commanded Warrior Company in Task Force ODIN II. He spoke Dec. 9 at the 2008 Army UAS Symposium in Arlington, Va.
The Hellfire IIP missile has a new inertial guidance unit that allows it to look for a laser spot in a 180-degree arc, much wider than the 40-degree arc of earlier Hellfires, a senior Army civilian said.
Laser-guided Hellfires are programmed to fly to a point in space; they are given a direct, high or low trajectory before they begin looking for the laser energy.
“The P model is for higher-altitude engagement and is specially designed for line-of-sight and look-down angles, which allow the seeker head on the missile to see the target spot on the ground better,” munitions officer Lee Tutin said several months ago.
And when a new P variant arrives in the next 12 months, it will be able to find a spot anywhere around it, allowing a Hellfire-armed UAV to destroy a target it has already flown by.
“It will give an unmanned aerial vehicle a 360-degree engagement envelope around the aircraft. The missile will be able to fly behind the aircraft and engage a target behind it,” said an Army program manager familiar with the Hellfire program.
ODIN generally begins its work in the air, high enough for sensor-laden C-12s and UAVs equipped with electro-optical/infrared cameras to remain undetected from the ground.
“Without these technologies, we might never see [the insurgents], because they often plant [improvised explosive devices] at night,” a senior Army official said. “With manned-unmanned teaming, Apache pilots are on alert while the UAVs find targets. It is crucial to remain undetected, because as soon as you show yourself, [insurgents] take off and get lost in the urban terrain. Now, we track them, follow them, and quietly process targets.”
The images are broadcast to One System Remote Video Transceivers on the ground or in command-and-control aircraft. Built on a laptop computer and a multiband radio receiver, the 20-pound OSRVT can receive video feeds from several kinds of UAVs at the same time.
Using a technique called forensic backtracking, operators compare the incoming images with earlier ones from the site, looking for tiny differences that may indicate the work of bomb-makers. When they spot a crew in action, they can call up a nearby Apache and guide it to the target or alert nearby troops for defensive or offensive action.
“The power of ODIN is not just a platform. It is a battle command network which distributes horizontally down to convoys, and down to battalions and companies with a man-in-the-loop,” Cody said. “The UAV operator sits next to the battalion commander, knowing what the battalion commander wants and looking on that screen. We are building as many as we can as fast as we can.”
The 2007 supplemental provided $5.5 million to maintain the C-12s.
ODIN has been refined and improved while operating in theater, Army officers said.
“We trained in country and we did laser validation. We trained an integrated Hellfire into our progression,” McKinney said. “The Hellfires were never on our pad, so we had to set up infrastructure for how we were going to store and transport them.
“Also, one of our big challenges was the [rules of engagement], because at times we had civilians doing our takeoff and landing,” he added.
“If we knew we were going to take out a target, it changed things. We had to come up with” tactics, techniques and procedures.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/web_defense_121508_army_ODIN/
Army sends ODIN to Afghanistan
By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 15, 2008 14:14:17 EST
An Army task force that used unmanned aerial vehicles and unconventional aircraft to find and kill thousands of roadside-bomb emplacers in Iraq is being set up in Afghanistan, service officers said.
“We are in the process of adapting the task force to Afghanistan because the terrain and combat environment there is very different from Iraq,” said an Army officer familiar with the task force.
Created at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2006 and sent to Iraq later that year, Task Force ODIN — short for observe-detect-identify-neutralize — worked under the 1st Infantry Division in Tikrit. Its roughly 100 soldiers used UAVs, 10 modified C-12 surveillance planes and ground communication stations to kill more than 3,000 bomb-planters and capture several hundred more, Army officials said.
Updated versions are called Task Force ODIN II.
Last year, Gen. Richard Cody, then the Army’s vice chief of staff, called ODIN a “one-of-a-kind, proof-of-principle outfit. We are moving UAVs to Afghanistan to the aviation brigade to replicate the same capabilities that we have learned from ODIN.”
Task Force ODIN hits bombers with their Apache helicopters’ 30mm chain gun and Hellfire missiles, including a new P variant that can adjust course more than previous models.
“We had 10 Hellfires to work with, and out of the 10, we had 10 successful engagements. We did one with [a missile that turned 80 degrees after launch to hit its target], the first time that has happened,” said Capt. Eric McKinney, who commanded Warrior Company in Task Force ODIN II. He spoke Dec. 9 at the 2008 Army UAS Symposium in Arlington, Va.
The Hellfire IIP missile has a new inertial guidance unit that allows it to look for a laser spot in a 180-degree arc, much wider than the 40-degree arc of earlier Hellfires, a senior Army civilian said.
Laser-guided Hellfires are programmed to fly to a point in space; they are given a direct, high or low trajectory before they begin looking for the laser energy.
“The P model is for higher-altitude engagement and is specially designed for line-of-sight and look-down angles, which allow the seeker head on the missile to see the target spot on the ground better,” munitions officer Lee Tutin said several months ago.
And when a new P variant arrives in the next 12 months, it will be able to find a spot anywhere around it, allowing a Hellfire-armed UAV to destroy a target it has already flown by.
“It will give an unmanned aerial vehicle a 360-degree engagement envelope around the aircraft. The missile will be able to fly behind the aircraft and engage a target behind it,” said an Army program manager familiar with the Hellfire program.
ODIN generally begins its work in the air, high enough for sensor-laden C-12s and UAVs equipped with electro-optical/infrared cameras to remain undetected from the ground.
“Without these technologies, we might never see [the insurgents], because they often plant [improvised explosive devices] at night,” a senior Army official said. “With manned-unmanned teaming, Apache pilots are on alert while the UAVs find targets. It is crucial to remain undetected, because as soon as you show yourself, [insurgents] take off and get lost in the urban terrain. Now, we track them, follow them, and quietly process targets.”
The images are broadcast to One System Remote Video Transceivers on the ground or in command-and-control aircraft. Built on a laptop computer and a multiband radio receiver, the 20-pound OSRVT can receive video feeds from several kinds of UAVs at the same time.
Using a technique called forensic backtracking, operators compare the incoming images with earlier ones from the site, looking for tiny differences that may indicate the work of bomb-makers. When they spot a crew in action, they can call up a nearby Apache and guide it to the target or alert nearby troops for defensive or offensive action.
“The power of ODIN is not just a platform. It is a battle command network which distributes horizontally down to convoys, and down to battalions and companies with a man-in-the-loop,” Cody said. “The UAV operator sits next to the battalion commander, knowing what the battalion commander wants and looking on that screen. We are building as many as we can as fast as we can.”
The 2007 supplemental provided $5.5 million to maintain the C-12s.
ODIN has been refined and improved while operating in theater, Army officers said.
“We trained in country and we did laser validation. We trained an integrated Hellfire into our progression,” McKinney said. “The Hellfires were never on our pad, so we had to set up infrastructure for how we were going to store and transport them.
“Also, one of our big challenges was the [rules of engagement], because at times we had civilians doing our takeoff and landing,” he added.
“If we knew we were going to take out a target, it changed things. We had to come up with” tactics, techniques and procedures.
