Search, find, report and (maybe) strike! Weary of dependence on assets owned by the US services (and on their willingness to share information), the leading Euro-Nato nations are now taking action to develop and procure independent means of ground surveillance and battlefield management. Rather than aiming for Nato-wide equipment commonality, the watchword now is interoperability.

Summary

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Unmanned Flight

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Search, find, report and (maybe) strike! Weary of dependence on assets owned by the US services (and on their willingness to share information), the leading Euro-Nato nations are now taking action to develop and procure independent means of ground surveillance and battlefield management. Rather than aiming for Nato-wide equipment commonality, the watchword now is interoperability.

The sensor platform options under consideration include manned and unmanned systems, certainly to be used in a combination `system of systems', and probably to be associated with ground-based command and control facilities. Within the foreseeable future, manned sensor platforms may also be used to give precise guidance to comparatively `dumb' low-cost munitions, while some unmanned sensor platforms will have autonomous means to strike at ground targets or designate them for attack by weapons launched from other platforms. The ultimate aim is to cost-effectively engage both static and mobile targets by day or night, regardless of weather conditions, with minimal risk to aircrew and to civilians in the area. By the next decade, this task is expected to involve the use of directed-energy weapons, carried initially by manned aircraft and later (as laser and microwave devices are miniaturised) by UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).

AGS

Nato interest in Airborne Ground Surveillance (AGS) was sparked by the US Air Force's dramatically successful use of two Northrop Grumman E-8A Joint Stars (Surveillance Target Attack Radar System) development aircraft in the 1991 Gulf War. In 1992, Nato's Defence Planning Committee expressed a need for an Alliance (later Airborne) Ground Surveillance system. Defence ministers endorsed a recommendation from the Conference of National Armament Directors (Cnad) in 1995 for a "minimum essential owned and operated core capability, supplemented by interoperable national assets". The Nato Staff Requirem...

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