Marines refine tactics for unmanned aircraft.

The Marine Corps' Dragon Eye is now a veteran of the military's young unmanned aircraft fleet. Lessons from the battlefield are driving the second generation of these machines, including integrating them with ground assets, teaming them in pairs and improving their sensor capabilities.

The Marines also are planning on adding another unmanned aircraft to the inventory. Officials cite a "gap" between long- and short-range vehicles currently employed, said Maj. John Giscard, head of the aviation combat element branch of the Marine Corps' Warfighting Lab. The new craft will be used at the regimental level and will be "fully autonomous from launch to recovery," he said at a recent industry conference on unmanned vehicles.

Even though the Corps is now just "defining the requirements," he did give a sketch of the new craft's capabilities. Initially, engineers would design a land-based system, which would then be converted for launch and recovery at sea. The sensor package would include an infrared targeting system that would allow multiple parties to confirm the location of an object of attention. For fuel, only a diesel-powered system would likely be purchased, he said.

The Dragon Eye is a five-pound, hand-launched aircraft with a 45-inch wingspan, it has flown extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Marines liked the aircraft, but returned to the lab from battle with requirements it lacked.

High on that list, said Capt. Renee Matthews, unmanned aerial vehicle project manager at the Marine Warfighting Lab, is the ability for the camera to zoom in on targets. "Right now the imagery you get is very stable," she said. "But when you zoom, you need to stabilize."

Also necessary was a longer battery life, and an option for recharging the energy source. Analysis from Iraq showed that more training was needed at the command level, and that there was a need for remote data terminals for battalion combat operation centers.

To gain longer ranges and endurance, the Dragon Eye itself may change. In one version, the X-63, the wingspan will lengthen from 43 inches to 63 inches, which would give it greater endurance and better landing accuracy. Directing a landing is especially important when launched from a rooftop, Giscard pointed out.

One idea that comes directly from the urban battles of Iraq is pairing Dragon Eyes over hot spots. A second aircraft could have a different sensor suite, or simply serve as a communications relay to increase range and reduce the limiting effect of buildings.

Deconfliction issues between various services' unmanned units also are becoming a growing problem. "With more and more of these deployed on the battlefield," Giscard said, "This problem is only going to get worse."

The tendency for unmanned aerial vehicles to trip each other up involves more than collisions. Matthews said that the Army's unmanned Raven aircraft shares a channel with the Dragon Eye. It often overpowers the smaller Marine craft's single watt signal. "We've had multiple UAVs operating in the same five-mile area, and they interfered with each other," she said. "This has led to some losses."

The solution lies in doctrine, not technology, she added. Better organizing and coordinating unmanned units in the battle space, as done in Iraq, helps alleviate the problem.

The most serious danger is flying in poor conditions. In Iraq since March 2004, 22 of the air vehicles have been lost and only five were taken down by small arms fire. "The vast majority of losses were due to operator error," Matthew said. The Dragon Eyes fly using waypoints, as opposed to an operator's joystick, and those errors were caused by decisions to fly in high wind and poor weather conditions.

The Dragon Eye small unit remote scouting system, consisting of three aircraft and a ground control station, costs $130,000. New versions may be deployed by 2006.

Among the longer-term advances pursued by Marines is integrating other unmanned systems into one control station, which could be worn, hands-free, by Marines. The family of systems controlled by the single station would include static sensors guarding a perimeter, the airborne Dragon Eye and the newly designed unmanned ground unit, Dragon Runner.

Dragon Runner is a throwable four-wheeled robot. At 15.5 inches long, 11.25 inches wide and five inches high, Dragon Runner features an invertible suspension, so Marines can toss the 'bot through windows, up stairs or over walls without worry. It was designed by Carnegie Mellon University, in conjunction with the Marine Corps' Warfighting Lab.