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Combat Search and Rescue helicopterUSJFCOM ACTD to improve personnel recovery operations

One of U.S. Joint Forces Command's Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations will help finding downed pilots and stranded servicemembers behind enemy lines.


By Army Sgt. Jon Cupp
USJFCOM Public Affairs

(NORFOLK, Va. - Oct. 18, 2004) One of U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) capabilities helped save the life of a stranded hill climber on a remote glacier in Alaska.

Six pararescue jumpers from the Alaska Air National Guard's 210th Rescue Squadron located and rescued the climber thanks to the capabilities inherent in a USJFCOM ACTD that improves personnel recovery operations.

Command and control techniques associated with the Personnel Recovery Extraction and Survivability aided by Smart Sensors (PRESS) ACTD and technology such as the PRESS's Global Personnel Recovery System (GPRS) linked pararescuers to the rescue helicopter and a rescue coordination center.

According to Marine Corps Maj. Paul Voss, operational manager for the PRESS ACTD, the capability greatly increased the rescuers chances of finding the lost hiker who was rushed to a hospital and survived the traumatic ordeal.

In an effort to react quickly to incidents such as this where personnel recovery operations and isolated service members often have low survivability rates, USJFCOM researchers, evaluators and developers working with the PRESS ACTD seek to improve combat search and rescue (CSAR) operations.

ACTDs like PRESS provide new and transformational operational capabilities designed to benefit the joint warfighter.

"The PRESS ACTD is really a system of systems that is going to take the search out of search and rescue," said Voss. "Isolated personnel could be located and identified within seconds, vice hours."

Some of the goals of the PRESS ACTD include improving survivor/evader location and identification, enhancing a joint task force commander's and CSAR elements' situational awareness, improving the survivor/evader's ability to evade capture and survive until rescued and to improve the survivability of extraction forces such as helicopters sent in to pull out isolated personnel.

When a downed pilot or service member, such as a soldier on the ground, finds themselves isolated in enemy territory and are equipped with the PRESS's GPRS, they turn the radio on and the GPRS network interface card attached to the radio sends a data transfer to the Joint Search and Rescue Center (JSRC) and to a helicopter recovery platform.

A Global Positioning Satellite system sends the location and identification of the survivor/evader within seconds to the JSRC and recovery platform.

"The GPRS provides two-way, near real time, over the horizon digital communications between the survivor, a helicopter and the common operational picture (COP)," said Voss. "We'll know pretty much where they are, and who they are as soon as they press the button. We can communicate with them while they're on the ground via data and radio, and we've got more intel than they do so we can tell them when and where to move, find out what their situation is like-are they mobile, do they have broken legs?"

"The survivor can communicate with us and tell us what they see around them," added Voss. "The decision-maker that's monitoring this will make a decision deciding whether we can launch a helicopter or send in a crew to get (the isolated person) based on all available up-to-date information and what's going on in the area."

The helicopter, the JSRC and the isolated person are all in the same loop communicating for better situational awareness to keep the isolated person out of harms way, according to Voss.

A major factor in the success of the PRESS ACTD concerns speed, according to Voss.

"This really cuts down on the decision-making process accelerating the speed within which the forces can react and go get that person, they don't have to hunt to find them,"
said Voss. "In any recovery situation, time is of the essence, and the sooner we can recover someone, the more chances of survival both he and the helicopter has."

During the military utility assessments, which are part of the ACTD process, evaluators from USJFCOM along with the Air Force Operational Test Evaluation Center acting as an independent evaluator worked to evaluate PRESS in the recent exercise, Northern Edge.

"When we did the exercise, every service to include the Coast Guard participated in the demonstration," said Voss. "This has to be a joint capability."

"In Northern Edge, PRESS worked wonderfully because we had prototypes that we gave to the "mock" survivors and we did the complete GPRS architecture that includes three components-the survivor, the helicopter and the common operational picture. All three were able to link and it was wonderful."

Voss said he was pleased with the amount of positive feedback PRESS has received from joint warfighters. "How could you not enjoy something that helps you save lives by taking the guess work out of rescuing someone?"

Voss said he foresees many applications for PRESS technology in the future to possibly include GPRS devices sewn into clothing or attached to dog tags and the capability could be used not only to save the lives of service members on the ground but also those who become lost at sea.

"What we're doing with GPRS now is just the tip of the iceberg," said Voss. "Just look at what we've done with global positioning satellite technology in a few short years and how it started with very basic capabilities. I don't have a crystal ball but I do think bigger and better things are coming."

The capability may also one day be adapted for civilian use, according to Voss.

"There will be a civilian side for this technology once it's done," he said. "Boaters on the ocean can use it, hikers can have it as well as Boy Scouts among others."

Naval Sea Systems Command evaluated PRESS and several other joint capabilities in a technical demonstration in Silent Hammer, a Navy experiment last week in San Diego, Calif.

The PRESS capability began as an ACTD in 2001 and may transition to an initial operating capability by fiscal year 2006.

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