USJFCOM
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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