Drone Video Boosts Apache Capabilities

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Apache helicopters are already the beasts of the sky. They are powerful, ominous, and incredibly deadly. The US Army wasn’t content with that and has now made them considerably cooler. Crews on the Apache attack helicopters can now view real-time video feeds from nearby drones to increase their effectiveness.

Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) gives the Apache crews the “ability to control the flight path and sensor payload of Army Shadow and Gray Eagle drones,” UAS Vision reports. Army officials extol the virtues of MUM-T, saying that the combination of the helicopter’s lethality and the drones’ sensors allow crews to perform their missions more effectively, to seek out and go after targets from greater distances.

MUM-T has been productively employed in Afghanistan by the 1-229th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, proving the usefulness of the technology.

“They have full situational awareness on that target as they fly inbound and do not lose any data on that target on the way,” said Apache Program Manager Col Jeff Hager. “They don’t go into a situation where they are surprised.”

Real-time Electro-Optical/Infrared video feeds from drones, for example, increase their ability to more effectively detect trucks, pick out concealed insurgents, and destroy groups of enemy fighters on the move.

“Now before the unit even deploys out of the Forward Arming Refueling Point, or FARP, they can actually bring up the UAS (unmanned aerial system) feed, look through the sensors and see the target they are going to attack up to 50 or 60 miles away,” Hager said.

MUM-T in essence provides crews with an extra pair of eyes, greater capability, and additional protection.