Military AI Works

From AF Daily Report 26 Jan 09

Curtain Goes Up on Project Liberty: The Air Force plans to have the first of its newly acquired MC-12W intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance aircraft deployed to Southwest Asia by April, Brig. Gen. Blair Hansen, director of ISR capabilities on the Air Staff, told reporters in the Pentagon Friday. (Hansen's briefing slides) The concept for these manned, medium-altitude platforms—which are known as Liberty Project Aircraft—came out of the Office of the Secretary of Defense ISR task force last year as a means to quickly bolster the overhead ISR assets already in Afghanistan and Iraq and, in particular, to relieve the heavy burden being placed upon on MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles in the war theater. LPA will specifically address the warfighter's demand for greater full-motion-video and signals intelligence coverage. Planned is a fleet of 37 aircraft. The first seven are based on the King Air 350 model, and the remaining 30 airframes on the King Air 350 Extended Range variant. All 37 aircraft are expected to be in the Air Force's hands by year's end, Hansen said. There will be two operational squadrons of 15 aircraft each and seven assets used stateside for training. The first eight LPA are used airframes undergoing modification. The remainder will be new airframes. (For more on the ISR burden, read High Stress Numbers Game)

The briefing slides in PDF format.
http://www.airforce-magazine.com/SiteCo ... Hansen.pdf

I believe the RAF will also be getting these.

From AF Daily Report 28 APR 09

Joining Blue and Green: As manpower and resources pour into Afghanistan, Air Force and Army intelligence-gathering capabilities are also getting ramped up, with more cooperation expected in this area between airmen and soldiers there, says Col. Eric Holdaway, director of intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance for Air Forces Central. This will especially be the case with next month's arrival of MC-12W manned overhead surveillance aircraft and the processing and dissemination teams that will support them in theater, he told reporters April 23 during a teleconference. Included in the Army's ISR buildup is the much-bandied Task Force ODIN, which the land service used to counter improvised explosive devices in Iraq. While the Army's model is very effective for its purposes, the Air Force's ISR mission differs a bit and is broader, Holdaway said. "They've developed a very strong capability for working very closely with a brigade combat team . . . to work a specific problem" he said. Conversely, the Air Force's responsibility includes tactical reconnaissance support as well as expanded ISR support to the theater commanders, he explained. Still, "There's a very good complement between TF ODIN and what the air component brings to theater ISR," he said. (For more, read April 24's Daily Report entry The UAV Advantage) (For more on plans for the MC-12W, read Project Liberty Heads Downrange)

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/DRArch ... inMay.aspx

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/DRArch ... ntage.aspx

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/Featur ... range.aspx

From AF Daily Report 4 May 09

Mississippi ANG Gains MC-12W: The Air Force has turned over the first of its new Liberty Project Aircraft to the Mississippi Air National Guard's 186th Air Refueling Wing at Key Field in Meridian. The plan unveiled last fall will place seven of the intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance-modified Hawker Beechcraft aircraft with the 186th ARW, which is slated to lose its KC-135 tankers under BRAC 2005. The unit, which also has about a dozen years experience operating RC-26 counterdrug mission aircraft, temporarily will run an MC-12 mission qualification detachment. The Air Force plans to field the MC-12W manned ISR aircraft in Southwest Asia beginning this month and expects to have all 37 LPA aircraft in hand by year's end. Under Project Liberty, the service sought a readily available commercial aircraft that could be quickly modified for the ISR mission to help fill increasing requirements for battlefield intelligence.

From AF Daily Report 11 May 09

Air Force, Army Pumping C-12s into Theater: The Fiscal 2010 defense budget proposal reflects an increased investment in intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance assets, DOD Comptroller Robert Hale told reporters May 7. That includes the Air Force and Army plans to field versions of the modified Hawker Beechcraft aircraft designated C-12. The first of 37 Air Force Liberty Project MC-12Ws are headed into the US Central Command area of responsibility (AOR) this month. USAF expects to field all 37 this year, under buys initiated in 2008-09 budgets. The Army version, known as the Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (MARSS), has been used as part of Task Force ODIN (observe, detect, identify, and neutralize) effort in Iraq to counter improvised explosive device networks. The Army bought eight C-12s in 2008 and plans to purchase another six under the 2010 budget. Army officials told reporters May 7 that these six airframes, forming part of the Army's Aerial Common Sensor program, reflect the increased emphasis OSD is putting on the ISR mission in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Army budget officials would not comment on the similarity or compatibility with the Air Force's MC-12 aircraft, but said that there was "discussion" regarding the transfer of some MC-12 aircraft to the Army, said Lt. Gen. Edgar Stanton, the Army's military deputy for budget. The C-12 aircraft slated to operate in the CENTCOM AOR this spring will have full-motion video and signals intelligence capabilities.

From AF Daily Report 2 JUN 09

Give Me Liberty: The Air Force is several months behind schedule in incorporating MC-12W sensor aircraft into the fight in Southwest Asia, much to the frustration of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, USA Today reported May 31. The newspaper cites Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell as saying Gates is concerned that the delayed arrival of these aircraft in the war theater will mean that they are "out of synch" with the buildup of US troops in Afghanistan and the Taliban offenses expected in the summer season. The Air Forceis acquiring a total of 37 MC-12Ws under an accelerated acquisition program called Project Liberty conceived to boost overhead intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance coverage in Afghanistan and Iraq. The manned MC-12Ws will collect signals intelligence and provide streaming video to troops at the tactical level. While the first aircraft originally was expected to arrive in theater in mid April, the Air Force told Daily Report in April it planned to deploy the first one in May. According to USA Today, none has yet deployed, and the first MC-12W mission there is not expected until mid month. Integrating the sensor gear on the platforms is regarded as the main culprit.

VulcanDriver wrote:I believe the RAF will also be getting these.

Yep, 5(AC) Sqn are due to get two and we're calling it the Shadow R1

To me it is interesting that General Aviation Aircraft become warplanes. The Civil Air Patrol of course hunted subs in WWII and we also had L-3, L-4 and Auster's as liaison and spotters then. That role fell to the T-6 in Korea. In VN we had the O-1 and O-2 FACs as well as a Beech Elint bird in the Army electronic warfare game. I don't recall any in Desert Storm.
Brazil has the ERJ in a semi-AWACs mission. I am sure there are many more, just thinking off the top of my head. Just looking at those that were 'converted' and not purpose-built like the OV-1 and OV-10.