USAF Experiments with Drones to
Better Monitor Russia in the Arctic
Sept. 18, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley
NATIONAL HARBOR,
Md.—U.S. Air Forces in Europe is testing more uses for
drones to extend its Arctic surveillance, emphasizing that while sharing
information might be “the easiest and cheapest” option, it’s far from enough,
its leader said.
“We’ve been
experimenting with MQ-9s, with Global Hawks … trying to go up farther north in
the Arctic Circle, which we haven’t done in the past,” Gen. James B. Hecker,
commander of USAFE and NATO Allied Air Command, said at the AFA’s Air, Space
& Cyber Conference.
The MQ-9 Reaper,
dubbed the “hunter-killer,” provides medium-altitude surveillance with 27-hour endurance,
focusing on time-critical, high-value targets in permissive environments.
Meanwhile, the RQ-4 Global Hawk, a
high-altitude “deep look” ISR platform, complements satellites and manned
aircraft, staying airborne for up to 34 hours depending
on the mission payload.
Last month,
USAFE deployed the RQ-4 to RAF Fairford in the U.K. for the first time for
an undisclosed duration. The command noted that this deployment will include
operations through “international and Allied airspace.” NATO also currently
operates five RQ-4D Phoenix aircraft
from Sigonella Naval Air Station, Italy.
Hecker also
expressed interest in high-altitude balloons or experimental, solar-powered
drones as a way to improve domain awareness in the Arctic, a crucial region
where NATO and Russia frequently come into contact.
And it’s not
just USAFE that wants to expand the use of surveillance drones. Gen. Gregory M.
Guillot, head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, said earlier during
the conference that these drones as a potential
“gap filler” while the service works to procure over-the-horizon radars (OTHR).
He emphasized that the UAVs would need to be adapted for the Arctic’s unique
conditions to maintain endurance and altitude.
While MQ-9s and
RQ-4s can soar tens of thousands of feet above the ground, Hecker also said he
wants to boost low-altitude surveillance and defense. In particular, he
Ukraine’s cost-effective ISR
system known as “Sky Fortress,” a
smartphone-based network of acoustic sensors that detect drones by sound. These
sensors relay data to mobile teams, enabling them to shoot down UAVs with
minimal training.
“I had a
demonstration done at Ramstein where they brought up these sensors, put them
around the air base, and we saw that it worked,” Hecker told reporters during a
roundtable at the conference. “We did another demonstration in Romania, and
several other countries came and saw that it worked. … I briefed all the NATO
Air Chiefs on this and had the guys come in and brief the physicists. They’re
very excited about it. Now, we just need to have them pony up, get some money,
and try to put these sensors out there.”
At just a few
hundred dollars per sensor, it’s an affordable and highly effective system that
has already proven its value against Russian drones, Hecker said.
The urgency to
enhance ISR in the Arctic is fueled by an uptick in Russian aircraft activity
in the region, on top of Moscow’s increasing coordination with China. Other
Arctic nations like Norway—with a large portion of its territory inside the
Arctic Circle—are seeing it too.
“On average, per
year, we intercept Russians once or twice per week, and we see their ships all
the time,” said Maj. Gen. Øivind Gunnerud, Chief of Royal Norwegian Air Force.
“And since the climate is that harsh, search and rescue is also important.”
Sweden and
Finland—two Arctic neighbors close to Russia—also joined NATO recently, beefing
up the alliance’s presence.
“What we add is
changing the geography in the Arctic completely,” said Maj. Gen. Jonas Wikman,
Air Chief of the Swedish Air Force. “That means a huge thing that enables new
plans, and achieving true deterrence in the Arctic is going to be making use of
that new geography, combined with our strengths, making new plans, and
exercising those plans. Because true deterrence against Russia comes from demonstrating
that we are an alliance.”
With more
territory comes broader surveillance, and NATO is putting information sharing
at the forefront.
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