美国陆军官员已与通用原子公司达成协议，为其MQ-1C“灰鹰”无人机系统（UAS）机队升级电子情报（ELINT）能力。通用原子公司在4月15日的一份声明中表示，这项于4月15日宣布的ELINT升级协议将支持MQ-1C的远程感测需求，作为陆军综合防空系统（IADS）的赋能工具。
一旦完全集成到MQ-1C机队的延程型（ER）变体中，升级后的ELINT传感器平台将使陆军无人机能够在威胁范围之外运行，同时深入观察战场，并实现先进的有人-无人机协同，从而提高有人驾驶陆军飞机的生存能力。该公司指出，除了支持陆军主导的IADS作战外，升级后的传感器还有助于“灰鹰”无人机在更远距离探测敌方综合防空系统。
在“聚合项目-顶石5”（PCC-5）演习期间，“灰鹰”ER变体在电子对抗环境中执行了持久的探测、识别、定位和报告（DILR）任务。它同时向机动部队提供网状网络空中层级支持，并将士兵与发射效应器连接起来，而这些连接在以往可能会受到地形阻挡或因超出范围而中断。
An MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAS at Camp Taji, Iraq, before a surveillance mission in the Baghdad area. (US Army)
US Army officials have reached a deal with General Atomics to upgrade the electronic intelligence (ELINT) capabilities for the service's fleet of MQ-1C Grey Eagle unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
The ELINT upgrade deal, announced on 15 April, will support long-range UAS sensing requirements for the MQ-1C as an enabler to the army's Integrated Air Defense System (IADS), General Atomics said in a 15 April statement.
Once fully integrated into the extended range (ER) variants of the MQ-1C fleet, the upgraded ELINT sensor platform is to enable army UAS “to operate outside threat ranges while looking deeply into the battlespace and enables advanced manned-unmanned teaming to increase survivability for crewed Army aircraft”, the company said.
Aside from supporting army-led IADS operations, the upgraded ELINT sensor is help Grey Eagle UAS detect “adversary IADS” at further ranges, the company noted.
The upgraded ELINT sensor enables detection and geo-location of “critical threats [against] joint force operations,” they added. To that end, the Gray Eagle ER played a prominent role in the most recent capstone exercise of the army's Project Convergence initiative.
During Project Convergence - Capstone 5 (PCC-5), Grey Eagle ER variants “performed persistent Detect, Identify, Locate, and Report (DILR) missions in an electronically contested environment, simultaneously providing mesh network aerial tier support to maneuver units and connecting the soldiers and launched effects that might otherwise be obstructed by terrain or be out of range”, according to the 15 April statement.
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