The Air For
ce Research Lab tested the Arcturus T-16 unmanned aerial vehicle May 7 during the Northern Edge 2008 exercise at the Pacific Alaska Range Complex to gauge its ability to autonomously track ground targets and provide real-time imagery that can be used for targeting. “We’ve done complete tracking of target vehicles where the aircraft is controlled by the tracking algorithm [and] we don’t have to do any man-in-the-loop intervention,” said Capt. Samuel Hart, AFRL’s unmanned services program manager. “We tell it to track the vehicle and it auto-tracks and follows it around corners, turns, behind trees, and things like that,” he added. Arcturus-UAV is a company based in Rohnert Park, Calif., about 50 miles north of San Francisco. The T-16 can carry electro-optical and infrared cameras as well as communications payloads, Red Jenson, the company’s chief pilot, told the Daily Report. Carrying a 10-pound payload, the T-16 can fly around 16 hours. It could also carry mini munitions, such as the Spike missile that the Navy has been developing. Arcturus’s approach is to provide “straightforward good flying platforms” that are modular and highly adaptable, Jensen said. The company’s UAVs are in use with research labs across the services, he said. (Includes Eielson report by USMC Sgt. Rocky Smith)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.