LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Aerial Common Sensor
built 644 days ago
The Aerial Common Sensor [ACS] program -- a corps-level system -- will be the replacement for the Crazy Horse, Guardrail Common Sensor and Airborne Reconnaissance Low, airborne intelligence, surveillance, and target acquisition systems. The Army plans to acquire 45 new aircraft at a cost of $2 billion on this new fleet of aerial surveillance and reconnaissance planes, to be fielded in 2006.
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The Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) offers one representative PEO IEW&S program. It is the Army's airborne ISR system and will replace the current RC-7 airborne reconnaissance low (ARL) and Guardrail common sensor (GRCS) programs. ACS will use the operational and technical legacies of the ARL and GRCS systems, along with technological improvements, to provide a single, effective and supportable multiple intelligence (multi-INT) system for the Army. The ACS will include a full multi-INT capability, including carrying signals intelligence (SIGINT) payloads, electro-optic and infrared sensors, radar payloads and hyperspectral sensors.
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The Aerial Common Sensor represents a logical migration path from the legacy systems. Combining the capabilities of GRCS and ARL into a single platform will give ground commanders an unprecedented ability to know and understand their battlespaces. The ACS design will include the internal ability to cross-cue sensors and conduct multisensor correlation, thereby providing immediate con- firming information.
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Aerial Common Sensor aircraft are intended to be equipped with state-of-the-art sensors to detect enemy communications, radar and troop movements. Its most significant enhancement over current systems resides in its use of high-speed data communications networks that link together not only each aircraft’s sensors but ... other ACS aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and ground stations.
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There are four Guardrail/Common Sensor systems fielded. One GR/CS system is authorized per aerial exploitation battalion in the military intelligence brigade at each corps. A standard system consists of six to twelve RC-12 aircraft that fly operational missions in sets of two or three. Ground processing is conducted in the integrated IPF. Current Guardrail capabilities will be merged with those of the Airborne Reconnaissance Low and evolve into the next generation airborne system, the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) program, which will begin fielding in 2009 and complete fielding in 2016.
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In this post, from MarketWatch, “GAO looked at 20 aircraft and satellite weapons programs like Space Radar, Aerial Common Sensor and a group of new surveillance drones. Nearly all of these projects have experienced cost growth, schedule delays or both. This has forced DoD to cancel or restructure new technology, while relying on “unplanned investments” to keep older systems in the air, GAO said.”
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Aerial Common Sensor