L-3 Communications (New York, NY) announced on March 6 that the Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL), developed by L-3 Communication Systems-West (Salt Lake City, UT) has been successfully used for command and control of a US Army Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from an AH-64D Longbow Apache attack helicopter as part of the Hunter Killer Standoff Team (HKST) advanced-concept technology demonstration (ACTD), run by the Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) (Ft. Eustis, VA).

According to company spokeswoman Susan Opp, the demonstration of this capability was the result of a series of test flights, each over an hour long, conducted at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. The demonstration achieved Level IV UAV control, which means that the crew of the airborne manned aircraft handled the command and control of both the UAV and its sensor payload (for more on teaming manned and unmanned aircraft, see "The Robot's Got Your Back").

Video imagery from the Hunter was fed to the Apache at a range in excess of 65 km. This marks the first time in US Army history that a UAV and its sensors have been controlled from a helicopter via the Ku-band TCDL. Previous Army testing involving teaming manned and unmanned aircraft employed a datalink operating in the C band, which a lot of countries use for TV and other transmissions, but the Office of the Secretary of Defense has mandated use of the Ku band, Opp explained. The move to Ku band prevents possible interference by civilian C-band signals

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