An MQ-1C Gray Eagle Maintainer (15M) and an Army Field Service Representative (FSR) worked together to perform a diagnosis on a Common Sensor Payload (CSP) through a portable workstation last month at Fort Bliss, Texas.
The diagnostics inspection was part of a series of wellness checks led by the Product Manager Office Aerial Enhanced Radar, Optics, and Sensors (PM AEROS) and Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) – Crane Division teams. Over a period of 86 days, the AEROS team visited all 11 CONUS-based Gray Eagle Companies, including a company stationed in Alaska, to garner feedback from the units on the status of their CSP readiness and any challenges the unit has experienced.
The CSP is an Electro-Optical/Infrared/Laser Designator (EO/IR/LD) payload that provides a robust, advanced state-of-the-art sensor suite to collect critical information for Air-Ground Maneuver Teams. The CSP provides the Maneuver Commander with vastly improved persistent situational awareness of the battlespace as compared to what was previously available. It provides an increase in survivability for the Gray Eagle, near real-time imagery for detection and classification of targets/threats and supports Force Application, Operational Awareness, Force Protection, and Net-Centric operations.
The CSP is comprised of two Line Replaceable Units (LRUs), the Turret Unit (TU) and the Electronic Unit (EU), and during the wellness check, the team performed operational checks on a total of 125 TUs and 119 EUs. While the majority of the TUs and EUs were found to be Fully Mission Capable, the AEROS team was able to repair many of the Non-Mission Capable and Partially Mission-Capable units during their visits.