Non-GPS Relative Navigation for Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Refueling

The ability to refuel piloted aircraft in flight is considered a strategic military asset and has been a critical element of success in nearly every US and NATO military engagement of the jet age. Equally important going forward will be the ability to refuel remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) in flight. Current USAF RPAs rely on cruise at low speeds and small payloads to extend endurance to accomplish their missions without refueling. But future RPAs will need speed and larger payloads, therefore decreasing endurance and creating greater operational need for these future RPAs to be equipped with automated aerial refueling (AAR) technology. Despite the many challenges of automating aerial refueling, AAR has been successfully demonstrated with the X-47B AAR program and previously with AFRL AAR flight test demonstrations. However, while successful, these AAR technologies depend largely on Global Positioning System (GPS) as the primary signal for relative navigation. GPS has proven to be extremely vulnerable to deliberate and inadvertent jamming, spoofing, and other effects. To break the dependence on GPS, CTSi proposes a multi-band, multi-sensor system capable of providing a robust, high reliability, safe positioning capability for AAR using independent sensors that are available at all times in all environments.