Finmeccanica’s DRS Technologies yesterday said it successfully completed the Army’s Critical Design Review (CDR) for the Mojave program, also known as the Target Location Designation System (TLDS).
The successful CDR means that DRS now moves the program to contractor and government testing, meaning the company is closer to providing precision targeting capability to forward observers in all battlefield environments.
The DRS Mojave/TLDS system is expected to revolutionize Army field artillery operations by reducing the size of current systems that make it difficult to conduct rapid target engagement when immediate strikes are needed, the company said in a statement.
The Mojave/TLDS is designed to give forward observers the ability to acquire, target, and request fire in austere environments with precision strikes without the need for mensuration. The introduction of quick and consistent precision grids can give maneuver commanders greater discretion when engaging targets. It can reduce the time to get artillery rounds on target, as well as the amount of rounds needed for target destruction. The added precision in turn can reduce fratricide and collateral damage.
DRS recently hosted the Program Manager-Soldier Precision Targeting Devices (PM-SPTD), Training and Doctrine Command Capabilities Manager Fires Cells, and other members of the government customer community at its Dallas, Texas facility for the design review.
The DRS Mojave/TLDS program utilizes employees at their Dallas, Texas and Melbourne, Fla., sites to execute the engineering and manufacturing development process and production for the high priority Army program.
“DRS employees at both facilities were crucial in the successful completion of this major milestone and the team is actively working towards testing the current production model of the Mojave system as they move into the next phase of the program,” said Shawn Black, vice president and general manager, DRS Network Computing and Imaging Systems. “Our suppliers on the program were also key to the team’s success by building sample hardware while conducting early tests to demonstrate the significant technologies of the Mojave design,” Black said.
DRS has been working with PM-SPTD for more than four years developing and understanding required technologies to fill the Army’s gap for precision targeting. By investing in Mojave/TLDS from the early stages of this program in 2008, DRS Technologies has been able to facilitate the evolution of the system from the TLDS I through to the current engineering and manufacturing development process, ultimately transitioning the system to production and fielding in 2016.