The Office of Naval Research has developed software that can be shared across the range of unmanned aerial vehicles in an effort the organization believes will save money and streamline training.
The Unmanned Aerial System Control Segment (UCS) software for the Common Control System has recently been successfully tested during a dry run on the ground and will be used in a test flight with a UAV later this year, said Wayne Perras of ONR’s C4ISR rapid prototype and experiments program.
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| The Air Force’s Global Hawk. Photo: Northrop Grumman |
The software allows program managers to acquire it from a Pentagon database and avoids the costs associated with developing system specific and proprietary software, Perras said.
“Clearly the benefit is there if the government and program managers don’t have to go out and buy a proprietary system,” Perras said in an interview this week.
UCS can be used on any UAV, from large scale ones like Northrop Grumman’s [NOC] Global Hawk to small hand-launched systems such as AeroVironment’s [AVAV] Raven. The baseline software is designed with an open interface to allow it to function with the UAVs and operate across the military services, Perras said. ONR developed the software with Phoenix-based Kutta Technologies.
ONR said in a release announcing the completion of the software that with the Pentagon’s spending boom over the last decade on UAVs, the UCS software will help save money by avoiding the software provided by defense contractors that is proprietary and built to only operate a single system.
“They are all uniquely controlled by proprietary software created by numerous vendors, and the data they provide is sent out in unique formats, making it very difficult to control various systems with one master control or sift through all of the information being transmitted,” ONR said.
“Getting rid of custom-built components and systems will simplify the systems themselves, as well as purchasing and training processes, thereby reducing costs,” ONR said.
ONR chief Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder said the common software will be the way of the future for UAVs.
“Some day in the near future you’ll have a Sailor controlling an Air Force unit’s unmanned system, or an Airman sitting at a desk controlling a naval unmanned system or a Marine controlling an Army platform,” he said in the release.
The plan is to store all of the data gathered by UAVs in a cloud computing environment that can be easily access and navigated across the military services, enabling faster information gathering.
ONR is working with the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic and Tactical Systems, Naval Air Systems Command, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Program Executive Office (PEO) Integrated Warfare Systems and PEO Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons on the software.