By Ann Roosevelt
A Northrop Grumman [NOC] land navigation system has been competitively selected for the $10.7 million Phase II work by General Dynamics [GD] Robotic Systems (GDRS) as part of the robotic vehicle brains for the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.
The company will supply the Global Positioning System (GPS)/Inertial Navigation System (INS), which is a major component of the Autonomous Navigation System (ANS).
GDRS is responsible for the design, development, manufacture, integration, and testing of the ANS for FCS. The company has been developing autonomous mobility technology for many years.
ANS can autonomously control Army-designated vehicles, such as the Multi-Functional Utility Logistics Equipment (MULE) platform, produced for FCS by Lockheed Martin [LMT], the Armed Reconnaissance Vehicle, produced by BAE Systems and the FCS Manned Ground Vehicles, being produced by a team led by General Dynamics and BAE.
ANS provides the navigational, perception, path-planning, vehicle-following algorithms and the on-board sensor package needed for autonomous mobility, functionality and leader/follower operation by FCS vehicles.
The navigation system will also provide pointing and stabilization information for a variety of sensor platforms integrated into the FCS vehicles.
Phase I work was done by Honeywell [HON], which also competed for the Phase II work.
Northrop Grumman’s land navigation solution for ANS includes the fiber-optic gyro LN-270 PLANS(tm) land navigation system, Ethernet connectivity, two GPS antennas, an embedded selective availability/anti-spoofing module GPS and an anti-jam unit.
Northrop Grumman was awarded a system development and demonstration contract for nine LN-270 units and was also awarded a future limited rate initial production contract by GDRS. If orders for an additional 261 units are placed, the contract could reach $36 million, the company said. Each ANS-equipped vehicle will use one or more LN-270 units. The first LN-270 unit would be delivered in fourth quarter of 2009.
“Any application that requires highly accurate navigation, pointing or dependable stabilization can benefit from the LN-270, including long range surveillance systems and all types of electro-optical/infrared sensors,” Gorik Hossepian, vice president of navigation and positioning systems for Northrop Grumman’s Navigation Systems Division, said.
The LN-270 benefits from 15 years of production fiber-optic gyro experience. It is a highly reliable navigation system with an average time between failures of over 20,000 hours. It has low life cycle costs because it requires no scheduled maintenance during its rated lifetime. The LN-270 is currently in production and it is in the Army inventory.
FCS consists of 14 manned and unmanned systems, linked to each other and the soldier by a network to significantly enhance the Army’s effectiveness and maneuverability. Boeing [BA] and SAIC [SAI] manage the program for the Army.