Textron System’s operating unit, AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has announced that it has successfully completed the Manned Unmanned System Integration Capability (MUSIC) exercise by the US Army for the year 2011.
The aim of the MUSIC exercise is to demonstrate the novelty, interoperability and integrity of the manned and unmanned assets of the US Army by performing handing over, commanding and controlling sequences within manifold ground control systems.
AAI’s Universal Ground Control Station (UGCS) was the core of the exercise and provided control and command of the Hunter UAS from Northrop Grumman, Gray Eagle from General Atomics and the Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (TUAS) from AAI. The UGCS, which is compliant with the requirements of the NATO Standardization Agreement 4586, was able to hand over control from one UAS to the other seamlessly. The UGCS also displayed high levels of data security, bandwidth and transmission of data as it uses the Tactical Common Data Link.
The MUSIC exercise also demonstrated how dismounted troops can receive and control video and positioning details from the Army UAS by using the above mentioned UAS and additional UAS such as the Puma Unmanned aircraft and the Raven from AeroVironment, and the One System Remote Video Terminal (OSRVT) from AAI UAS. The company has made its OSRVT commercially available under the name Tactical Sensor Intelligence Sharing System. Teams of engineers, flight crew members and maintenance officials from AAI UAS provided live support to the Army by tuning and integrating the operating systems during the course of the demonstration.