 General Atomics finishes key cockpit review for drone program Washington (UPI) Jun 20, 2017 - General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has finished its critical design review for the Advanced Cockpit Block 50 Ground Control Station for unmanned aerial vehicles. The announcement marks the completion of one of the key phases of testing before the system can be fielded to the U.S. Air Force, the company said. "Our Block 50 team is proud of the development effort that addressed more than 700 customer requirements covering all areas of GCS performance," David Alexander, president of Aircraft Systems at GA-AS, said in a press release. "The Block 50 GCS CDR marks the successful completion of requirements established by our Air Force customer." The Block 50 features input from Air Force pilots with the cockpit's Human-Machine Interface. The system is designed to minimize pilot workload. It features standard stick-and-throttle controls as in manned airplanes, and has all sensor, payload, weapons, and other systems on a single display. Synthetic video with 3D graphics and moving maps can be displayed on a separate touch screen. Under the current development contract, three GCS units have been produced for testing and evaluation. Four more featuring mobile shelter and permanent facility configurations are slated to be delivered. Flight testing with the MQ-9 Reaper UAV is expected to begin next year once integration and ground testing is completed.
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Leonardo has received a contract to provide services and develop logistical and control systems for NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance program, the company announced on Wednesday.
Leonardo has been chosen by the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Management Agency to develop and maintain key elements of the AGS. Leonardo is a member of the Northrop Grumman led consortium developing the NATO AGS Core System.
The contract includes the AGS Logistics Information System, Mission Operational Support systems and Transportable General Ground Stations. It provides for spare parts, maintenance, training and operational support for the systems.
ALIS is a centralized logistics database that will aid in planning and management of maintenance, repair, warehousing, and personnel management and training. across the AGS program. It will also be used to maintain the NATO AGS Core baseline for maintenance activities.
The MOS and TGGS main responsibility is to collect data, photographs and video from remotely piloted aircraft and deliver them for intelligence analysis along with command and control and other duties. Leonardo will provide a Wide Band Data Link for the two systems.
The NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance program is based out of Sigonella, Italy. The system will be acquired by 15 members of NATO during 2017 and 2018.
It includes five dedicated RQ-4 Global Hawk remotely-piloted aircraft. The Global Hawk will provide border, ground, and maritime surveillance to NATO for security, defense, counterterrorism and disaster relief coordination.
A network of ground stations will also collate and deliver for analysis data from a wide variety of intelligence gathering systems such as signals intercepts and national surveillance systems.
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