Raytheon recently demonstrated its Common Ground Control System (CGCS) technology to representatives from the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence.

The demonstration showed an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) control station in a scenario representative of a Scavenger UAV mission, including simultaneous control of multiple dissimilar vehicles, sensor command and control, and connectivity to external systems, among other capabilities.

Scavenger is a joint U.K. and French program operating under the Defence and Security Cooperation Treaty, which seeks to develop the next-generation medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

"Using Raytheon's CGCS, the U.K. and French governments would not be bound to a single prime or vendor, because the low level interfaces are all open with a software development kit provided for all development and integration needs central to the UAS core framework," said Mark Bigham, vice president of business development for Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems' Defense and Civil Mission Solutions product line.

"Open architectures provide government with the greatest ability to acquire the system capability and operational effectiveness it needs while reducing acquisition and sustainment costs."

In July, Raytheon received International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) approval from the U.S. State Department to demonstrate its CGCS to U.K. and French governments. The company is currently evaluating partnering opportunities as a common ground segment provider for Scavenger and related programs.

Raytheon's common systems share or reuse software or hardware components, using open, modular and separable architectures and interfaces that give the user control over the level of commonality required.

The CGCS architecture provides the flexibility to scale the ground station from headquarters cockpit workstations all the way down to handheld phone-size controllers, depending on the application. The CGCS architecture also allows UAS management functions to be distributed across the total enterprise, which has the potential of significantly reducing the manpower footprint.

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