U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin Demonstrate First Live Control of an Uncrewed Air Vehicle by UMCS

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By Staff
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Lockheed Martin collaborated with the U.S. Navy and General Atomics (GA) in a first-ever live control flight demonstration of an uncrewed system by the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control Station (UMCS).

Powered by the Skunk Works MDCX autonomy platform, the UMCS controlled a GA MQ-20 Avenger uncrewed air system (UAS) as it completed a live fly mission. This demonstration is a pathfinder that helps to advance the complex technology necessary to enable crewed and uncrewed teaming as envisioned for programs such as CCA and others.

The flight test is a significant milestone in the development of UMCS, setting the stage for the Navy’s future unmanned aviation operations.

MDCX enabled the U.S. Navy Air Vehicle Pilots at Patuxent River, Maryland to control the MQ-20 during its flight in California.

The U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps are collaborating via a Tri-Service Memorandum of Understanding on critical sub-systems for CCA platforms. The Navy leads the U.S. Department of Defense in developing a common control architecture and ground control station (GCS) for these systems. This work is being done in collaboration with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, leveraging decades of operational experience delivering GCSs underpinned by the U.S. government’s Open Mission Systems architecture for third-party platform integration for optimal interoperability.

The Navy will refine UMCS’s requirements based on data from this demonstration and conduct further flight tests to advance command and control technologies, autonomy and crewed-uncrewed teaming.

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