UAV Avionics: It’s All In The OS

X-45 and X-47 J-UCAS(click to view full) The September 2005 issue of Avionics Magazine has an excellent and informative article covering the $4-5 billion X-45/47 J-UCAS program, and the evolution of American UAVs. DID has covered the overall direction of that evolution, and noted DARPA’s Common Operating System (COS) project in conjunction with ongoing UCAS testing and the US military’s recent UAV reorganization. Now that COS software is moving to an Air Force/Navy joint program office, and the full set of requirements and implications is emerging. So, too, is a trend toward UAVs and their software as systems-of-systems efforts, rather than individual projects and aircraft. This DID article looks at the COS project in the context of the J-UCAS program and the missions it’s designed for, as well as leading practices re: disruptive technological innovations, in order to examine where the ambitious J-UCAS UAV program might be headed. Microsoft UAV 1.0 Avionics Magazine notes that COS would touch practically everything on the J-UCAS platform: command and control (C2), mission planning, human scontrol, route and stores management, and sensor, track and mission management. Not to mention the UAVs’ ability to communicate with one another to decide on targets, select which UAVs […]