Tactical Control System
The Tactical Control System (TCS) is a group of protocols that govern the command and control system for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).
History
Developed by Raytheon, around 1997, the Tactical Control System is designed to run UAVs in all branches of the US military. Also, under the NATO standardization policy 4586 the Tactical Control System are set to run UAV in all NATO countries too. Raytheon has developed its systems to run on Unix-based computers with the Solaris 8 operating system from Sun Microsystems. Raytheon has also has developed a Linux operating system too.
According to the winning Raytheon bid for the development of the TCS system, it will be able to:
- simultaneous control of multiple UAVs;
- compliance with NATO's Standardization Agreement 4586
- integration of plug and play payloads;
- the weaponization of the Fire Scout and Fire Scout operational evaluations.
Testing
Raytheon will undergo formal Operational Evaluation with Fire Scout in fiscal year of 2008. Until that time tests to determine the progress of the system's development are ungoing. So far there have been some positive results including:
- December, 2004 - Using a scaled down laptop version of TCS, the Multiple Vehicle Control System (MVCS), was as its name implies control two UAVs flying over Arizona st the same time. In addition to the two Arizona UAVs the MVCS was also able to simultaneously control an unmanned surface vessel operating on Chesapeake Bay near Norfolk, Va.
- January, 2005 - The TCS system was able to complete a vertical shipboard landing on a moving target (the US Navy ship USS Nashville), independent of any pilot. The first time this has ever been achieved.
- April 10, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company has
successfully simulated simultaneous command and control of two unmanned air vehicles (UAV) and an unmanned surface vehicle from a single common control system.