Navy surveys industry for expertise in designing unmanned vehicle common control station technology

Researchers at the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NavAir) at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are surveying industry for companies able to design and build a common control station for all unmanned vehicles operating on the ground, at sea, and in the air. This common control system (CCS) should be able to perform vehicle command and control, payload command and control, mission planning, and data dissemination across all domains -- land, sea, undersea, and air.

NavAir officials released a request for information last week (RFI N00019-10-P7-ZD307) for the Common Control System (CCS) for Unmanned Systems Capabilities program to learn more about industry research, technologies, and existing programs that could support several different unmanned systems.

Researchers say they are leaving their specifications broad deliberately to ensure a comprehensive market survey, and those responding should describe potential end-to-end common control system solutions, including physical attributes, theory of operation, key hardware and software components, performance, capabilities, as well as the technology's tolerance to the electromagnetic signals commonly found on Navy surface ships and submarines.