The US Navy recently finished installing the world’s first carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control room aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H W Bush (CVN 77), where air vehicle pilots (AVPs) will control the operations of the navy’s future MQ-25 Stingray aerial refuelling UAVs, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) announced on 15 August 2024.
The installation was a multi-year effort co-ordinated across multiple ship availability periods and the ship’s deployment schedule.
The CVN-based control room, known as the Unmanned Air Warfare Center (UAWC), includes software and hardware systems that make up the first fully operational and integrated Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System (UMCS) MD-5E ground control station (GCS). UMCS is the system-of-systems required to command and control the MQ-25 and is critical to unmanned aerial refuelling operations.
“CVN 77’s UAWC lays the foundation for how the US Navy will operate and control unmanned aircraft, and perhaps other unmanned vehicles, with UMCS,” Unmanned Carrier Aviation (PMA-268) Program Manager Captain Daniel Fucito was quoted as saying in a NAVAIR press release. “These systems will initially support the MQ-25 but also future unmanned systems such as Collaborative Combat Aircraft that comprise the Air Wing of the Future.”
The GCS, developed by the navy, includes Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works Multi Domain Combat System (MDCX), which is the the power behind the GCS, along with additional supporting equipment and hardware. The hardware installed in the racks and cockpits is the baseline for the production systems currently being fabricated for installation on CVNs 70, 71 and 76 from fiscal year 2025.
“The support we received from all the organisations was incredible,” said Gordon Carlon, acting PMA-268 UMCS CVN installation lead. “Our programme is accomplishing things on a much faster timeline than any other normal start-up programme.”
PMA-268’s UMCS team worked with multiple programme offices, system commands and shipyards to integrate the UAWC into existing networks and the carrier architecture. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Webster Outlying Field Alteration Installation Team, AirWorks, and Lockheed Martin assisted with the co-ordination and physical installation of the UAWC, while Naval Sea Systems Command, Norfolk Naval Shipyard and CVN 77 organised schedules, equipment and logistics.
Early next year, USS George H W Bush will lead the first at-sea testing of the UAWC’s operational networks, building on initial network testing with a simulated GCS that took place in January aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).
“This will be the first time the AVPs from Unmanned Carrier-Launched Multi-Role Squadron (VUQ) 10 will operate the MD-5 from an aircraft carrier. They will use the actual GCS hardware and software aboard CVN 77 to communicate with a simulated air vehicle in the lab in Pax River,” said Joe Nedeau, PMA-268 UMCS lead.
PMA-268 is the lead systems integrator for the MQ-25, working closely with its two prime industry partners, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to seamlessly integrate the MQ-25 into carrier operations, including deck handing, taxiing and launch and recovery.
