Northrop Grumman demonstrates new capabilities in mission management and control systems

Northrop Grumman Corporation successfully demonstrated mission management control features that create more unmanned aircraft system (UAS) versatility and efficiencies. During a series of high-altitude, long-endurance RQ-4 Global Hawk demonstrations, the UAS seamlessly responded to external requests to dynamically alter its route of flight and sensor functionality, thereby breaking the one-user to one-vehicle paradigm.

"Northrop Grumman's Control Mission Management System [CMMS] team is proud to contribute to the standardization of command and control (C2) systems for multiple UAS," said Michael Leahy, program director, CMMS, Northrop Grumman. "Our customers' advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance requirements call for modern ground control systems based on emerging standards that can be used across air vehicle platforms – that's what we strive to deliver."

The demonstration verified that Global Hawk is capable of integrating advanced mission management capability without changes to the air vehicle software.

This demonstration supported the broader objectives of the U.S. Air Force's Common Mission Control Center (CMCC) program. The Global Hawk interfaced to the CMCC using the UAS C2 Initiative (UCI) message set, which is an emerging standard that enables interoperability across multiple weapon systems.

By demonstrating the ability to interface with this new message standard, Northrop Grumman again illustrated the growth potential of the Global Hawk system and the flexibility to support emerging concepts of operation.