AAI UAS and Aurora Flight Sciences Integrate UGCS with Orion UAS and Centaur Optionally Piloted Aircraft

AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc.  company, and Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that the organizations have formed a strategic alliance to integrate AAI’s Universal Ground Control Station (UGCS) and other ground control technologies with Aurora’s Orion UAS and Centaur Optionally Piloted Aircraft (OPA). This pairing supports medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) missions of up to five days with the Orion UAS, as well as defense, first responder and scientific missions with the Centaur OPA. The UGCS is a NATO standardization agreement 4586-compliant command-and-control platform based on AAI UAS’ proven One System® architecture. It incorporates a digital Tactical Common Data Link for robust bandwidth and data security, and is designed to command and control multiple joint services UAS simultaneously. “Our Universal Ground Control Station lives up to its name with features for scalability, interoperability and commonality,” says Steven Reid, senior vice president and general manager of AAI UAS. “We currently provide command and control for numerous UAS including the General Atomics Gray Eagle® and the Northrop Grumman Hunter. Bringing this same proven capability to the Orion UAS enables this game-changing platform to integrate into the U.S. Army’s layered intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance [ISR] strategy, and continues […]
AAI UAS and Aurora Flight Sciences Integrate UGCS with Orion UAS and Centaur Optionally Piloted Aircraft