Tactical Control System
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{{unreferenced, date=August 2018 The Tactical Control System (TCS) is a group of protocols that govern the command and control system for
unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
s (UAVs).


History

Developed by EG&G Technical Services and
Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...
, starting in 1999, the Tactical Control System is designed to run UAVs in all branches of the
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as well as
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
STANAG 4586 compliant UAVs. Raytheon developed the systems to run on
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s using a type of
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operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
called
Solaris 8 Solaris is a proprietary Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. After the Sun acquisition by Oracle in 2010, it was renamed Oracle Solaris. Solaris superseded the company's earlier SunOS in 1993, and became known for it ...
from
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...
. Raytheon also developed a system for the
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
operating system. According to the winning Raytheon bid for the development of the TCS system, it will feature: *Simultaneous control of multiple UAVs *Compliance with NATO's Standardization Agreement 4586 *Integration of plug and play payloads *Weaponization of the Fire Scout and Fire Scout operational evaluations


Testing

Raytheon was to undergo formal Operational Evaluation with Fire Scout in
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2008. Until then, tests to determine the progress of the system's development were ongoing. Positive results included: *December 2004 - A scaled down laptop version of TCS, the Multiple Vehicle Control System (MVCS), was able to control two UAVs flying over
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simultaneously. The MVCS was also able to simultaneously control an unmanned surface vessel operating on
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near
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. *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. This was the first time such a feat had ever been achieved. *April 10, 2006 - Raytheon Company successfully simulated simultaneous command and control of two unmanned air vehicles (
UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
) and an unmanned surface vehicle from one common control system.


External links


Navy article July 2006Raytheon wins contract
Unmanned aerial vehicles United States military aircraft