By Geoff Fein
The Navy and Northrop Grumman [NOC] are working to develop, test and eventually integrate technologies onto both variants of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) that will enable mission module crews to operate multiple unmanned systems from a common control station.
The Program Executive Officer for Littoral and Mine Warfare (PEO LMW) has developed a common vehicle management system capable of handling multiple vehicles simultaneously. This system was originally developed and demonstrated by an advanced concept technology demonstration (ACTD) called the Joint Unmanned Command and Control System (JUSC2). That effort evolved into the Unmanned Vehicle Management System (UVMS), according to the LCS Mission Module Program Office.
UVMS is the software in the mission package computing environment (MPCE). MPCE is the command and control for the mission packages, Marc DeBlasio, Northrop Grumman LCS mission package integrator program manager, told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
In January 2006, Northrop Grumman was awarded a $159 million Navy contract as mission package integrator for LCS (Defense Daily, Jan. 9, 2006).
UVMS and MPCE work with the multi vehicle control system (MVCS). The radios that actually communicate with the unmanned systems are in the MVCS, he added.
The six 19-inch racks that make up the MPCE/MVCS are actually embedded inside LCS in the command and control common information center. “They are not in the containers,” he added.
“There are seven operator stations within the ship and they interface with the MPCE and MVCS, and that’s what controls the mission modules,” DeBlasio said.
For air control systems, PMA-263 (Small Tactical Unmanned Air Systems) developed and is employing the Tactical Control System as part of the Fire Scout Vertical Take-Off Unmanned Vehicle (VTUAV) Ground Control Station as the air vehicle control system. LCS has implemented the UVMS system as part of the MPCE to enable the capability to simultaneously monitor and manage air, surface and subsurface vehicles.
Because Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout is being developed by the Army and the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, it has its own ground control station and radios within the 19-inch racks of equipment, DeBlasio noted.
Under the current plan, UVMS controls two of the three unmanned systems: Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Remote Minehunting System (RMS) and an 11-meter rigid inflatable boat (RIB).
“This is leading edge. There is nothing I know about from a single platform that you are going to be controlling multiple unmanned vehicles, whether it is from a single command and control station or two or three,,” DeBlasio said. “But the goal is to eventually get it all under one command and control structure.”
One requirement of the LCS program is the ability to control four unmanned vehicles simultaneously. DeBlasio noted that doesn’t mean all by one person, but from the ship.
“The eventual goal, we are talking way down the line, is autonomy of these unmanned systems,” he added.
But controlling multiple unmanned systems poses a unique set of challenges.
“There are design considerations that if not carefully considered may become serious issues,” a Navy spokesman said. “Air and surface/subsurface systems employ different control systems and they handle vehicle control independently.”
Vehicles are assigned to a ground control station located on an LCS and cannot be controlled by another LCS unless an operator transfers the control of the vehicle to another LCS control station by following approved procedures. The problem was solved by developing and implementing the UVMS and the MVCS within the MPCE, the Navy spokesman said.
“The most significant challenges for operating multiple unmanned systems on LCS are the simultaneous multi-vehicle control, communications coordination and real-time monitoring of their operations during a mission,” the spokesman added. “Each LCS ship may employ various unmanned systems simultaneously depending on the mission package aboard and the mission to execute. The operational employment of the vehicles and sensors is planned centrally by the use of a mission package mission planner that assesses mission tasking and sensor system coverage prior to assigning vehicles/sensors for employment at different stages during a mission.”
Historically, each unmanned system has been operated by its own control system which requires dedicated operator(s) to manage unmanned platform maneuver and sensor operations, the spokesman said.
“Operating multiple unmanned vehicles requires an integrated unmanned systems mission management and control capability that enables a reduced number of operators to plan, implement and manage the operation of multiple unmanned systems and their payloads,” the Navy spokesman said. “LCS has addressed the challenges by implementing the UVMS and the MVCS to enable the control of multiple vehicles and their associated radio communications systems effectively.”
One of the big challenges facing both the Navy and Northrop Grumman is getting the different unmanned systems to communicate and operate from a single controller.
Because neither Lockheed Martin’s USS Freedom (LCS-1) nor General Dynamics‘ [GD] USS Independence (LCS-2) won’t be delivered until at least mid 2008, Northrop Grumman and the Navy have yet been able to conduct any onboard testing of the mission package components, DeBlasio said.
Software for the systems has been developed by different laboratories, DeBlasio added.
“We are involved in supporting the Navy with both the MPCE and MVCS. We are actually doing the build-up of those racks and acceptance testing of them,” he said.
Northrop Grumman is also writing all the procedures and will eventually have its own people install the components on the ships, DeBlasio said.
Currently, all work is being done at Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City, but there is a little of that work also being done on MVCS at Surface Combat Systems Center, Wallops Island, Va., because they are taking some legacy software from the Combat System Direction Activity, Dam Neck, Va, DeBlasio said.
“They are big on reuse. They don’t try to invent the wheel or something that exists already, so they were taking some software that already existed,” he added.
Right now the Navy is building the first six mission packages, two each for Mine Warfare (MIW), Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), and Surface Warfare (SuW) missions.
“We are assisting them in some of those common elements like the MPCE and MVCS,” DeBlasio said. “Eventually they will transition the production of those mission packages to Northrop Grumman.”
The first MIW mission package was delivered to the Navy in September. DeBlasio said the next mission package to be delivered should be for SuW.
One effort is to find common systems throughout the mission packages.
“One of the tasks we have is to look across the mission packages and come up with ways to make things more common,” DeBlasio said. “For instance, all three mission packages have Fire Scout and all three have a Fire Scout container. Those containers should be the same across all three [mission packages].”
How many of those Fire Scout containers can be shared across the mission packages, he questioned.
DeBlasio also noted there are some similarities with the MIW and ASW mission packages in that both have the same AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting System (RMS).
And the MPCE and the MVCS are common across the mission packages, with the exception of the software, he added.
There is also some discussion on future spirals of an airborne laser mine detection system (ALMDS) application for ASW and rapid airborne mine clearance system (RAMICS) for ASW, but DeBlasio pointed out that neither effort is a program of record.
Northrop Grumman makes both ALMDS and RAMICS.
Coming up with a single controller is a bit more challenging, the Navy said.
“Challenges may include the definition and adoption of standards by the unmanned vehicle producers and the systems integrators,” the Navy spokesman said. “The vehicle control and payload control is naturally different for each type of vehicle, but with the use of standards for vehicle control messages and payload control messages we are providing a common platform for a controller.”
LCS is addressing these issues with the implementation of a common unmanned vehicle control system design around a services oriented architecture, the spokesman added.
“Such a system enables the specific needs of individual unmanned system to be addressed as an application module within the overall common vehicle control framework,” he said. “The key is to enable the operator to focus on off board system overall mission performance rather than on the specific need for real time platform maneuver direction and sensor package monitoring.”
Blue and gold crews are currently training at NWSC Panama City. They have a lab with actual MPCE equipment and commercial work stations, DeBlasio said.
“They can get the look and feel of the displays and what they will be seeing. And they have the first MIW mission package which has all the containers and everything, so they have been trained on maintenance and repair of that equipment as well as some of the modules like RMS,” he added.