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The prime has conducted a flight test to demonstrate the capability of its new remotely-operated mission system.
Airbus has successfully completed a flight test campaign featuring a new capability for the C295 Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS) — referred to as COMMOMISS — remotely operated by ground-based crews.
The campaign included four flights and involved the use of an Airbus C295 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft, equipped with a Collins avionics package.
The aircraft conducted standard maritime patrol operations, with all sensors controlled in near real-time by a mission operator based at a ground station at Airbus’ site in Getafe, Spain.
According to Airbus, sensor control was successfully handed over to the ground control station, with different surveillance tasks, including electro-optical/infra-red (EO/IR) pointing control and radar management, performed by the ground crew using the installed Ka-band SATCOM.
The aerospace company claimed that the ground operator’s situational awareness was complete, sharing the same set of tools and apps available in the onboard FITS workstations, transforming the COMMOMISS ground station into an effective additional operator’s node.
COMMOMISS is expected to provide users with the following capabilities:
- additional operator’s nodes in the Mission Support Centre on the ground, providing operational flexibility in long and complex missions, sharing tasks between airborne and ground tactical crew members;
- integration with the operator’s C2 network, contributing to the generation of the Common Operational Picture;
- immediate access to all data gathered by onboard sensors for real time analysis with almost unlimited resources available on the ground; and
- the possibility to reduce the number of operators (and thus workstations) on board in persistent surveillance missions.
“COMMOMISS will pave the future of airborne tactical mission systems, allowing a harmonised mission system architecture, human-machine interface (HMI) and concept of operations (CONOPS) for both, manned and unmanned air vehicles, as well as fixed-wing and rotatory wing aircraft,” Airbus added.
“It supports a seamless integration into the overall system-of-systems, providing global situational awareness to operators and contributing to the generation of the Common Operational Picture (COP) in the context of ISR missions.”
[Related: Airbus awards contract to Northrop Grumman for OneSat project]
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