The federal government crew and its two prime trade companions led the trouble on the program’s System Take a look at and Integration Lab (STIL), the place Lockheed Martin’s GCS managed Boeing’s {Hardware}-in-the-Loop (HITL) air car for the primary time. The HITL makes use of plane {hardware} and software program to offer a sensible surrogate for the air car.
“This achievement is the results of weeks of preparation and dedication by extremely expert groups,” mentioned TJ Maday, MQ-25 labs and integration supervisor. “Bringing a number of methods collectively is rarely straightforward, however the joint authorities/trade crew, coming collectively, understanding issues and discovering options made this occasion profitable. We discovered how the system works as an entire and that early studying and discovery is vital to maintain this system shifting ahead.”
Maday mentioned the crew set a purpose to ship a fundamental command between the GCS and the HITL. As a way to meet that goal, Boeing and Lockheed Martin wanted to ship purposeful software program for the federal government to train the GCS, the HITL and the community elements permitting connectivity between the methods.
“The crew met the preliminary purpose forward of schedule and used the remaining time to train extra performance like sending taxi instructions,” Maday mentioned. “In addition they simulated a misplaced hyperlink that verified the right GCS show indicators, which is a important perform to make sure community connectivity between improvement environments.”
This fall the crew plans to simulate a whole flight utilizing the HTIL air car and also will show switching connections “hyperlinks” to the plane in addition to including different plane {hardware} and software program into the combo.
“It’s nice to see the mixed crew working side-by-side, studying and in the end demonstrating success,” mentioned Capt. Sam Messer, PMA-268 program supervisor. “That is how we get to IOC [Initial Operational Capability]—we combine, take a look at, and be taught early and at tempo.”
The MD-5 GCS is a part of the Unmanned Provider Aviation Mission Management System (UMCS), the system-of-systems required for MQ-25A command and management. UMCS additionally consists of provider and shore website infrastructure modifications, Navy produced ancillary tools, and integration with command, management, communications, computer systems and intelligence (C4I) methods.
MQ-25 would be the world’s first operational carrier-based unmanned plane to offer an aerial refueling functionality to the fleet.
