Northrop Grumman Flies Open Mission Systems Architecture on UAS
June 22, 2015 | Northrop GrummanEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Northrop Grumman Corporation successfully flew a new Open Mission Systems (OMS) architecture on a NASA Global Hawk, demonstrating the ability to rapidly and affordably adapt new capabilities onto unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The new architecture implementation flight took place at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base.
This flight confirmed the ability for ground operators to send OMS payload commands and receive OMS subsystem status responses over a Ku SATCOM Beyond-Line-Of-Sight (BLOS) communications link between the unmanned aircraft and an operations center.
A previously developed OMS Critical Abstraction Layer (CAL) was adapted to an OMS Open Computing Environment (OCE) onboard the NASA Global Hawk using a production RQ-4 Global Hawk airborne database computer.
The demonstration illustrates Northrop Grumman's ability to rapidly deploy OMS on production Global Hawk platforms. The architecture paves the way for integration of new payload options for Global Hawk to support mission flexibility and customer needs. In addition to flying on the NASA Global Hawk UAS, the OMS architecture will be adapted and demonstrated in-flight on a manned airborne weapons system later this month.
NASA Global Hawks are preproduction variants of RQ-4 Global Hawks currently in service around the world. With the ability to fly as high as 60,000 feet for over 30 hours, Global Hawks provide a combination of high altitude and long endurance performance capabilities that allow the science community to study scientific and environmental phenomena in-depth. Global Hawk variants have flown more than 150,000 flight hours in support of antiterrorism, antipiracy, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, airborne communications relay and information-sharing missions.
NASA and Northrop Grumman recently renewed a five-year Space Act Agreement that includes operation of the NASA Global Hawk system to conduct scientific experiments as well as technology implementations such as this OMS demonstration.
About Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems, cyber, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please click here for more information.
Suggested Items
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Sigma Engineering's Recycling and Regeneration Systems for PCB Etching
05/02/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOEvan Howard of Schmoll America interviews Kristoffer Bjorklund, Sigma Engineering's supply chain manager. We learn about Sigma's recycling and regeneration systems for PCB industry etching and the benefits and challenges of implementing these systems in existing factories.
QinetiQ Achieves UK’s First Jet-to-Jet Teaming Between Aircraft and Autonomous Drone
04/29/2024 | QinetiQQinetiQ has successfully trialled the UK’s first Crewed-Uncrewed-Teaming demonstration between a crewed aircraft and an autonomous jet drone.
Lockheed Martin Successfully Transitions Long Range Discrimination Radar To The Missile Defense Agency
04/23/2024 | Lockheed MartinThe Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) at Clear Space Force Station in Clear, Alaska, completed DD250 final acceptance and was officially handed over to the Missile Defense Agency in preparation for an Operational Capability Baseline (OCB) decision and final transition to the Warfighter. In addition, prior to this transition, the system has started Space Domain Awareness data collects for the United States Space Force.
Real Time with... IPC APEX EXPO 2024: AI Implementation at Omron
04/18/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOEditor Nolan Johnson and Omron Product Manager Nick Fieldhouse discuss the company's focus on AI implementation to enhance customer experience and results. They address programming challenges and how AI can help customers achieve better outcomes with less experience. Omron's AI is compatible with existing systems, facilitating easy upgrades.
Cadence Unveils Palladium Z3 and Protium X3 Systems
04/18/2024 | Cadence Design SystemsThe Palladium Z3 and Protium X3 systems offer increased capacity, and scale from job sizes of 16 million gates up to 48 billion gates, so the largest SoCs can be tested as a whole rather than just partial models, ensuring proper functionality and performance.