UNMANNED COMBAT AIR SYSTEMS

JOINT U.S., U.K. COLLABORATIVE PROGRAM ANNOUNCED FOR UNMANNED COMBAT AIR SYSTEMS

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD) today announced a collaborative program to determine the military benefit of Unmanned Combat Air Systems within future coalition operations.

The U.S. Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program and the U.K. MOD will jointly conduct experimentation in a real-time distributed simulation environment centered at the U.S. Air Force’s Simulation and Analysis Facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and integrated with assets in both countries. DARPA and the U.K. MOD’s Defence Science & Technology Laboratory, working in concert with U.S. and U.K. Service personnel, will develop appropriate coalition concepts of operation, assess interoperability issues/risks and determine measures of effectiveness in addition to developing and managing the simulation environment.

The program will culminate in an effectiveness demonstration involving live and virtual manned and unmanned assets from both nations operating in a networked coalition warfare scenario. The information generated by this unique collaboration will be limited to the military benefits and interoperability of U.S. and U.K. unmanned combat air vehicle concepts, which will aid both nations in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of these vehicles as components of a future coalition offensive air capability. The program began in December 2004 and is scheduled to conclude in July 2009. -END

The J-UCAS program is a joint Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Air Force/U.S. Navy effort to demonstrate the technical feasibility, military utility, and the operational value of a networked system of high-performance, weaponized, unmanned air vehicles to effectively and affordably execute combat missions. The J-UCAS Common Operating System will allow unmanned aircraft systems to intraoperate with each other and with the Global Information Grid. The J-UCAS system-of-systems concept plans to demonstrate the military utility and the operational value of airpower in the 21st century combat environment. More information on the J-UCAS program can be found at at darpa.mil/j-ucas . Media with questions, please contact Jan Walker, (703) 696-2404, or jwalker@darpa.mil . News Release

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 3701 North Fairfax Drive Arlington, VA 22203-1714 IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 16, 2005

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