US Navy Installs World’s First Carrier-Based Drone Control Center

The world’s first carrier-based drone control center was installed aboard USS George HW Bush (CVN 77) recently.

Air vehicle pilots (AVPs) will initially control future US Navy MQ-25 Stingray uncrewed air refuelers from the Unmanned Air Warfare Center (UAWC), followed by other air platforms such as the future carrier-borne Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

The Navy plans to add the UAWC on all its Nimitz and Ford class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

“CVN 77’s UAWC lays the foundation for how the US Navy will operate and control unmanned aircraft, and perhaps other unmanned vehicles, with UMCS (Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System),” Unmanned Carrier Aviation Program Manager Capt. Daniel Fucito said. 

Unmanned Air Warfare Center

The center includes software and hardware systems making up the first fully operational and integrated UMCS, required for the aircraft’s command and control. 

The UMCS is the system-of-systems comprising the MD-5E Ground Control Station, “CVN and shore site infrastructure modifications, Navy produced ancillary equipment, and integration with command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) systems,” the navy explained.

The US Navy-developed MD-5E is powered by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works® Multi Domain Combat System, and includes additional supporting equipment and hardware. 

First At-Sea Testing Next Year

It took years to build the CVN-based center, requiring “coordination across multiple ship availability periods and the ship’s deployment schedule,” the US Navy said.

Meanwhile, the first at-sea testing of UAWC’s operational networks is scheduled early next year,  building on the initial network testing in January with a simulated GCS aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).

“This will be the first time the AVPs from Unmanned Carrier-Launched Multi-Role Squadron 10 will operate the MD-5 from an aircraft carrier,” Unmanned Carrier Aviation program office (PMA-268) UMCS lead Joe Nedeau added.

“They will use the actual GCS hardware and software aboard CVN 77 to communicate with a simulated air vehicle in the lab in Pax River.”