DARPA strengthens lines of communication with digital close air support system test

DARPA strengthens lines of communication with digital close air

support ШУУД ҮЗЭХ system test


Since the First World War, airplanes have acted as Close Air Support (CAS) for infantry, though it's been a rocky marriage marked by poor communications and difficult teamwork. DARPA's Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) project aims to improve coordination between air and ground forces by means of a digital system that works up to seven times faster than regular paper maps and voice radio instructions, and with greater accuracy.


CAS has the reputation as the biggest guns readily available to support infantry and other ground forces, but it's also notorious for being imprecise; only able to concentrate on one target at a time, dependent on voice directions, and needing up to an hour to call in an air strike on a target.

PCAS hopes to overcome these limitations by introducing real-time situational awareness and allowing closer cooperation between ground forces and almost any type of aircraft. The system has automated, digital, real-time coordination capability, and can work with rail-launched munitions, digital data links, and uses advanced software in support of ground forces.

Developed in cooperation with Raytheon Missile Systems, Bell Helicopter, Rockwell Collins, Kranze Technological Solutions, L-3 Wescam, and AeroVironment, PCAS is based on two components. The first is PCAS-Air, which a modular Smart Launcher Electronics (SLE) device that is plug-and-play, can run tactical software, and can be installed in almost any aircraft.

According to DARPA, PCAS-Air is able to handle not only weapons management, but intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and communications, as well as integral navigation, and high-speed data transfer. It works in conjunction with PCAS-Ground, which allows PCAS-Air to communicate with ground forces, and provides situational awareness by means of mapping software installed on commercial Android tablets. Together, the two sides of PCAS can synchronize forces, map friendly units, recommend travel routes and selection of weapons, as well as their deployment.

DARPA claims that PCAS makes for closer, faster CAS that is more precise and easier to use even under full combat conditions, and also reduces the risk of friendly fire casualties and collateral damage. In addition, it allows the use of smaller munitions placed more precisely on smaller, multiple, or moving targets.