The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) tested a prototype of the Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) system for the first time during the US Marine Corps’ Talon Reach exercise.
A full-system PCAS was tested during the exercise in March in an effort to demonstrate the system’s ability to share real-time situational awareness data between air and ground. It marked the first successful integration of an automated, digital, real-time co-ordination capability into a military aircraft system, DARPA says.
The test included rail-launched munitions, digital datalinks and advanced software in support of ground forces, and utilised a USMC Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft communicating with a joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) on the ground.
The system consists of two parts – PCAS-Air and PCAS-Ground. During the demonstration, a JTAC used a PCAS-Ground tablet to identify a target position near an unmanned truck and communicated this information to the PCAS-Air module inside the V-22 via a digital link added to the aircraft.
PCAS enabled both the JTAC and the aircraft’s weapon systems officer – who also had a PCAS-Ground tablet – to share real-time information, enabling them to quickly confirm the shot and execute the order, DARPA says.
The Osprey fired a non-explosive version of a specially mounted Griffin tube-launched precision-guided missile from 3.8nm (7.2 km) away to support a simulated downed friendly pilot during the exercise.
Guided by a targeting laser, the missile “hit exactly where directed” and, had it been explosive, would have destroyed the target, the agency notes.
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