Description
Organization: NAVAIR, PEO (W)
Team Name: Tactical Control System (TCS) Team
Related Acquisition Topic(s): Acquisition Practices Streamlining, Commercial and Non Developmental Items (CANDI), Evolutionary Acquisition, Integrated Digital Environment (IDE), Integrated Product Teams (IPT), Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD), Open Systems, Paperless Contracting, Partnering, Risk Management, Simulation Based Acquisition
Description:
The Tactical Control System (TCS) provides interoperability and commonality for mission planning, command, control, communication, and data dissemination for the current and future family of Tactical and Medium Altitude Endurance (MAE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). It provides a full range of scaleable UAV capability from passive receipt of air vehicle and payload data to full air vehicle command and control. TCS functionality supports the joint warfighter with a common core operating environment to receive, process, and disseminate UAV air vehicle and payload data from two or more different UAV types for reconnaissance, surveillance, and combat assessment. TCS also has an objective capability to receive and disseminate payload information from the Global Hawk and Dark Star High Altitude Endurance (HAE) UAVs. TCS supports seamless integration into the existing Service Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) architecture and interfaces with other manned and unmanned reconnaissance platforms and intelligence systems, thereby providing information superiority through cross cueing. TCS maximizes the use of Commercial and Government off-the-shelf (COTs and GOTs) hardware and software whenever possible. TCS software will be interoperable and operate on existing standard service computer platforms. TCS will be compliant with the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (ASD(C3I)) Joint Technical Architecture, Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS), Common Imagery Ground/Surface Station (CIGSS), and the United States Imagery Standards, and Defense Information Infrastructure/Common Operating Environment (DII-COE).
The TCS software architecture has been developed by a team consisting of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, VA and the UAV Joint Technology Center and Systems Integration Laboratory (JTC/SIL), Huntsville, AL. The JTC/SIL supports the assessment of system integration readiness prior to actual flight-testing. The JTC/SIL assists with hardware-in-the-loop tests of payloads, air vehicles (AV), ground system components, and joint interoperability C4I interface integration. It also provides live and virtual simulations using the Multiple Unified Simulation Environment (MUSE) for validation of warfighter UAV Concept of Operations (CONOPS) and employment in Advanced Warfighting Exercises (AWEs). Under the NATO Naval Armaments Group, Project Group 35 for Maritime UAV's, has undertaken studies/technical demonstrations to define a common interoperable NATO UAV ground control system architecture. Current plans include an International Technology Demonstration Plan that includes using TCS with a German UAV. Foreign Military Sale cases exist with Canada and the United Kingdom for purchase of TCS systems and MUSE. These systems will be used to investigate concept of operations and for operator training and familiarization. Through the efforts of Project Group 35, the U.K. will use one of its TCS work stations to participate in the U.S. VTOL Tactical UAV Phase II Demonstration effort.
The successes of the program now and in the future can be directly related to the following:
· The program is taking advantage of software re-use to the maximum extent possible. 84% of the system software is non-developmental and currently in use on other Department of Defense (DOD) weapon programs. All TCS software, whether re-use or developed will be Defense Information Infrastructure/Common Operating Environment (DII/COE) compliant, non-proprietary, and be the architectural standard for the Medium Altitude Endurance (MAE) and current and future Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (TUAVs). TCS is also being designed for compliance with DoD's Joint Tactical Architecture (JTA) and the Common Imagery Ground/Surface Station (CIGSS) Standards. Significant cost savings are being realized by taking maximum advantage of commercial off-the-shelf hardware equipment. Examples are use of standard computer processing hardware (i.e., TAC-X for Navy, CHS-II for Army/Marine Corps, etc) and GSA catalog hardware. TCS is also being designed to accommodate transition to the PC Based environment. As a result of the above, the TCS architecture consists of 100% non-proprietary hardware and 95% non-proprietary software. The TCS architecture and software will be provided at no cost to the DoD user community, with only minimal out-year support costs required for sustainment. (Applicable selection criteria: 1.a. Reducing life cycle cost.)
· During its 30-month Program Definition and Risk Reduction Phase, the TCS Program took advantage of technical demonstrations, as well as service specific and joint exercises to improve the system performance in anticipation of the operational testing in the next phase of the program. We have tested and demonstrated TCS hardware and software builds during these exercises with prototype hardware and by taking advantage of the Multiple Unified Simulation Environment (MUSE). The MUSE simulates up to 4 UAV's in a "virtual reality" sense, which in turn allows TCS to simulate controlling multiple types of UAVs and their payloads. MUSE also provides the ability to simulate payload imagery, which allows TCS to disseminate payload product downstream via connectivity to multiple service C4I nodes. This ability to provide data dissemination has been a major deficiency in past and existing UAV control stations. The combination of TCS and MUSE has proven to be a very powerful tool for system development and real-world operational training all at a significantly reduced cost when compared to the cost incurred through the use of actual UAV's. For example, the cost of bringing TCS and a real UAV weapon system to an operational exercise can easily exceed $1M. Using the simulation provided by MUSE, TCS can provide operator training during an exercise with 4 different UAV's for 50% less funding. This has resulted in TCS and MUSE being asked to play in many operational exercises. Thus, many benefits are realized both from the TCS system development and operator training perspective. Getting the joint warfighter involved early has shortened the development timeline and increased the system's military utility. Specifically, this interaction with the joint warfighter has paid big dividends for the TCS's Human Computer Interface working group. Finally, the TCS program has embraced the system engineering philosophy of "Build a little, test a little" and has used the Concurrent, Evolutionary, Spiraling, and Incremental Engineering paradigm for system development. (Applicable selection criteria: 1.b. making the acquisition system more efficient, responsive, and timely.)
· On 2 November 1998, the TCS program office awarded a contract based on best value to perform system design, test and integration in accordance with best commercial practices. The acquisition strategy and the high percentage use of off-the-shelf hardware and software will allow the contractor to perform in an efficient and timely manner. (Applicable criteria: 1.c. Integrating defense with best commercial practices.)
· The use of efficient and expeditious contracting is the standard for the TCS Program office. When there was a requirement to quickly integrate UAV route and payload planner software into the TCS system, the use of a Broad Area Announcement (BAA) was used. Its use was based on a market survey and initially consisted of requesting white papers from industry. The initial brief to industry was on 17 April 1997, and the final integration of the selected route and payload planner into the TCS system occurred on 30 January 1998. Thus, only 9.5 months were required to progress from initial industry contact to system integration. This is considered an excellent example of how streamlining the acquisition process can produce dramatic results and reduce program costs. (Applicable selection criteria: 1.d. Promoting continuous improvements of the acquisition process.)
· In keeping with acquisition reform, the TCS program has incorporated many management tools to better serve the warfighter by providing on-time, high quality products. We have a Joint Service Acquisition Coordination Team (ACT) that serves as the program's Overarching Integrated Product Team (OIPT). The ACT helps the program streamline the process and reduce the time it takes to accomplish many acquisition tasks. It is made up of members from all four services; each empowered to make decisions for their respective service branch. This greatly reduces the staffing times on many important documents and issues. Another valuable tool TCS takes advantage of is the use of the Internet and a program web site where questions about the program can be asked and quickly responded to. The MUSE program under TCS also has a web site where the system customers can quickly download changes and updates for the system. As mentioned earlier, the TCS program takes advantage of software re-use (84%), which greatly reduces program software development costs and shortens the schedule. Proof of the power of such an approach is evident in the fact that TCS will conduct its Critical Design Review 24 months after ORD validation and during its Program Definition and Risk Reduction Phase, vice the more typical Engineering, Manufacturing, and Development Phase. Similar program timeline reductions were achieved during the source selection and contract award process used for the TCS System Design, Test and Integration contract. By making extensive use of electronic media and the TCS web site to shorten the process and improve the responsiveness to inquiries, a full and open competition, draft RFP, final RFP, site visits, down select, and final award selection was conducted in less than 11 months with no protests.
