US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, The Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program, managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) since October 2003, will be transitioning to Service leadership by November 1, 2005. The new joint U.S. Air Force/Navy office will be headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and will continue to be supported by personnel at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., and other Navy facilities.
The objective of the J-UCAS program is to develop, demonstrate and transition an affordable, lethal, survivable, and supportable unmanned combat air system to meet the operational needs of the Air Force and Navy. DARPA has been working with two air vehicle prime contractors, The Boeing Company and Northrop Grumman Corporation, to design, build and demonstrate full-scale, flight-worthy air vehicles and mission control elements.
A unique attribute of this program is the coordinated development of a Common Operating System (COS) that will provide the mission functionality for the unmanned combat air vehicles within the system. The COS is being developed by the two vehicle prime contractors in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory serving as the integrator/broker. This consortium-like business arrangement also permits other technology contributors to provide advanced software applications and
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